"The Tank Killer" - The True Story of Ju-87 Stuka Pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel - Historical Cinematic

[Music] coming up many pilots throughout history are known for their number of air-to-air victories that they achieved but sometimes this is not the only way to recognize legendary airmen the perfect example of this is none other than hans ulrich rudel who was responsible for single-handedly destroying over 500 tanks one battleship and 70 landing craft in world war ii this german pilot by himself destroyed more military equipment than many nations would ever have i hope you enjoyed this historical recreation rudel began his flying career in 1939 when he first flew as an observer on long-range reconnaissance missions over poland about a year later he began training to become a stuka pilot and shortly after he was placed in flight group stg2 which would see him move to occupy poland for operation barbarossa which was the invasion of the soviet union in june of 1941 [Music] his career as a stuka pilot began like many others with moderate success [Music] [Music] but in september there was a key event that jump-started his career and began to give him his famous reputation hans took part in an attack on the soviet battleship marat his flight leader was the initial lead on the dive bombing attack but was unable to land a hit with his 1 000 pound bomb on the ship fortunately this would set the stage for rudel he would come up shortly after the flight lead had missed but this time flying much lower than any other stuka pilot would have dared to go he released his bomb which hid perfectly in the forward part of the ship igniting the forward magazine [Music] 326 men were killed in this single attack and the ship would eventually sink with her destruction being credited solely to han through them just a short time after the attack rudel's wingman ernst steen who was also with him when he sunk the marat would fly alongside in another attack on the soviet cruiser unfortunately steen stuka took a hit to the tail section in the dive and was unable to pull out rudel wrote that he watching this unfold saw that steam had realized his fate and turned to try and aim his stuka into the soviet ship but just missed hitting the water right alongside in the seven months following may of 1941 rudel flew over 500 missions incredibly this is an average of more than two missions per day in that span just a year later in 1943 he would fly his 1000th combat mission which would make him a national hero astoundingly during this time he has actually destroyed very few tanks as this was not the role of the stuka at the time [Music] his primary role had been as a dive bomber attacking valuable stationary targets like buildings and ships the stuka had not yet commonly been used in an anti-tank role however thanks to riddell that would change very soon in the spring of 1943 rudel was one of the few selected to begin testing the ju-87 stuka in the devoted anti-tank role german high command had figured out that the most efficient way to kill a tank wasn't by trying to hit it on the roof with a bomb but was with cannons armed with two 600 pound cannon pods the stuka became slow and unwieldy unable to dive or carry bombs but its six foot gun barrels could put 37 millimeter shells through small targets from the air at more than 150 yards of range this ju-87g or the canon bird or tank cracker would become one of the war's supreme tank busters largely in thanks to riddell's work once he started flying the ju-87 in this configuration he became absolutely deadly to soviet ground forces he started racking up tank kills faster than anyone else in history and by july of 1943 he was taking out armor with such ease that in one day of that summer he destroyed 12 soviet tanks by himself in october rudel was credited with destruction of his 100th tank and was awarded the knights cross of the iron cross gunner at the time was erin hinchell he had served with him in his stuka for two and a half years and the pair had completed over 1400 sorties together on the 20th of march in 1944 he was forced to make a landing behind enemy lines after taking damage to his aircraft [Music] [Music] both he and his gunner began the trek back to friendly territory unfortunately tragedy was bound to strike on this day as they tried to swim across a river to return to german territory after the forced landing henshaw would drowned in the attempt this was likely a difficult blow to rudel as the pair were very close and they had flown together almost their entire career he would return to combat shortly thereafter with a new gunner and would continue to dominate soviet forces by december of 1944 he had completed his 2400th mission and had killed over 460 soviet tanks after this hitler gave rudel the highest award in the german forces solidifying his status as a hero to the nazi cause on february 8 1945 as the germans are on the defensive and nearing defeat rudel was badly wounded in the right foot his leg would have to be amputated below the knee although this would not hold him back as he returned to flying just one month later he would claim 26 more tank kills before the end of the war would come being the passionate german that he was on may 8th of 1945 rudel saw the soviet capture of their airfield was imminent and rather than surrender he flew westward to u.s controlled territory letting american forces know that they were on their way and that they would be landing at an american airfield rudel believed that turning himself over to the americans would certainly give himself a better outlook than handing himself over to the soviet forces this would turn out to be correct as the americans never handed him back over to soviet forces regardless of how much they wanted him he chose to crash land his stuka so that it was not able to be reused by allied forces hans rudel was one of the few famous german pilots who actually survived the war he would go on to be a controversial figure in german culture and politics due to his nazi loyalties he passed away in 1982 at the age of 66. i hope you enjoyed this historical recreation please make sure to subscribe and comment if you have any ideas for future videos if you want to support my content please grab some merch at the link in the description or click join below for awesome bonus content thanks so much for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 494,570

Rating: 4.8334713 out of 5

Keywords: IL-2 Sturmovik, ju-87 history, Ju-87 Cannon, Hans Rudel Stuka, Hans Rudel Documentary, Ju87 Tank Buster, Hans Rudel, History Channel, stuka tank buster, Stuka Pilot, War Thunder Stuka, Stuka Game, Historic Recreation, IL2, Stuka Dive Bomber, Stuka Documentary, hans ulrich rudel, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, Dogfights Show, Cinematic, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Realistic, Dogfighting Game, Best Fighter Pilot, World War II Fighter Combat, Stula Documentary

Id: gPWeIgkznt4

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 25 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/quaintyetpeculiar]

He was indeed a very focused and dedicated fascist til the end.