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Luftwaffe and Axis Air Forces Please use this forum to discuss the German Luftwaffe and the Air Forces of its Allies. |
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![]() On 8 February 1945, the very famous ground-attack pilot, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, was shot down by Soviet anti-aircraft fire on the Oder river front, near a town called Lebus. Rudel was gravely wounded, and had a leg amputated.
In his memoirs, Rudel mis-stated the date, as 9 February. Writing soon after the end of the war, he clearly did not have access to surviving archival material, and his account is not necessarily reliable. What I am interested in here is whether information is available from German primary sources about Rudel's mission. Memoirs tend to be flawed sources, so it would be good if some primary source information is available. Sadly, the surviving documents of Luftflotte 6, at least those which I have read, contain essentially no detail, as follows: "Oberst Rudel S.G. 2 schwerverwundet, (Beinamputation)" On the same day, 8 Feburary, the following milestones are noted: "10.(Pz.)/S.G. 9 4000. Feindflug seit Aufstellung Fw. Matthes 1.(Pz.)/S.G. 9 60. Panzerabschuß" Everyone is welcome to either reply here, or contact me by private message. Regards, Dan P.S. On 21 November 2018, almost six years ago, forum member Andrey Kuznetsov published an article about this incident, with the polemical title, "Thirteen tanks for one leg?". See the text at https://web.archive.org/web/20240814...v-za-odnu-nogu The majority of forum members do not read Russian, of course, so please use Google Translate, at https://translate.google.co.uk/ , in case of interest. The article is far from wholly credible, its main purpose is clearly to question the credibility of Rudel's memoirs. The author suggests that Rudel's Ju 87 was most probably hit by Soviet 12.7 mm DShK machine guns, not 37 mm cannon, and that Rudel destroyed at most one Soviet tank and damaged another two, instead of the 13 he claimed to have destroyed that day. Kuznetsov's claims make it all the more interesting to see what German sources might have to say, if they have survived.
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My research paper - How were German air force resources distributed between different fronts in the years 1941 to 1943 - http://www.ww2.dk/Luftwaffe Research.html Last edited by Dan History; 15th August 2024 at 16:04. |
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Re: Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 8th (not 9th) February 1945 - what is known about the mission in which he lost his leg?
Dan
I can't add any of the detail you're after but Rudel's Luftwaffenpersonalamt file has been digitised - PERS 6/182483. Steve |
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Re: Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 8th (not 9th) February 1945 - what is known about the mission in which he lost his leg?
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Re: Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 8th (not 9th) February 1945 - what is known about the mission in which he lost his leg?
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Dan
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My research paper - How were German air force resources distributed between different fronts in the years 1941 to 1943 - http://www.ww2.dk/Luftwaffe Research.html |
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Re: Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 8th (not 9th) February 1945 - what is known about the mission in which he lost his leg?
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Precise file reference, including digitised image identifier, is in your private message inbox. Hard experience has taught me not to publish file references freely on the forums, since 'enterprising' readers will then use the information found, without ever acknowledging the person who did the hard work of finding it in the first place. Regards, Dan
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My research paper - How were German air force resources distributed between different fronts in the years 1941 to 1943 - http://www.ww2.dk/Luftwaffe Research.html |
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Re: Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 8th (not 9th) February 1945 - what is known about the mission in which he lost his leg?
Yup, the Bundesregierung did their best to distance themselves from Rudel. And don't forget his association with the Deutsches Reichs Partei.
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#7
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Re: Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 8th (not 9th) February 1945 - what is known about the mission in which he lost his leg?
Which means what? Fill us in.
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Re: Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 8th (not 9th) February 1945 - what is known about the mission in which he lost his leg?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Reichspartei
You can get a pretty good idea of where the guy stood politically from his memoirs, too. |
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Re: Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 8th (not 9th) February 1945 - what is known about the mission in which he lost his leg?
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As a non-aviation history aside, note that political extremism finds much more room for manoeuvre in modern, united, Germany. A central example of this, usually given scant attention in the English-language press, is the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht – Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit (BSW). An extreme-left party which has already had far more electoral success than the defunct extreme-right Deutsche Reichspartei. Dan
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My research paper - How were German air force resources distributed between different fronts in the years 1941 to 1943 - http://www.ww2.dk/Luftwaffe Research.html |
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Re: Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 8th (not 9th) February 1945 - what is known about the mission in which he lost his leg?
Thanks for the enlightenment Dan, but I have read several books on this individual, including his memoirs.
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1945, eastern front, ju 87g, panzerjäger, rudel |
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