The Most Successful Fighter Ace in the War

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Erich Alfred Hartmann, nicknamed Bubi, or “The Kid,” by his German comrades, began life in 1922 in Weissach, Germany. He spent his early childhood in China, but when the Chinese Civil War broke out in 1928, his family returned to Germany. He came by flying naturally as his mother, Elisabeth Wilhelmine Machtholf, was among the first female glider pilots in Germany. At age 14, Hartmann became an instructor in her gliding school.

Hartmann began his military training in October 1940 with the 10th Flying Regiment in Neukuhren. Two years later, he proceeded to advanced flight training. In October 1942 at age 20, Hartmann was assigned to fighter wing Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) on the Eastern front in the Soviet Union. He flew his first combat mission on October 14, 1942, as a wingman. When his aircraft encountered 10 enemy planes below, Hartmann, eager to score his first success, opened full throttle and became separated from his squadron leader. He engaged an enemy fighter, not only scoring no hits but also almost colliding with it. His fighter crash landed after running out of fuel. Because he had violated almost every rule of air-to-air combat, he had to endure three days of work with the ground crew.

Guided by experienced fighter pilots, Hartmann steadily gained tactical proficiency. In November 1942, he claimed his first kill. By the following September, he had 100 kills, prompting the Soviets to dub him “The Black Devil.” In combat, he waited until he got within 150 yards of his target before firing. On August 17, 1944, Hartmann became the top scoring fighter ace with 274 victories, surpassing fellow fighter pilot Gerhard Barkhorn. Hitler decorated Hartmann with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on August 25, 1944, for claiming 301 aerial victories. At the time, it was Germany's highest military decoration. He took command of JG 52 in 1945.

Hartmann scored his 352nd and last aerial victory on May 8, 1945, hours before the war ended; he was the war’s last Luftwaffe ace to claim a victory. He had vanquished 345 Soviet and 7 U.S. planes. Along with other members of his fighter wing, he surrendered to U.S. Army forces to await transfer to the Red Army.

Initially, the Soviets tried to get Hartmann to cooperate with them, asking him to spy on fellow officers. When he refused, he got 10 days in solitary confinement in a 4-foot by 9-foot by 6-foot cell. He slept on a concrete floor and got only bread and water to consume. On another occasion, the Soviets threatened to kidnap and murder his wife. During one interrogation, a Soviet officer struck him with a cane, prompting Hartmann to slam his chair over the head of his assailant, knocking him out. Expecting to be shot, he was transferred back to his bunker.

Hartmann chose a hunger strike rather than bend to Soviet will. The Soviets allowed the hunger strike to go on for four days before force-feeding him. More subtle efforts by the Soviets to convert him to communism also failed. After an offer of a post in the East German Air Force, he declared:

If, after I am home in the West, you make me a normal contract offer, a business deal such as people sign every day all over the world, and I like your offer, then I will come back and work with you in accordance with the contract. But if you try to put me to work under coercion of any kind, then I will resist to my dying gasp.

The Soviets gave up and tried Hartmann as a war criminal on bogus charges, specifically the “deliberate shooting of 780 Soviet civilians” in the village of Briansk, attacking a bread factory, and destroying 345 Soviet aircraft. He defended himself at trial.

Sentenced to 25 years of hard labor, he refused to work. He ended up in solitary confinement, to the outrage of his fellow prisoners. They revolted, overpowered the guards, and freed him. He complained to the Commandant’s office, asking for a representative from Moscow and an international inspection, as well as a tribunal, to acquit him of his conviction. His request declined, he was transferred to a camp in Novocherkassk, where he spent five more months in solitary confinement. Eventually, he was granted a tribunal, but it upheld his original sentence. He was then sent to another camp, in the Ural Mountains.

In 1955, Hartmann's mother wrote to West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to secure her son’s freedom. The Soviet Union and West Germany struck a trade agreement, and Hartmann and 16,000 other German military members were set free. After spending 10-1/2 years in Soviet custody, he was among the last group of prisoners to be released. He refused a celebration of his homecoming until the Soviets set all German prisoners free, which occurred later that year.

When he returned to West Germany, he reunited with his wife, Ursula, to whom he had written every day of the war. Unfortunately, he never saw his son, who was born in 1945 but died in 1948. Hartmann and his wife later had a daughter in 1957.

In 1956, he reentered military service and became an officer in the new West German Air Force, where he commanded the country’s first all-jet unit, equipped initially with Canadair Sabres and later with Lockheed F-104 Starfighters. He traveled to the United States to train on U.S. Air Force equipment. This training and his association with the new Luftwaffe, allowed him to avoid the post-war taint of some other German pilots owing to their relations with Nazi sympathizers.

Hartmann considered the F-104 unsafe and opposed its adoption by the German air force. This prompted one of his superiors, General Werner Panitzki, to remark, “Erich is a good pilot, but not a good officer.” But the aircraft’s 282 crashes and loss of 115 German pilots in noncombat missions, along with allegations of bribes resulting in a scandal for Lockheed, proved him correct. Hartmann was forced into early retirement in 1970.

After that, he worked as a flight instructor and flew on an aerobatics team. In 1980, he caught a cold that developed into angina pectoris, which had killed his father at age 58. He was not medically cleared to fly until 1983, after which he resumed work as an instructor. But his illness had made him cautious, and he limited his public events, stating, “I am retired and I am a civilian, and now I like to have my rest and peace. I do not live for exhibitions.” He died on September 20, 1993, at 71.

In January 1997, the Russian government exonerated Hartmann, admitting that his conviction for war crimes was unlawful. To fully understand Hartmann’s record as an ace, one must keep in mind that many German aces had 100 kills, which on the Eastern front was more achievable than in the West. This is because German planes were faster than Russian ones and pilots there had more opportunity for victories. Nonetheless, Hartmann’s record stands as the best in war.