Rudolf 'Rudi' Sinner

[Teresa Maria]

Dear All,
Do you happen to know if Rudolf Sinner is still alive? He is quite unlikely to, as he was born in 1915, but I haven't found any information about his passing either.

Thank you in advance.

[Johannes]

Dear Teresa

Sadly not, but rest assured his life was a long one he was born on 31st December 1915, and died on 8th February 2009.

Kind Regards

Johannes

[Teresa Maria]

Dear Johannes,
Thank you very much for your answer. This is really sad. (Strangely enough, he died on Horst Ademeit's birthday...)


I wonder why DeZeng and Stankey give his date of birth as December 30, 1915. Is it a mistake?
SINNER, Rudolf (“Rudi"). (DOB: 30.12.15 in Austria.) (DKG). 1936 with Austrian army in a horse-drawn artillery unit. 1940 trf to the Luftwaffe and sent to JFS 5 for fighter training, then trf to Erg.Gr./JG 3. 07.41 with 2./JG 27. 12.10.41 Lt., 2./JG 27. 18.12.41 Lt., 6./JG 27 unhurt - Bf 109 F-4 trop hit by AA belly-landed vic Martuba. 15.02.42 Lt., trf to 2./JG 27. 04.06.42 Oblt., appt Staka 6./JG 27 (to 31.05.43). 10.06.42 Oblt., 6./JG 27 unhurt - Bf 109 F-4 trop (Yellow 2 + -) shot down by P-40s in Bir Hacheim - El Adem/Libya area. 24.06.42 Oblt., 6./JG 27 unhurt - Bf 109 F-4 trop damaged in combat, belly-landed. 06.09.42 Oblt., 6./JG 27. 07.09.42 Oblt., awarded the Ehrenpokal. 27.10.42 Oblt., awarded DKG, 6./JG
27. 07.03.43 Oblt., 6./JG 27 unhurt - Bf 109 G-6 trop hit in aeleron, force-landed at Chinisia. 24.03.43 Oblt., Staka 6./JG 27 WIA - Bf 109 G-6 (Yellow 1 + -) overturned on landing at Chinisia/Sicily due to a cross wind. 24.05.43 (19.06.43?) Oblt., appt provisional Kdr. IV./JG 27 (to 13.09.43). 14.09.43 Oblt., appt Kdr. IV./JG 54 (to 02.44). 01.10.43 promo to Hptm. 11.10.43 Hptm., Stab IV./JG 54. c. 01.03.44 Hptm., appt Kdr. III./JG 54 (to 10.03.44). 06.03.44 Hptm., Stab IV./JG 54 WIA - Bf 109 G-6 shot down by B-17 fire over Bassum, 25 km SSW of Bremen. 12.06.44 Hptm., appt Kdr. I./JG 27 (to 01.08.44). 27.06.44 Hptm., Kdr. I./JG 27 WIA - Bf 109 G-6 shot up by a P-47, crashed vic Vertus - bailed out.
01.10.44 promo to Maj. 26.11.44 Maj., 3./JG 7. 01.01.45 Maj., appt Kdr. III./JG 7 (to 04.04.45).
04.04.45 Maj., III./JG 7 WIA - Me 262 A-1 when bounced on take-off at Parchim by P-51s of 338 FG; with hands and face burned, bailed out but parachute only partially deployed; escaped strafing but had a hard landing. Wounds kept him out of the rest of the war. Credited with 39 victories in over 300 sorties. Shot down 12 times, wounded 5 times.



And they don't seem to know the date of his death either...


Best Regards,
Teresa

[Martin388]

Sinner was the creator of the famous Verbandswappen, the running Greyhound of III./JG7 (not a fox as often claimed).
Context: Sinner had greyhounds himself.
Source: Sinner himself told that background story personally to his close Austrian friend (Günter Wiesinger, a Senior member of Österreichische Flugzeug Historiker, who also passed away a couple of years ago).