Erich Hartmann; Leading German Ace in WWII

Col. Erich Hartmann, one of Germany’s most daring World War II fighter aces, has reportedly died near Stuttgart, Germany. He was 71.

No cause or date of death was given in an obituary published Thursday in the Daily Telegraph.

A much-decorated hero of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, Hartmann reportedly shot down or crippled 352 planes, mostly on the Eastern Front.

As a boy, Hartmann was encouraged to fly by his mother, who was a glider pilot. He qualified as a gliding instructor in 1938 and began training for the Luftwaffe two years later.

On July 7, 1943, he destroyed seven Soviet aircraft above the Battle of Kursk in Russia. In 1945, he shot down five U.S. Mustang fighter pilots over Romania in two sorties on one day, and shortly afterward, two more over Czechoslovakia.

“My only tactics,” Hartmann once said, “were to wait until I had the chance to attack the enemy and then close in at high speed.

“I opened fire only when the whole windshield was black with the enemy. Then not a single shot went wild. I hit the enemy with all my guns and he went down.”

Hartmann was shot down only once--Aug. 20, 1943--when he scrambled unhurt from his Me-109 and into the arms of Soviet soldiers.

Feigning injury, he managed to escape on foot and rejoined his fighter group, JG-52, soon afterward.

After the war, Hartmann spent 10 years in a Soviet prison until Germany negotiated his repatriation in 1956.