76 Facts About Erich Hartmann

Erich Alfred Hartmann was a German fighter pilot during World War II and the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare.

Erich Hartmann flew 1,404 combat missions and participated in aerial combat on 825 separate occasions.

Erich Hartmann was credited with shooting down a total of 352 Allied aircraft: 345 Soviet and 7 American while serving with the Luftwaffe.

Erich Hartmann was posted to the veteran Jagdgeschwader 52 on the Eastern Front and placed under the supervision of some of the Luftwaffes most experienced fighter pilots.

On 29 October 1943, Erich Hartmann was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for destroying 148 enemy aircraft and the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross for destroying 202 enemy aircraft on 2 March 1944.

Ultimately, Erich Hartmann earned the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on 25 August 1944 for 301 aerial victories.

At the time of its presentation to Erich Hartmann, this was Germany's highest military decoration.

Erich Hartmann achieved his 352nd and last aerial victory at midday on 8 May 1945, hours before the German surrender.

Erich Hartmann was initially sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment, later increased to 25 years, and spent 10 years in Soviet prison camps and gulags until he was released in 1955.

In 1956, Erich Hartmann joined the newly established West German Air Force in the Bundeswehr, and became the first Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen".

Erich Hartmann was forced into retirement in 1970 for his opposition to the procurement of the F-104 Starfighter over safety concerns.

Erich Hartmann was born on 19 April 1922 in Weissach, Wurttemberg, to Doctor Alfred Erich Hartmann and his wife, Elisabeth Wilhelmine Machtholf.

The economic depression that followed World War I in Germany prompted Doctor Hartmann to find work in China, and Erich spent his early childhood there.

Alfred Erich Hartmann was captured by the British and spent four years as a prisoner of war.

Erich Hartmann was educated at the Volksschule in Weil im Schonbuch, the Gymnasium in Boblingen, the National Political Institutes of Education in Rottweil, and the Gymnasium in Korntal, from which he received his Abitur.

Erich Hartmann's flying career began when he joined the glider training program of the fledgling Luftwaffe and was taught to fly by his mother, one of the first female glider pilots in Germany.

The rise to power of the Nazi Party in 1933 resulted in government support for gliding, and, in 1936, Elisabeth Erich Hartmann established the glider club in Weil im Schonbuch for locals and served as instructor.

The 14-year-old Erich Hartmann became a gliding instructor in the Hitler Youth.

Erich Hartmann began his military training on 1 October 1940 at the 10th Flying Regiment in Neukuhren.

Erich Hartmann completed his basic flying training in October 1941 and began advanced flight training at pre-fighter school 2 in Lachen-Speyerdorf on 1 November 1941.

Erich Hartmann's punishment was a week of confinement to quarters with the loss of two-thirds of his pay in fines.

Erich Hartmann's training had qualified him to fly 17 different types of powered aircraft, and, following his graduation, he was posted on 21 August 1942 to Erganzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost in Krakow, where he remained until 10 October 1942.

In October 1942, Erich Hartmann was assigned to fighter wing Jagdgeschwader 52, based at Maykop on the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union.

Erich Hartmann engaged an enemy fighter, but failed to score any hits and nearly collided with it.

Erich Hartmann then ran for cover in low cloud, and his mission subsequently ended with a crash landing after his aircraft ran out of fuel.

Erich Hartmann had violated almost every rule of air-to-air combat, and von Bonin sentenced him to three days of working with the ground crew.

Erich Hartmann was then paired up with Grislawski as his wingman.

Twenty-two days later, Erich Hartmann claimed his first victory, an Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik of the 7th Guards Ground Attack Aviation Regiment, but by the end of 1942, he had added only one more victory to his tally.

Erich Hartmann's Gruppe was moved to the combat area of the Kuban bridgehead on 1 April 1943 where it was based at an airfield at Taman.

The day ended badly when Erich Hartmann was unable to prevent Krupinski from being shot down and wounded over Ugrim airfield.

Erich Hartmann began to score successes regularly in a target rich environment.

At the start of August 1943, his tally stood at 42, but Erich Hartmann's tally had more than doubled by the end.

On 1 August 1943, Erich Hartmann again became an "ace-in-a day" by claiming five victories over LaGG fighters.

Erich Hartmann said the German pilots themselves still learned from their enemy.

In contrast to Hans-Joachim Marseille, who was a marksman and expert in the art of deflection shooting, Erich Hartmann was a master of stalk-and-ambush tactics, preferring to ambush and fire at close range rather than dogfight.

Erich Hartmann is a very good flyer, certainly, but not a virtuoso like Hans-Joachim Marseille, who was killed after 158 aerial victories in North Africa and is regarded as an unrivaled marksman by his friends and foes.

Erich Hartmann is not an intelligent tactical innovator like Werner Molders.

Erich Hartmann's guidance amplified the need to detect while remaining undetected.

Erich Hartmann's instinct was to select an easy target or withdraw and seek a more favourable situation.

Erich Hartmann then forced the column into the corner of the cockpit beginning the outside rotation of an oblique loop.

Erich Hartmann claimed two enemy aircraft before his fighter was hit by debris and he was forced to make an emergency landing.

Erich Hartmann's acting so convinced the Soviets that they put him on a stretcher and placed him on a truck.

Mertens was another important factor behind Erich Hartmann's success, ensuring the aircraft was reliable.

Erich Hartmann was the 54th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.

Erich Hartmann was nicknamed the Cherniy Chort because of his skill and paint scheme of his aircraft.

Erich Hartmann's opponents were often reluctant to stay and fight if they noticed his personal design.

Adversely, the supposed reluctance of the Soviet airmen to fight caused Erich Hartmann's kill rate to drop.

Erich Hartmann then had the tulip design removed, and his aircraft painted just like the rest of his unit.

Consequently, in the following two months, Erich Hartmann claimed over 50 victories.

Erich Hartmann passed the 300-mark on 24 August 1944, a day on which he shot down 11 aircraft in two combat missions south of Radom-Lublin, representing his greatest ever victories-per-day ratio and bringing the number of aerial victories to an unprecedented 301.

Erich Hartmann became one of only 27 German soldiers in World War II to receive the Diamonds to his Knight's Cross.

Erich Hartmann was summoned to the Fuhrerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze, Adolf Hitler's military headquarters near Rastenburg, to receive the coveted award from Hitler personally.

Erich Hartmann argued to Goring that he best served the war effort on the Eastern Front.

Erich Hartmann attended the jet conversion program led by Heinrich Bar.

The last wartime photograph of Erich Hartmann known was taken in connection with this victory.

Erich Hartmann took off with his wingman at 08:30 and spotted the first Soviet units just 40 kilometres away.

Erich Hartmann was asked to spy on fellow officers, but refused and was given ten days' solitary confinement in a four-by-nine-by-six-foot chamber.

Erich Hartmann slept on a concrete floor and was given only bread and water.

Erich Hartmann was offered a post in the East German Air Force, which he refused:.

Erich Hartmann was charged with war crimes, specifically the "deliberate shooting of 780 Soviet civilians" in the village of Briansk, attacking a bread factory on 23 May 1943, and destroying 345 "expensive" Soviet aircraft.

Erich Hartmann refused to confess to these charges and conducted his own defence, which was, according to Hartmann, denounced by the presiding judge as a "waste of time".

Erich Hartmann made a complaint to the Kommandants office, asking for a representative from Moscow and an international inspection, as well as a new trial hearing to overturn his sentence.

Erich Hartmann was later put before a new tribunal, which upheld the original sentence.

Erich Hartmann was sent to another camp, this time at Diaterka in the Ural Mountains.

In late 1955, Erich Hartmann was released as a part of the last Heimkehrer.

In January 1997, over three years after his death, Erich Hartmann's case was reviewed by the Chief Military Prosecutor in Moscow, Russia, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and he was acquitted of all historical charges against him in Russian law.

Erich Hartmann later had a daughter, Ursula Isabel, born on 23 February 1957.

When Erich Hartmann returned to West Germany, he reentered military service in the Bundeswehr and became an officer in the West German Air Force, where he commanded West Germany's first all-jet unit from 6 June 1959 to 29 May 1962, Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen".

Erich Hartmann made several trips to the United States, where he trained on US Air Force equipment.

Erich Hartmann considered the F-104 a fundamentally flawed and unsafe aircraft and strongly opposed its adoption by the German air force.

Already in 1957, Erich Hartmann had recommended to Kammhuber to first buy and evaluate a few new and unfamiliar aircraft before committing the air force to a new aircraft type.

From 1971 to 1974, Erich Hartmann worked as a flight instructor in Hangelar, near Bonn, and flew in fly-ins with other wartime pilots.

Erich Hartmann died on 20 September 1993, at the age of 71 in Weil im Schonbuch.

Research has shown that Erich Hartmann's unit did not even fly this day due to very poor weather conditions, moreover the Soviet 5th Air Army did not lose any aircraft.

Erich Hartmann had kept the whereabouts of his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross secret from his captors during his time as a prisoner of war, claiming that he had thrown it away.

Erich Hartmann joined the military service in Wehrmacht on 1 October 1940.