Erich Rudorffer

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Erich Rudorffer in 1944

Erich Rudorffer (born November 1, 1917 in Zwochau ; † April 8, 2016 ) was a German Air Force officer , most recently a major , and a highly decorated fighter pilot in World War II .

Second World War

Major Erich Rudorffer sitting on a box, writing, in the background a Junkers Ju 87 D plane camouflaged with bushes

At the beginning of the war, Erich Rudorffer came to the Air Force through civil aviation , initially to fighter pilots and later to be trained as a fighter pilot. As a sergeant major , he took part in the French campaign as a member of JG 2 "Richthofen" and achieved his first aerial victory on May 14, 1940, a French Curtiss 75A . He ended the French campaign with eight more kills. On October 2, 1940 he was promoted to lieutenant and on May 1, 1941 he was awarded the Knight's Cross. He came to Africa in November 1942 as commander of Group II of JG 2 . By April 1943 he was able to achieve 26 more aerial victories there. In June he took over the leadership of the II. Group of JG 54 "Grünherz" on the Eastern Front . There he scored more kills, including 13 aerial victories in 17 minutes on November 6th. Promoted to major , he fought on the Finnish front in the winter of 1943/44. On April 11, 1944, on the occasion of his 113th kill, he received the oak leaves for the Knight's Cross. Back on the Eastern Front, he was awarded the Knight's Cross swords for 210 kills on January 26, 1945. He achieved his last twelve kills with the Me 262 as leader of the II. Group of the Jagdgeschwader 7. At the end of the war he had a total of 224 kills on over 1000 enemy flights (according to some sources also 222), including 136 on the Eastern Front. He is therefore in 7th place among the most successful fighter pilots in the Air Force and thus in history. Rudorffer himself was shot down 16 times.

post war period

Erich Rudorffer worked for Pan Am after the war and from the 1980s for the Federal Aviation Office . He was the last still living bearer of the oak leaves with swords to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Others

Flugwerk Fw 190A-8 / N in the color scheme by Erich Rudorffer Finland 1944

Rudorffer is one of the characters portrayed in the 2007 Finnish film " Tali-Ihantala 1944 ". A replica of his Fw 190 manufactured by the company Flug-Werk was used for this film. This aircraft is now in the Chariots of Fire Fighter Collection and is operated at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Center in Blenheim, New Zealand, in the color scheme of Erich Rudorffer, Finland 1944.

Awards

literature

  • Ernst Obermaier: The Air Force Knight's Cross bearers. Volume I: Fighter pilots 1939–1945. Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-87341-065-6 .
  • Raymond F. Toliver, Trevor J. Constable : These were the German fighter pilot aces 1939–1945 . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-87943-193-0 .
  • Edward H. Sims: Fighter Pilot. The great opponents of what was once the 16th edition. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-87943-115-9 , p. 33.
  • Mike Spick: The fighter breed of the German Air Force. Bernard & Graefe publishing house, 2000, ISBN 3-7637-5978-6 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Erich Rudorffer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erich Rudorffer
  2. ↑ Flugwerk Fw 190 with the markings of a Rudorffer machine in a Finnish film ( Memento from January 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Airplane Classic 05/2012.
  4. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 643.
personal data
SURNAME Rudorffer, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German air force officer and fighter pilot in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Zwochau , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 2016