"Stuka Pilot, by Hans Ulrich Rudel" Topic

Stuka Pilot, by Hans Ulrich Rudel
ISBN 0-553-12304-1
Ballantine Books

Another amazing story (these old Bantam War Books are pretty good)! The book details the life of Hans Ulrich Rudel and his life serving as a Stuka pilot (and FW-190 pilot later in the war). A "substandard" pilot at the beginning of his aviation career he was to become the highest decorated German pilot of the war.

Although the book deals primarily with close support and interdiction missions it does provide details that would make for a few interesting air-to-air wargame scenarios (Stukas vs I-16s, Stukas vs IL-2s, Stukas vs Mig-3s).

Some parts of the book that stick in my mind are:
The sinking of a Soviet battleship.
Being shot down and evading capture.
Returning to duty regardless of his physical condition (throughout the book but most notably towards the end when he's flying combat mission while having one leg in a cast…the other leg having been amputated).
Saying "no" to (and then ignoring) Hitler when asked and the ordered not to fly combat missions anymore.

I found this to be a most engaging book, one that was very hard to put down. I highly recommend it. Kevin

I remember that book fondly. Alas, I think it has wandered away from my library…

I agree. An absolutely gripping read.

I agree a great read and the best case of self-promotion and story telling that I've ever read.

jdg

Yep, a great book. The incident that really stuck in my mind, aside from the long, long taxi in the stuka designed for sea service, was when he hit a Russian tank and the ammo cooked off. He ended up flying under the turret as it blew sky high!

Saying "no" to (and then ignoring) Hitler when asked and the ordered not to fly combat missions anymore.

think it was more like he pleaded with hitler to keep flying, against the wishes of goering. hitler reluctantly relented, but HG was furious. i believe it was when he was awarded the diamonds. it is an interesting story. he could have written the book on E&E. unfortunately, it later came to light that he was an un-repentant nazi.

i've read the book at least 3 times and was reading some again today.

What stuck to me was the fact that several years later, he competed on a ski course in Argentina, and won (remember that he lost a leg in 1945)!

Radey's First Law of Historical Research – "No one looks bad in his own memoirs." Since jolly old Rudel was the head of the unabashedly unrepentant Nazi vets association, his breathtaking adventures should be taken with enough salt to endanger a hypertensive. My job involves listening to interviews with American veterans, and the thing I have most noticed is that almost always (not quite always), the guys who were really in it, and often did what could be described as heroic deeds, don't much want to talk about it, and are much more likely to talk about what someone else did. The ones who want to tell bloodcurdling tales of their own exploits usually are the ones who are stretching it a little, or in some cases making it up out of whole cloth (out of 1500 hours of vet interviews, there were, I think maybe two who I would characterize that way). I know that readers of Ballantine published German memoirs are used to reading tales of superhuman feats, particularly against the untermenschen in the East, but I think its fair to say that it just may be, particularly in the case of pilots whose tales are often witnessed by no one but themselves, that they make what may be a good story into an outstanding one. More modern works, in particular the Black Cross Red Star series, based on comparing the accounts of BOTH sides, and such a good job that they can often figure out the name of who it was who shot down whom, are replete with clear indication of massive overclaims on both sides. Caveat emptor.