Hans-Ulrich Rudel - The Surrender of Germany's Most Decorated Ace 1945

[Music] Hunt's Ulrich rudl was Germany's most decorated World War two ace in fact he was the sole recipient of Germany's highest gallantry award the Knight's Cross with golden oak leaves swords and diamonds equating to an astounding five Knights crosses and he achieved all this in the unlikeliest of aircraft the Yonkers Ju 87 Stuka the Stuka dive-bomber became infamous during the German attack on France and the Low Countries in 1940 making precision attacks on ground targets and herring refugee columns providing the airborne artillery necessary for the success of the new German method of fighting called blitzkrieg or lightning war during the Battle of Britain Stukas bomb Britain's radar stations but also fell easy victim to Royal Air Force Spitfires and hurricanes vulnerable to modern fighters the students received a new lease of life on the Eastern Front becoming a formidable tank buster an anti-ship aircraft [Music] [Music] [Music] rural chalked up 51 aerial victories in various types of aircraft making him an ace many times over but it was his ground kills and the Stuka that were incredible 519 tanks claim destroyed a hundred and fifty artillery guns and even a battleship and a cruiser sunk along with 70 landing craft and 800 vehicles of all types rudl was also political a devout National Socialist to the end of his days and a favorite of Hitler's in February 1945 Colonel rudl was badly wounded in the right foot and his leg was later amputated below the knee but though his wound had not properly healed he returned to flying on the 25th of March 1945 he even met his hero Hitler one last time on the 19th of April in shattered berlin rudolf fought on until VE day knocking out a further 26 soviet tanks but early on the 8th of May rudl learned that the German armed forces had surrendered he had no intention of surrendering himself to the Soviets and instead decided to fly to the Americans and surrender along with his remaining pilots hasty preparations were made to evacuate the Luftwaffe base at coma anze near Prague in Czechoslovakia enough fuel remained to reach a US air base at kit singin home to the 4o v Fighter Group of the u.s. ninth Air Force three Yonkers 87 Stukas were available Rudolph lying his famous Ju 87 G 2 cannon bird there was equipped with a 37 millimeter cannon under each wing along with four [ __ ] valve 190 fighter bombers rudl had another good reason to go to the Americans his right stump was still swollen and bleeding he believed the Americans would treat his wound he gathered together the air crew and ground crew and gave them a short speech thanking them for their loyalty and courage he bade farewell to the ground personnel who had head west in trucks and then the flight of Stukas and 190s prepared to leave rudl radio the American 19th Tactical Air Command telling them that he would be coming in the u.s. command gave the order for anti-aircraft units not to engage approaching Luftwaffe aircraft but importantly this information failed to be received by the US base at kit singin the two and a half thousand men of the 4o v Fighter Wing were lined up in parade formation on the field awaiting a flyover by their aircraft to mark VE Day they were about to receive a completely different kind of flyover that no one had anticipated the 400 fifths 75 p-47 Thunderbolts all unarmed were not on the field they were 15 miles away forming up for the fly past when rudel's flight suddenly appeared overhead the unmistakable shape of the Stukas and 190s caused enormous disquiet among the US personnel who began to break ranks until ordered to stand still many fearing that the Germans were about to launch some kind of last-ditch attack on the airfield rudl was determined to preserve the honour of his unit and had ordered his pilots to deliberately crash land their Stukas and 190s on the US airfield so that the planes could not be taken as prizes by the enemy the first aircraft the Stuka flown by rudl deliberately ran off the end of the runway tipping over in the soft soil to Stukas and to 190 s 6 ground looped or collapsed their landing gear the 190s single-seat fighters each carried a passenger stuffed into a small equipment space 1 190 landed perfectly and was not wrecked when the passenger climbed out it was a woman the Stukas were also overloaded each carrying 3 people in total 6 of the 7 German planes deliberately crashed and 21 people emerged to surrender rue de Luca came to rest and he was soon confronted by an American pointing a colt 45 pistol at him he opened the canopy where the American tried to snatch rules Knight's Cross from around his throat rudl pushed him away and closed the canopy only opening it again when a senior US officer arrived speaking English rudl identified himself turning to the two and a half thousand Americans still standing on parade rudl thanked the US officer for ordering the review not realizing that it was not in his honor limping along on crutches rudl walked down the front rank of Americans on his way to the base aid station putting on quite a show the intact folk evolved 190 which had landed with the woman passenger was actually rudel's personal plane that he had flown fighter sorties ender in the latter part of the war he gave us pilots a tour of the aircraft which was later test flown by American Top guns on the base luckily for rudl and his men the Americans refused to hand them over to the Soviets rudl entered US captivity as a high-profile prisoner of war and was released in April 1946 in 1948 he went to Argentina via one of the infamous ratlines for Nazi war criminals using a fake Red Cross passport in the name of Emilio Maia although not a war criminal rudl nonetheless remainder devout Nazi and actively helped actual war criminals to evade justice in Argentina and Paraguay amongst many other places he became friendly with former ss-hauptsturmführer dr. Josef Mengele helping to move dr. Mengele to Brazil and was a close friend of Argentine President Juan perón and Paraguayan dictator general Alfredo Stroessner he was also a military adviser an arms dealer for Bolivia the Pinochet regime in Chile and general Stroessner enacted as a foreign representative for many West German companies including Zeman's Messerschmitt Fokker wolf and Dornier he even consulted on the development of the American a 10 Thunderbolt tank busting aircraft through rudl the CIA had contact with many former SS and via marked officers living in South America both for espionage purposes and technical matters and rudl was also in contact with former SS commando extraordinaire Otto Skorzeny rudl returned to West Germany in 1953 being a leading neo-nazi even standing for election and would also travel to South America often in 1977 he became spokesman for the German people's union Nationalist Party hammers involved in several major public scandals married three times rudl died of a stroke on the 18th of December 1982 controversially during his funeral in Dorn housing to West German Luftwaffe f4 phantoms made a low altitude pass over his grave the German government quickly denied that the flight was anything other than a training mission thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Felton you can also help support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 3,826,511

Rating: 4.9249215 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Immelmann, Stuka, VE-Day

Id: zZHCvPim0eA

Length: 10min 13sec (613 seconds)

Published: Sun May 10 2020

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[u/OzDiver]

Worst Nazi mechanic EVER

[u/anothergigglemonkey]

Hang every Nazi. Twice.

[u/SilverbackGuerrilla]

He had some input on the A-10, while I can’t say what he contributed, I find it odd that a unabashed Nazi had a say on my favorite ground attack plane.