Rudel

[RabidAlien]

Hadn't really heard of him until I joined this forum, but after hearing his name/exploits mentioned on a fairly regular basis, it was only a matter of time until BAOTW picked him up. Despise his politics, but ya gotta respect his skillz!

Badass of the Week: Hans-Ulrich Rudel

 

[Erich]

sorry but his so called tank kills were about 250 not 519 and not even sure he sunk any ship of the Russian heavy calibre either. history needs a real good clean up for this Nazi scum bag. no doubt a great pilot but sadly a fanatic for one and his party that was a loser from the get go

sadly the authors references are all old news that need a cleaning/dusting still clinging on to the myths of this man

 

[vikingBerserker]

WOW! I had no idea he was also an ace, great read!

 

[Civettone]

sorry but his so called tank kills were about 250 not 519 and not even sure he sunk any ship of the Russian heavy calibre either. history needs a real good clean up for this Nazi scum bag. no doubt a great pilot but sadly a fanatic for one and his party that was a loser from the get go

sadly the authors references are all old news that need a cleaning/dusting still clinging on to the myths of this man

I agree that his claims are inflated. The battleship he "destroyed" kept firing at German positions until the siege of Leningrad was broken. Rudel made it a stationary ship which actually helped it.

I wouldn't go so far as calling him a scumback. A large part of WW2 soldiers were ardent nazis. If we start judging them according to their political beliefs we have a long way ahead of us.

His fellow pilots described him as a nice guy but a bit naieve

Kris

 

[Erich]

the man was a warrior in his Kameradens eyes he was the driving force behind 10./Pz jagd staffel in StG 2.

what is chilling was his political belief system during and post war till the end, re: for the derogatory remark I made. he was the prime LW candidate for the Nazi propaganda machine and it worked even with Rüdel believing his own B.S. about himself.

 

[RabidAlien]

Heh. Didn't know he was so controversial! I guess the Nazi propaganda machine fudged his numbers to fuel his super-man (or however its spelled) aura, and various books/articles/historians haven't pierced the fog of propaganda.

 

[rgallant]

Pretty much the problem with everything 60 odd years down the line. But consider this when you consider propaganda, the Nazi's were the 1st political party to really exploit the mass media. Hence individuals like Rudel and Wittman having such a mythology around them.

With myth comes exaggeration and not just little bits as is more common with allied troops. Figure if one party flunky adds a few kills then another adds a few it gets out of control pretty fast. And try to extract the truth can be nearly impossible.

He was good at his job, even if you cut the claims in half, particularly if you consider the aircraft he flew.

As for political views, there is no country who can throw the 1st stone. In that time frame the Nazi's and Stalin were the worst, you can debate who was the more evil. But the US, and the Brit Commonwealth were no angels either. Unless it is a huge factor in the individual makeup it is best left alone.

 

[Njaco]

You make a good point rgallnt but what Erich was trying to get across was this goofball continued with his Nazi rants YEARS after the war was over. He never saw the light and continued with his BS.

 

[rgallant]

Well put, and the way you put it is nice and clear. I apologize for being a dense when reading Erich's post, this is a much better way to express the point about Rudel's political ideology.

You make a good point rgallnt but what Erich was trying to get across was this goofball continued with his Nazi rants YEARS after the war was over. He never saw the light and continued with his BS.

 

[Njaco]

No worries!!