Hans Ulrich Rudel

HansUlrich Rudel was a Luftwaffe military aviator during World War II, a groundattack pilot credited with the destruction of 519 tanks, as well as a number of ships. He also claimedaerial victories, and the destruction of more than 800 vehicles of all types, over 150 artillery, antitank and antiaircraft positions,armored trains, and numerous bridges and supply lines. He flew 2,530 groundattack missions exclusively on the Eastern Front, usually flying the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber, and 430 missions flying the FockeWulf Fw 190.

Rudel was born onJuly 1916 in Konradswaldau, Silesia, a province in the Kingdom of Prussia in the administrative district of Gmina Czarny Br, within Wabrzych County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in Poland. He was the third child of Lutheran minister Johannes Rudel and his wife Martha, ne Mckner. He had two older sisters, Ingeborg and Johanna. The children were raised in a number of different parishes, which included Schweidnitz , Sagan , Niesky, Grlitz and Lauban . As a boy, Rudel was a poor scholar, but a very keen sportsman. From 1922 to 1936, he attended the Volksschule, a primary school, and the humanities oriented Gymnasium, a secondary school, in Lauban, and graduated with his Abitur . In late 1936, he attended the compulsory Reichsarbeitsdienst at Muskau, working on the banks of the Lusatian Neisse.

Source: Wikipedia