Died yesterday.
III./JG 52's commander Major Hubertus von Bonin asigned Oberfeldwebel Grislawski to break in Leutnant Erich Hartmann.
After a rough start Grislawski was able to teach Hartmann "the name of game".
"You bloody idiot! What the hell are you think you're doing? I'm your leader! Get back in place or I'll shoot you down!"
Grislawski kept cursing over the R/T all the way back to base, and when they had landed, the Oberfeldwebel gave the Leutnant a dressing down that he would never forget. Then - in front of the sweating Hartmann - Grislawski turned to his friend "Paule" Rossmann and said:
"Oh man, this is too much! What a baby they have sent us! Just look at his face - like a cute little boy!"
From then on, Grislawski never addressed Hartmann otherwise than as Bubi, "Little boy."
Hartmann proved to be extremely individualistic, and von Bonin definitely knew what he was doing when he assigned a vigorous and harsh worker's son as Alfred Grislawski as his teacher. The men at Soldatskaya used to gather around the radio equipment and listen to the R/T communication with amusement when Grislawski and Hartmann were out on combat missions.
"Are you so anxious to die, Bubi?"
"I'm sorry, sir!"
"Don't you 'sir' me, look after your tail instead!"
"I'll nail you for this, Bubi!"
"I'm sorry!"
"Your mother will be sorry!"
But finally, Hartmann learned the name of the game. On November 5, 1942 he achieved his first victory - against an Il-2 from 7 GShAP.
http://www.graf-grislawski.elknet.pl/hartmann.htmhttp://www.graf-grislawski.elknet.pl/Erich "Bubi" Hartmann passed away on 19 September 1993. On 19 September 2003 (10 years later) Alfred Grislawski passed away.
http://www.graf-grislawski.elknet.pl/index2.htm
