Erich Hartmann

Erich Alfred Hartmann , nicknamed Bubi by his German comrades and The Black Devil by his Soviet adversaries, was a German fighter pilot during World War II and is the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. He flew 1,404 combat missions and participated in aerial combat on 825 separate occasions. He claimed, and was credited with, shooting down 352 Allied aircraft345 Soviet andAmericanwhile serving with the Luftwaffe. During the course of his career, Hartmann was forced to crashland his damaged fightertimes due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down or mechanical failure. Hartmann was never shot down or forced to land due to enemy fire.

Erich Hartmann was born onApril 1922 in Weissach, Wrttemberg, 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 Changsha, China, and Erich spent his early childhood there. The family was forced to return to Germany in 1928, when the Chinese Civil War broke out. During World War II, Hartmanns younger brother, Alfred, also joined the Luftwaffe, serving as a gunner on a Junkers Ju 87 in North Africa. He was captured by the British and spent four years as a prisoner of war.

Source: Wikipedia