Erich Hartmann: The Life and Legacy of the Luftwaffe’s Top Fighter Ace during World War II

Summary

The Third Reich's Luftwaffe began World War II with significant advantages over other European air forces, playing a critical role in the German war machine's swift, powerful advance. By war's end, however, the Luftwaffe had been decimated by combat losses and crippled by poor decisions at the highest levels of military decision-making, and it proved unable to challenge Allied air superiority despite a last-minute upsurge in German aircraft production.

Few people personified the advancements and abilities of the Luftwaffe like Erich Hartmann, the most successful ace in the history of warfare. His records are made all the more remarkable by the fact that he came late to the Second World War. It had already been underway for more than three years when, on October 14, 1942, at the furthest extremity of Germany’s advance into Russia, he strapped himself into the cockpit of his Messerschmitt 109 for his first combat mission. Born in April 1922, he was still just 20, but he was certainly prepared and ready. He had been flying gliders since his early teens - including as a glider instructor with the Hitler Youth - and he received a pilot’s license for powered aircraft in 1937. 

Over the course of the war, Hartmann was credited with shooting down 352 enemy aircraft, 345 of which were Russian and seven being American, making him the most successful combat fighter of all time. In fact, the number is so incredible that it has inevitably come under intense criticism and scrutiny over the years, with some suggesting outright that the figure is falsified, while others have pointed to the unique combat circumstances of the Russian front and suggested that aerial combat there was somehow easier.