The encounter with the "Master of the Skies".

So either the date is wrong or it was Graf. But like you said Graf's 109 had its nose painted red, not black like Hartmanns.

Confusing !!

 

heh, things that happened over 60 years ago have a tendency to be like that.

Btw, Hartmann's memoires doesn't know anything about this incident. That itself doesn't mean anything, as aerial combat is very confusing itself. OTOH, it says that after the 4 kills he made in Ploesti June 1944 he had to fight a 20 min battle against 8 P-51s and he had to bail out due to fuel starvation. That itself doesn't mean the battle referred earlier didn't happen. Those 4 kills he made in that day (his memoires claim them to have happened in single mission, altough he flew 3 different missions in the same day) could have happened actually in 3 different sorties.

We never know for sure, as his logbooks were stolen by either a Czech or an American soldier when he was captured in 1945.

 

Yes, I hope it'll get solved though, as its one heck of a story !

Yeah, sadly that is true.

Best regards, KBO.

 

Thanks for the story, KBO.
The most tragic of it all is the decision to send him To the Soviets (have they received the 50 grand for it? form Uncle Joe?). Most ungentlemanly.
However, who hasn´t heard of mock processes by Americans (Malmedy´ process, f.ex.)? The whole attitude towards Germans, incl. civilians (Dresden f. ex.), the Morgenthau Plan (happily abandoned) the Nurnberg Trials, (also the shame of Keelhaul Operation) witness how easily propaganda destroys ethics. The British had apologized for their propaganda against Germans after WW1. Nobody did after WW2. Whatever crimes the Nazi regime might have committed, the only thing to do NOT to become like them must have been sticking to principles of civilized warfare and Christian (or generally humanistic) ethics generally. Most unfortunately, in many cases politics and emotions took upper hand. It´s of course easy to sit in front of one´s computer, sip coffee and preach. But that´s what I mean.
I won´t even mention the attitude of Soviets. That´s quite another story. That regime was the Devil incarnate, both towards its own citizens and towards any foreigners.
It´s a bit off the subject, but (I´m sorry) THIS part of your story hit me the most, KBO.

 

I heard that Hartmann stopped using a black plane after russian pilots started fleeing at the sight of the plane. Whats more amazing are the german pilots who racked up 150+ kills by 1941, though hartmann started fighting in 1942.