Stuka Pilot. excellent book. link included.

[Brooke]

I think it's impractical to let a pilot's political affiliations or political thoughts extinguish one's enjoyment of reading about the flying.  Stalin and his Soviet regime were just as bad as (or worse than, if you are going by body count) Hitler and the Nazis.  WWII Japan and its treatment of the Chinese, SE asians, and POW's was right on up there.  Yet I enjoy reading the stories of Soviet pilots (including pro-Party ones) and of Japanese pilots (including pro-Imperial Japan ones).  Some folks take into account German pilots' politics, but do folks notice or care at all about Soviet or Japanese pilots' politics?

I also think it is interesting to read about Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, Charlemagne, Ghengis Khan, Vikings, Vandals, Angles, Saxons, the Kings of England, etc., but I don't have to think that everything they did or strove for was moral.

[Guppy35]

In reading any history, it's always about the people and what they were about.  How people carry themselves, react to what's going on around them is always more interesting to me.  The "Good guys" show themselves regardless of which side they are on, as do the "Bad guys".

[moot]

Nonetheless there are remarkable virtues to be found even in some of the worst of the worst.  Stripping the wheat from chaff that way is IMHO the best way to go about it.

[pervert]

Rudel is a legend cheers for the link 

[Guppy35]

In the interest of fairness I reread the book.  It was still a grind.  It's like he's writing from behind himself and it's a hard read.  Is the detail there?  Sure. But he never connects.  As an author he makes a good pilot

I'd suggest a book called "Betrayed Skies" by Rudolf Braunburg.  A different look at the airwar from the LW side.  I always talk about Edwards Park's book "Nanette" as my favorite fighter pilot book.  "Betrayed Skies" is the Luftwaffe equivalent.  He's an average "Joe" flying a 190 in 44-45.  In some ways his survival is far more impressive then Rudel's.

[muzik]

so there was another that landed this many times under fire and picked up downed air crews?

Thanks for the link. Know of any more?

[-aper-]

Rudel could be an excellent pilot, but his book is very poor written and full of pure bullsh#t.

For example, he describes how he managed to return home after a hard fight with  P-39s:

"My aircraft has been riddled by the 2 cm. guns and hit eight times by the 3.7 cannon."

yea bro... 

[Masherbrum]

Now a lifetime devoted nazi (no, not just a "patriot"), which did consciously and willingly did fight FOR everything Nazism stood for all of his life, and thus was and still is an icon of neo-nazis,   is being presented as someone to look up at?

Disgusting.

Agreed.   I read it when I was 15 and I came to the same conclusion.   

[Karnak]

What did you guys think of Saburo Sakai's book?  I know he was no Rudel and openly condemned the Imperial Japanese government, but nonetheless he did fly for the other side.

Note:  I have read Sakai's book but not Rudel's.

[pervert]

Guess a lot of people are uncomfortable with an unrepentant Nazi as a hero figure 

[DrDea]

 That was a fantastic book. I have that oun. The story of how he got back after getting caught behind enemy lines trying to help a shot down comrad was something else. That guy ran on pure guts. Regardless of his affiliation.

[Rich52]

Rudel always struck me as a self promoter, as many "Heros" often are. To me Hartman was the Polar opposite as a man and an airman.

To his dieing day Rudel was a die hard Nazi. He despised the Jul '44 conspirators and even wrote a book saying if not for that attempt on Hitlers life Germany would have won the war. Imagine anyone being that big a die hard to believe that still years after the war? You'd had to have been a brainwashed imbecile to even believe it in Jul '44. But Rudel was convinced of Hitlers military genius until his dieing day.

In his book does he talk about the suicide missions he wanted to do at the end of the war but never quite got round to doing them ? Instead leading his group on one last flight to Yank lien routeoute to a literary retirement of ease among other sympathizers?

[33Vortex]

Rudel could be an excellent pilot, but his book is very poor written and full of pure bullsh#t.

For example, he describes how he managed to return home after a hard fight with  P-39s:

"My aircraft has been riddled by the 2 cm. guns and hit eight times by the 3.7 cannon."

yea bro... 

A lot of allied aces do this. Does the fact that they are allies somehow make the practice legit?

In all fairness it may not even be deliberate, just the result of failing memory or exaggeration from the experience of taking fire which can be harrowing and mind-numbing in and by itself. If it's deliberate, well let's just say it's a commonplace practice however not one honored among pilots, though surprisingly many get away with it. It takes away nothing from his experience, but a chunk from his character. There are plenty of examples of people practicing this and you don't have to look further than the arenas in AH to find some of them.

[Guppy35]

A lot of allied aces do this. Does the fact that they are allies somehow make the practice legit?

In all fairness it may not even be deliberate, just the result of failing memory or exaggeration from the experience of taking fire which can be harrowing and mind-numbing in and by itself. If it's deliberate, well let's just say it's a commonplace practice however not one honored among pilots, though surprisingly many get away with it. It takes away nothing from his experience, but a chunk from his character. There are plenty of examples of people practicing this and you don't have to look further than the arenas in AH to find some of them.

You answered like a LW fan

No where did anyone suggest it an OK practice for allied aces either. 

[The Jekyll]

I found the book quite deceiving and self serving. To give Rudel credit for being anything other than the Nazi he was is giving venue to the cause he intended the book to provide. He was, is, and always will be something less than human.