Anton "Toni" Hackl - little known 1st to last ace

Officially credited with 192 victories. 74 allied,( with gun camera evidence of an additional 24 ). 116 Russian. His score is reported differently in different sources. He got 32 4 engined bombers which made him 2nd or 3rd highest bomber experte. His 1st score was in Norway, a Hudson. There is no data on what he did in battle of France or BoB.

He was considered best pilot in Crimean theater. One Russian pilot remarked after the war; He gave us a lot of headaches.

Transferred to Mediteranean either late 42, or early 43. most sources credit him with 6, although a recent Stackpole book mentions 14. He was injured by a B-17, & recovered & was then sent to France.

He scored 44 victories in last 10 months of war, ( again with gun camera evidence of additional 24 ). He recieved the Dora late 44 & on his 1st mission in this kite he scored a Mustang, a Lancaster, & a Mosquito in 4 minutes! Remarkable because of the variance of aircraft encountered.

Flew 1000 missions in both 109, 190 & Dora. shot down 8 times, ( which is noticably better than his contemporaries Bar 19 times & Rudorrfer 18 times ). Most shootdowns of German aircraft in Russia were from Russian anti aircraft guns. Anyway it is not known how his 8 shootdowns, same as Rall, occurred i.e. how many from antiaircraft guns & how many by aircraft. I believe the book Battle for Berlin mentioned he was caught on the runway by marauding Mustangs coming in low over the trees. According to a friend that read it that is.

Participated in operation Boderplatte.Flew til last day of war.

Unfortunately his score is not likely to be sorted out any time soon. Even his bomber score is reported sometimes as 25, more often 32.


At any rate , a most remarkable career for this not so well known pilot. He lived until 1984

 

Thanks for posting this Chrome ! I wanted to read more about him since I never heard of him before. Can you think how lucky he was to survive over 1000 combat missions and survive the war too.
Here is a picture of his 109-F
http://hem.passagen.se/galland/Hackl.html

 

Stats:

http://www.luftwaffe.cz/hackl.html

More pics of the man:

http://www.luftwaffe39-45.historia.nom.br/ases/hackl.htm

 

Toni is one of the greats. have several pics of his multi coloured JG 11 Fw 190A along with his staff a/c which are just as wild with white tails and victory bars, personal wappen on the fuselage, etc.

His Mossie kill was on 23 December 44. After that he was sent on inactive duty with JG 300 and then to JG 11 on the Ost front where he scored his last 17 kills.

died July 9, 1984, he surely would of been an interesting personality to interview.

 

He would have made a good interview, probably a whole book. Regading 4 engine kills, it has been reported that Rollwage was tops with 44, but I have a letter from Mike Spick & he says it was discovered that it was a typo. 14 was the real score. Which begs the question, who was the top 4 motor ace? Mayer?

Last thought on Hackl, with 74 west & 24 gun camera kills, that makes 98! which means he almost-might possibly have pulled off a double century, ( 100 east-100 west ). Bar being the only other contender with 96 east & 124 west. Ruddorrfer another outside possibility with 86 west & 138 east.

I wish there were a source for data on him in BoB & battle of France. Perhaps he missed these battles. He was in Norway 1940, so one would assume he would have participated in BoB. Maybe he got injured in norway. His east front score is usually reported as 118, sometimes 133, & occasionally 105.

The stackpole book mentioned above is titled German aces of WW2. It mentions that he got 4 fighters in one day in med in a chapter on Bar.
Very good book.
Perhaps a trip to germany to visit the Hackl family would be a good idea to help sort out his record. It is amazing he survived 1000 missions on 3 fronts, 4 if one counts Norway.

 

"Hackl was to shoot down 25 four-engined bombers during his time in charge of III./JG 11."

http://www.luftwaffe.cz/hackl.html

Just wondering what his method was to shoot those big things out of the sky? Incredible number for Bf 109 ( Fw190?) pilot, I think. Anyone know about his tactics??

 

He used the 109 primarily to take on the Mustangs/Thunderbolts and flew his Fw 190A-8 in the typical wedge in front attack style with the Stab. He had at leats 2 Fw 190's at his disposal

 

Thanx Erich!

Definitely a very effective method!

 

the closing rate while in staffel formation from the front was too great, not enough time for effective fire due to time limitations. One of the reasons the angriff von hinten was established in form from Sturmstaffel 1 in December of 43 and then used by the SturmFw gruppen almost entirely. Other Reich defense units followed the same cordence as it seemed most effective to hit the tail position and then almost sit off the rear pumping cannon rounds into the inboard engines and fuel cells before banking off, and the closing time was not as great besides able to close within a pretty near proximity to assure a kill.

Many US bomber crews witnessed Fw's "sitting on their props" as it were from slightly below firing rounds into the engines/wings and fuselage. Somewhat of a standard SturmFw method with the idea of slightly below and then coming up suddenly and diving on the top or side before banking and diving to wards the ground ............

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