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Originally Posted by Red Baroness
That's a good Question, Peter. I asked myself the same question about another great ace, the man in my avatar and mentioned in my signature.
Eder, Kupfer, and many many others should be deserving of decent biographies. We can only hope that someday, someone will take the plunge on these gentlemen (I know one is being worked on with Kupfer) and thus enrich our libraries.
It's not a matter of "getting into their pants" as has been said before, but rather, a re-telling of the history and what made them so successful. Though to some, a standard "dry" military-only biography would not serve.
I have always found the "killing two tanks with an aircraft" recounting of Eder absolutely amazing. The first time might have been pure luck, but the second time? Baffling, and astounding.
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Cori, et al--
I agree that Georg-Peter Eder is deserving of a detailed biography, being one of the premier Western front aces. In fact, most of the Western front aces have had relatively little, compared to Galland, Moelders, and Marseille, published about them in English. I'm keen to learn more about Werner Schroer, Josef Wurmheller, Kurt Buehligen, Siegfried Lemke, and Theodor Weissenberger--although the latter amasses most of his victories on the Eastern front, his reported 25 victories or so against Allied fighters in 3 weeks immediately after the Normandy invasion is an amazing feat deserving of further documentation and description. Although his record is suspect, Rudorffer also needs a good biography, and in fact his reported falsifications of some of his claims is worth investigating and would be a good read, regardless of whether history found him guilty or not.
Regarding Eder's amazing victories over two Spitfires whose crashes destroyed three Sherman tanks, I should add that Don Caldwell stated in his JG 26 War diaries that Allied records showed no documentation of these losses, for what it's worth. Inquiring partly out of ignorance, is it possible for a fighter crash between two WWII tanks to have enough force to destroy the tanks, even with the fighter exploding? For this question, I assume that the crashed fighter did not carry bombs or other external ordnance into the crash.
Thanks,
Kenneth