Erich Hartmann

• 1. Introduction

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  Erich Hartmann is credited with shooting down 352 aircraft, more than any other fighter pilot in the history of air combat. He flew for the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War, and almost all of his opponents were Soviet. Over 1,404 combat missions, he took part in aerial combat on 825 separate occasions. Sixteen times he crash-landed his fighter, after engine trouble or after wreckage from an enemy he had just destroyed damaged his plane. Not once was he shot down by direct enemy action. A record like that invites suspicion as much as admiration. How does a young pilot reach such a total? What did the Soviet Union do with him when the shooting stopped? And how much of the famous number can actually be trusted?

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• 2. Taught by His Mother

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  In 1936, Elisabeth Hartmann founded a glider club in the village of Weil im Schönbuch and served as its instructor. She was one of the first women in Germany to fly gliders, and she was the person who had taught her own son to fly.

  Erich Alfred Hartmann was born on the 19th of April 1922 in Weissach, Württemberg. His father was Doctor Alfred Erich Hartmann, and his mother was Elisabeth Wilhelmine Machtholf. The economic depression that followed the First World War led his father to seek work in China, so Erich spent his early childhood there. The Chinese Civil War forced the family to return to Germany in 1928.

  The Hartmanns owned a light aircraft, but they sold it in 1932 as the German economy collapsed. The Nazi Party came to power in 1933, and the new government began to support gliding. At the age of fourteen, Erich became a gliding instructor in the Hitler Youth. In 1937 he gained a license to fly powered aircraft.

  His schooling took him through Weil im Schönbuch and Böblingen, then a Nazi secondary education school in Rottweil, and finally the Gymnasium in Korntal. He received his Abitur there in April 1940. At Korntal he met Ursula Paetsch, known as Usch, who would later become his wife. His younger brother Alfred also joined the Luftwaffe and served as a gunner on a Junkers Ju 87 in North Africa. The British captured Alfred, and he spent four years as a prisoner of war.

  Erich began his own military training on the 1st of October 1940, at the 10th Flying Regiment in Neukuhren.

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• 3. Confined to Quarters

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  On the 31st of March 1942, during a gunnery training flight, the trainee Hartmann ignored regulations and performed aerobatics in his Bf 109 over the Zerbst airfield. His punishment was a week confined to quarters, plus fines that cost him two-thirds of his pay. Hartmann later said that the punishment saved his life. He had been scheduled for a gunnery flight that very afternoon. His roommate flew in his place, in the aircraft Hartmann should have been flying. The engine failed on the way to the range, and the roommate crash-landed near the Hindenburg-Kattowitz railroad and was killed.

  Afterward, Hartmann practised with new discipline. He adopted a credo that he passed on to younger pilots: "Fly with your head, not with your muscles."

  The road to that moment had been steady. At the Luftkriegsschule 2 in Berlin-Gatow, he made his first flight with an instructor only four days after arriving. His first solo came in just under three weeks. He finished basic training in October 1941 and moved to pre-fighter school 2 in Lachen-Speyerdorf on the 1st of November, where he learned combat techniques and gunnery. That course ended on the 31st of January 1942. From March until August he learned the Messerschmitt Bf 109 at Fighter Pilot School 2.

  In a gunnery session in June 1942, he put 24 of his allotted 50 rounds into a towed target drogue, a feat considered difficult. By graduation he was qualified on 17 different types of powered aircraft. On the 21st of August 1942 he was posted to a supplementary fighter group in Kraków, where he stayed until the 10th of October 1942.

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• 4. Learning to Hunt

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  At Maykop, on the Eastern Front, Hartmann's first job with Jagdgeschwader 52 was not combat at all. He and several other pilots were told to ferry Junkers Ju 87 Stukas down to Mariupol. His first flight ended with brake failure, and the Stuka smashed into the controller's hut and destroyed it.

  He was placed in III. Gruppe, under Major Hubertus von Bonin, and assigned to the experienced Oberfeldwebel Edmund "Paule" Roßmann. Alfred Grislawski, Hans Dammers and Josef Zwernemann also flew with him. After a few days of mock combats, Grislawski judged that Hartmann had much to learn about tactics but was a talented pilot.

  Roßmann became Hartmann's teacher. An injured arm kept Roßmann out of physically demanding dogfights, so he had worked out a different way to fight. He would stand off, study the situation, pick a target that was not taking evasive action, and destroy it at close range. Hartmann absorbed this as "See-Decide-Attack-Break."

  He did not apply it at first. On the 14th of October 1942, flying his first combat mission as Roßmann's wingman, he saw 10 enemy aircraft below. Impatient, he opened the throttle and left Roßmann behind. He hit nothing, nearly collided with an enemy fighter, hid in low cloud, and crash-landed when his fuel ran out. Von Bonin sentenced him to three days working with the ground crew. According to Günther Rall, Roßmann refused to fly with him again. Grislawski took over as his leader.

  His first victory came 22 days later, an Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik of the 7th Guards Ground Attack Aviation Regiment. He added only one more by the end of 1942.

  His youthful look earned him the nickname "Bubi," roughly equivalent to "Kid." Walter Krupinski, to whom he was now assigned as wingman, kept urging him on: "Hey, Bubi, get in closer." The advice carried a risk. On the 25th of May 1943, Hartmann collided with a Soviet fighter instead of shooting it down. Even so, his claims rose from 17 to 60 between the third week of May and the first week of August.

  Closing in was the heart of his method. Where Hans-Joachim Marseille was a marksman who excelled at deflection shooting, Hartmann was a master of ambush. He held his fire until he was 20 metres from the target or closer, then fired a short burst at point-blank range. He learned this from Krupinski. It hid his position until the last moment, saved ammunition, and gave the victim no time to dodge. When the British test pilot Eric Brown asked how he did it, Hartmann credited close range, weak Soviet defensive armament and poor Soviet manoeuvring.

  He also had a fallback when ambushed. He flew straight, used the rudder to point the nose slightly off course so the attacker misjudged the lead, then began an oblique loop. It saved his life several times.

  In his first year, he felt little respect for Soviet pilots, since in the early weeks some had to draw a gunsight on the windscreen by hand. Yet the Germans learned from them too. In winter, the oil in the engines of the Bf 109G-6 froze and made starting difficult. A captured Soviet airman showed them how to thaw it by pouring fuel into the oil sump.

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• 5. Summer of Kursk

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  On the 5th of July 1943, Hartmann claimed four victories in the great dogfights of the Battle of Kursk, yet the day ended badly. He could not stop Krupinski from being shot down and wounded over Ugrim airfield. Some authors say instead that Krupinski was hurt when his aircraft flipped over on landing while avoiding other Bf 109s. Hartmann remarked, "the departure of Krupinski was a severe strike against the Staffel, and particularly against me." While Krupinski recovered, Hartmann led 7. Staffel as temporary squadron leader until the 12th of August.

  Targets were plentiful. On the 7th of July he became an "ace-in-a-day" for the first time, with seven victories: three Il-2 ground attack aircraft and four LaGG fighters. Four more followed on the 8th, and three on the 9th. A Soviet after-battle analysis described a flight of eight Yak-1s that ignored two Me 109s nearby. The German fighters struck at a convenient moment and shot down three Yak-1s.

  At the start of August his tally stood at 42, and by the end of the month it had more than doubled. He claimed five victories on the 1st, four on the 3rd, and five on the 4th. On the 5th his Gruppe moved to Kharkov-Rogan, and he claimed five more. He claimed his 90th victory, an Il-2, on the 20th. On the 2nd of September he was appointed Staffelkapitän of 9./JG 52, replacing Leutnant Berthold Korts, who had been reported missing.

  The strain was heavy. In early August he flew 20 missions in six days, totalling 18 hours and 29 minutes in the air.

  On the 20th of August, debris from an Il-2 damaged his Bf 109 G-6, and he landed behind Soviet lines near Artemivsk at 06:20. Regulations told him to recover the precision board clock. As he did, Soviet soldiers approached. He faked internal injuries so convincingly that they laid him on a stretcher and put him on a truck. His crew chief, Heinz Mertens, who kept the aircraft reliable and was another factor in his success, picked up a rifle and went to look for him. Hartmann escaped and was back with his unit on the 23rd of August. At least one source suggests that Lieutenant P. Yevdokimov, flying an Il-2, may have hit him with gunfire.

  On the 20th of September 1943 he claimed four victories, passing 100 for the day to end it at 101. He was the 54th Luftwaffe pilot to reach the century mark. Nine days later he shot down the Soviet ace Major Vladimir Semenishin for his 112th victory. October brought 33 more. On the 29th of October he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, with his tally at 148. By the end of the year the count was 159.

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• 6. Tulip and Diamonds

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  The Soviets knew his radio call sign, Karaya 1, and the Soviet command put a price of 10,000 rubles on his head. His opponents also had a name for him, the Cherniy Chort, or "Black Devil." It came from his skill and from the black tulip painted on the engine cowling of his aircraft. In reality he flew with that insignia on only five or six occasions.

  The design had an odd effect. Soviet pilots were often reluctant to stay and fight when they saw it, so the aircraft was often handed to novices who could fly it in relative safety. His own kill rate dropped. He had the tulip removed and painted his aircraft like the rest of his unit. In the following two months he claimed over 50 victories.

  His pace drew scrutiny. On the 26th of February 1944, he claimed 10 fighters in a day, all Soviet-flown P-39s, to reach 202. The Luftwaffe High Command double and triple-checked his claims, and an observer flew in his formation to watch him. The Oak Leaves for that total came on the 2nd of March 1944.

  That month he was summoned with Gerhard Barkhorn, Walter Krupinski and Johannes Wiese to Hitler's Berghof in Berchtesgaden. By Hartmann's account, all four got drunk on cognac and champagne. Hitler's adjutant reprimanded Hartmann for being intoxicated and for handling Hitler's hat. The award ceremony took place on the 4th of April.

  Hartmann first met American fighters in May 1944, flying in defence of the Ploiești oilfields over Romania. On the 24th of June, in a fight with P-51 Mustangs, his Messerschmitt ran out of fuel, and he ran out of ammunition. As he hung in his parachute, one P-51B flown by Lieutenant Robert J. Goebel of the 31st Fighter Group headed straight at him. Goebel was making a camera pass to record the bailout. He banked away at the last moment and waved as he passed.

  On the 17th of August 1944 he surpassed his fellow JG 52 pilot Gerhard Barkhorn with his 274th victory. On the 23rd of August he claimed eight in three missions. The next day he shot down 11 aircraft in two missions south of Radom-Lublin, and passed 300 to reach 301. Every victory filed by III. Gruppe on those two days was his, and the authors Prien, Stemmer, Balke and Bock speculate that the whole Gruppe may have flown cover for him.

  The Diamonds to the Knight's Cross followed, making him one of only 27 German soldiers to receive them. He went to Hitler's Wolf's Lair near Rastenburg, where he was asked to hand over his sidearm after the failed assassination attempt of the 20th of July 1944. By one account he refused and threatened to decline the award. He also spoke at length about shortcomings in fighter pilot training. Allegedly, Hitler told him that "militarily, the war is lost," and that he wished the Luftwaffe had "more like him and Rudel."

  On his way to ten days of leave, General der Jagdflieger Adolf Galland ordered him to a meeting in Berlin-Gatow. Galland wanted him in the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet test program. Hartmann asked for the transfer to be cancelled, citing his attachment to JG 52, and argued to Göring that he served best in the East. On the 10th of September 1944 he married Usch, with Gerhard Barkhorn and Wilhelm Batz among the witnesses.

  Galland asked a second time in March 1945. Hartmann attended the jet conversion program led by Heinrich Bär, with a view to flying in Jagdverband 44, but again declined. Some sources say a telegram from Oberstleutnant Hermann Graf helped persuade him to stay.

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• 7. Soviet Captivity

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  Hartmann claimed his 350th victory on the 17th of April 1945, near Chrudim, and the last known wartime photograph of him was taken in connection with it. His 352nd and final victory came on the 8th of May over Brno, the last day of the war in Europe. He had been sent on a morning reconnaissance flight, spotted Soviet units only 40 kilometres away, and ambushed a Yak-9 from 12,000 feet.

  Back on the ground, he learned that Soviet forces were within artillery range. JG 52 destroyed his aircraft Karaya One, 24 other Bf 109s and large stocks of ammunition. Hartmann and Hermann Graf were ordered to fly to the British sector, while the rest of the wing was told to surrender to the Soviets. As commander of I. Gruppe, Hartmann chose instead to surrender his unit to soldiers of the US 90th Infantry Division.

  The Americans handed Hartmann, his pilots and his ground crew to the Soviet Union on the 14th of May. They cited the Yalta Agreements, which required airmen fighting Soviet forces to surrender directly to them.

  By Hartmann's account, the Soviets tried to make him cooperate. He refused to spy on fellow officers and was given ten days of solitary confinement in a tiny chamber, sleeping on concrete and eating only bread and water. He says they threatened to kidnap and murder his wife, and hid the death of his young son, Erich-Peter, who was born in 1945 and died in 1948. In one interrogation about the Me 262, a Soviet officer struck him with a cane. Hartmann knocked the man out with a chair and expected to be shot. He later went on a hunger strike, which the Soviets allowed to run four days before force-feeding him.

  They offered him a post in the East German Air Force. He answered that he would consider a normal business contract once he was home in the West, but that if coerced he would resist "to my dying gasp." He also hid the whereabouts of his Knight's Cross from his captors, claiming he had thrown it away. It lay in a small stream. His comrade Hans "Assi" Hahn later hid it in a cigar box with a double bottom and smuggled it back to Germany.

  Hartmann was first arrested on the 24th of December 1949 and, three days later, sentenced to 20 years. The investigation was only a formality. The charges included atrocities against Soviet citizens and damage to the Soviet economy through the destruction of Soviet aircraft.

  In June 1951 he was charged again, this time as an alleged member of an anti-Soviet group. The second trial took place under military authority in the Rostov-on-Don district. The charges included the deliberate shooting of 780 Soviet civilians in the village of Briansk, an attack on a bread factory on the 23rd of May 1943, and the destruction of 345 "expensive" Soviet aircraft. He refused to confess and conducted his own defence, which the presiding judge denounced as a "waste of time."

  He received 25 years of hard labour. He refused to work and was placed in solitary confinement, which sparked a riot among fellow detainees, who overpowered the guards and briefly freed him. His request for a representative from Moscow, an international inspection and a new trial was refused. He was moved to Novocherkassk for five more months of solitary confinement, then to Diaterka in the Ural Mountains. In late 1955 he was released with the last of the Heimkehrer, the returning prisoners.

  In January 1997, more than three years after his death, the Chief Military Prosecutor in Moscow reviewed his case and acquitted him. The agency stated that he had been wrongly convicted.

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• 8. Legacy and Doubts

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  Ursula Isabel Hartmann, the pilot's daughter, was born on the 23rd of February 1957. Her father had joined the newly founded West German Luftwaffe the previous year. In 1957 he trained with American instructors at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. The Republic F-84 Thunderjet course lasted 60 days and included 33 hours in the Lockheed T-33 and 47 hours in the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak. The former Luftwaffe pilots needed only familiarisation.

  From the 6th of June 1959 to the 29th of May 1962, Hartmann commanded Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen," West Germany's first all-jet unit. It flew Canadair Sabres at first and later Lockheed F-104 Starfighters. He considered the F-104 fundamentally flawed and unsafe. As early as 1957, he had advised Kammhuber to buy and evaluate a few unfamiliar aircraft before committing the air force to one type.

  Events bore out his judgement. There were 269 non-combat crashes of the F-104, which killed 116 German pilots, and allegations of bribes grew into the Lockheed scandal. But his outspoken criticism was unpopular with his superiors, and he was forced into early retirement in 1970. From 1971 to 1974 he worked as a flight instructor in Hangelar, near Bonn, and also flew in fly-ins with other wartime pilots.

  His public image owed much to a biography by the American authors Trevor J. Constable and Raymond F. Toliver, The Blond Knight of Germany. It appeared in the United States in 1970. In Germany, a year later, it was titled Holt Hartmann vom Himmel!, meaning "Shoot Hartmann down!" Both the American and German public read it widely.

  Historians have been harsh toward it. Ronald Smelser and Edward J. Davies, in The Myth of the Eastern Front, call it one of the key works promoting the myth of the clean Wehrmacht. Jens Wehner notes that the German edition borrowed uncritically from Nazi propaganda about the Fliegerasse and from Cold War stereotypes of the Soviet Union, and ignored the political and social consequences of the war.

  The victory count itself also faces questions. Hartmann's second logbook was lost, so Constable and Toliver pieced together his late-war claims from questionable sources and did not consult the Luftwaffe microfilm claims listings. They placed a claim for a Soviet La-5 on the 21st of November 1944. Later research showed that his unit did not fly that day because of poor weather, and the Soviet 5th Air Army lost no aircraft. Mathews and Foreman found German Federal Archives records for 352 claims, plus two unconfirmed ones. Daniel and Gabor Horvath, comparing Soviet loss reports, concluded that the real number may be much lower.

  Hartmann died on the 20th of September 1993 at the age of 71, in Weil im Schönbuch, the village where his mother had once founded her glider club. In 2016, JG 71 honoured him by painting his tulip colour scheme on its aircraft.

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