Knights Cross with golden oak leaves swords and diamonds
The highest medal of all, it was supposed to be awarded after the end of world war 2 to germany’s 12 greatest war heroes, but Adolf Hitler felt that the continuous outstanding achievements and heroism of germany’s greatest war hero, dive bomber ace Hans Ulrich Rudel, were such that he deserved to receive this award sooner, so in January 1945 Rudel became the only recipient of this highest medal.
Rudel’s war record is simply amazing in any scale. Like some other great war heroes, he had a very late start. He began the war as a reconnaissance pilot and was training to convert to a dive bomber pilot during the invasion of France. His warrior career finally began with the invasion of Russia in june 1941, and he served in the russian front until the end of the war, except for short periods in germany as instructor and test pilot.
In the next four years he flew a total of 2530 combat sorties in which he destroyed 519 russian tanks, 150 artillery guns, 1000 vehicles, a battleship, two cruisers, a destroyer, 70 landing craft, and also shot down 11 aircraft. He was shot down 30 times, lost a leg, which didn’t stop him at all, and performed numerous acts of sacrifice and heroism. Rudel had the rare combination of great warrior skills and tons of luck, and years of intense daily fighting to fully exploit them, which is how he reached such an amazing record for which he became the highest decorated german war hero.
