03. Erich Alfred Hartmann (The Ace of the ace)

Born in a doctor's family, the whole family moved to China because of the Great Depression in 1922, where Hartmann had his childhood, and was forced to leave China as the China Civil war broke out at 1928(A clearance for some of you:China had several contemporary Civil War ).He was highly educated, major in Gymnasium, and met his wife-to-be -- Ursula "Usch" Paetsch.


Hartmann's love in flying began when he taken part in the glider program, which was lead by his mom, the first female glider in Germany. As the Nazi power rises, they put great effot on glider program, and had Harmann's mother form a glider school, which Hartmann became instructor in 14.


He taken part in military training in Luftwaffe when he was 18. As a trainee, he was once grounded for playing stunts after training. Fortunately, the grounded saved his life. The pilot who flew his mission was killed as he occurred an engine failure and crashed suddenly. After that, he became modest and told the youngsters to "Fly with the head, not the muscles."

BF 109 and it's engine, from wikipedia.org

 He was assigned to jagdgeschwader 52 (JG52) when it was based at the Eastern front, being on the first line facing with the Soviet Union fighter. When he and several pilots were task to report to the base of JG52 via flying Stuka JU87, a well known bomber nicknamed as the Whistle Reaper , he ended up destroyed the fighter's hut  by crashing it into the hut. He learned alot from the elders, especially from Paule Roßmann, who teach him the fundamental of surprise, which became the fundamental of the "Hartmann attacking style" -- "See – Decide – Attack – Break" style in the aerial combat. After several mock combats and practice, they conceded that Erich Alfred Hartmann is a really talanted fighter pilot, as he could shoot the target directly at the range of 300 meters. As human might not notice what had happened 300 meters away, it's a miracle to recognize what is it and pull the trigger with about 75% and more directly hit.

BF109G, though not the one Hartmann flew

At first, Hartmann was to eager to score a kill, that he violated almost all of the air-air combat rules and crushed his aircraft in a landing after he ran out of oil.He was later assigned to the captain of the JG52, Walter Krupinski, who often told him "Hey bubi(baby in German, which is the nickname of Hartmann), get in closer." This is the technique that made Hartmann as the ace fighter as he combine the surprise attack and the super close shot.

Why is this such an important character to become the ace fighter? As the word said by the red baron, the first thing to become an ace fighter is not to be killed. Surprise attack cut down the possibility to be found by the enemy. And the super close shot (less than 20 meters)is the guarantee of putting bullets into the enemies' aircraft to shot them down without wasting lots of bullets. 

Hartmann and his aircraft

Here is how the "Hartmann's style" works, according to Wikipedia.org:
1.Observe the enemy
2.Decide how to proceed with the attack
3.Make the attack
4.Disengage to re-evaluate the situation.

On September 20, 1943, he won his 100th aerial victory. And at October 29, he was awarded Ritterkreuz, as he shot down 48 more between then. He shot down in a quicker pace day by day, and was well known as the "Cherniy Chort ("Black Devil")" in Soviet. Even though the Mustangs were given by America to help Soviet, he still won lots of victories, and won "the Diamonds to the Knight's Cross." He won himself a ten day leave, which let him had a chance to married with his long-time love,  Ursula "Usch" Paetsch.

Bf109 at the front line of East.

After his last kill, which made him scored and confirmed  his 352 aerial victories, he disobeyed to leave his JG52 and retreat to Britain solo. He later retreated with all of the unit members of JG52 to the US 90th infantry division, but was sent to Soviet because of the agreement sent by the US and Soviet--the Yalta agreement. He was criticized to kill more than 50 civilian and tried to made to confirmed it via did't gave him anything but water, but he wasn't moved. He wasn't shamed of his war service, even go on a hunger strike before he was forced to fed by the Soviet, as he his so well known in Nazi German that if he died, the prison all over the world will have a riot, because he is the hero of Germany who didn't tried to kill enemy but to destroy enemy aircraft.

He was traded by Soviet Union and was went back to Germany, and served again as a pilot, retired as he and the superiors had a fight against using F104 made by USA or not, as he foresee it will crash alot in the future.

F86 Sabre, the plane he flew 

F104g known as the "widow maker"

He was known as the "Ace of ace" by the world, till now no one has a chance to surpass him.