“He is the best man in my squadron!” claimed Captain Ernst-Siegfried Steen.
In a little over a month he flew 100, receiving the Iron Cross First Class and new respect from his flying mates. In his first day of battle, Rudel flew four missions. He was posted to 1 Staffel Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 (StG 2), which was moved to occupied Poland in preparation for “ Operation Barbarossa“, the invasion of the Soviet Union, in June 1941. In early 1941, he underwent training as a Stuka (Junkers Ju 87) Bomber pilot. As an air observer, Rudel flew on long-range reconnaissance missions over Poland. German forces invaded Poland in 1939 starting the WW II in Europe. World War II Begins – Becomes a Stuka Pilot – Sinks Battleship “Marat”
Later the same year Rudel joined the Luftwaffe and began his military career as an air reconnaissance pilot. After graduating in 1936, he participated in the compulsory Reich Labour Service (RAD). As a boy, Rudel was a poor in studies, but a very keen sportsman. Rudel was born on 2 July 1916, in Konradswaldau, in Prussia. In 1977, he became a spokesman for the German People’s Union, a neo-Nazi political party founded by the extremist politician Gerhard Frey. Following the Revolution in 1955, the uprising that ended the second presidential term of Perón, Rudel moved to Paraguay, where he acted as a foreign representative for several German companies. In the West German federal election of 1953, Rudel, who had returned to West Germany, was the top candidate for the far-right German Reich Party but was not elected to the Bundestag. Due to these activities, he was placed under observation by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He worked as an arms dealer and a military advisor to the regimes of Juan Perón in Argentina, of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, and of Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay. Together with Willem Sassen, Rudel helped shelter Josef Mengele, the notorious former SS doctor at Auschwitz. A committed and unrepentant National Socialist, he founded the “ Kameradenwerk“, a relief organization for Nazi refugees that helped fugitives escape to Latin America and the Middle East. Rudel surrendered to US forces on and emigrated to Argentina in 1948. Rudel flew 2,530 ground-attack missions exclusively on the Eastern Front, mostly flying the Junker Ju 87 “Stuka” dive bomber.
He also claimed 11 aerial victories, earning flying ace status. During the war, Rudel was credited with the destruction of 519 tanks, as well as one battleship, one cruiser, 70 landing craft, 150 artillery emplacements, and more than 800 vehicles of all types. Post-war, he was a prominent neo-Nazi activist in Latin America and West Germany. Hans-Ulrich Rudel was a German ground-attack pilot, and the most decorated German serviceman of World War II, being the sole recipient of the Knight’s Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds.
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