Rudorffer, Erich

Erich Rudorffer ( German: Erich Rudorffer ; November 1, 1917 , Zwochau - April 8, 2016 , Bad Schwartau ^[1] ) - German ace pilot , fighter , participant in World War II . He made more than a thousand sorties, conducted 302 air battles, won 222 victories, 60 of them on the Western Front , 26 in North Africa and 136 on the Eastern Front .

Erich Rudorffer
Erich rudorffer
Date of Birth	November 1, 1917 ( 1917-11-01 )
Place of Birth	Zwochau , Kingdom of Saxony , German Empire
Date of death	April 8, 2016 ( 2016-04-08 ) (98 years old)
Place of death
Affiliation	Third Reich
Type of army	Luftwaffe
Years of service	1939-1945
Rank	major
Part	JG 2 , JG 54 , JG 7
Battles / wars
Awards and prizes

He began flying in 1936, in 1939 he began service in the Luftwaffe . He won the first victory on May 14, 1940, having shot down the French Hawk 75 fighter. He was wounded in October 1942, in mid-December he returned to his unit, transferred to Tunisia . February 9, 1943 shot down 8 aircraft in one flight, February 15 - 7. August 1, 1943 was appointed commander of the II group JG 54 , operating on the Leningrad Front. On November 6, he shot down 13 Yak-7 and Yak-9 fighters in one take-off, which is a Luftwaffe record. (The result is included in the Guinness Book of Records, but the death of such a number of aircraft on this sector of the front by the Soviet side is not confirmed. Comparing the magazines of the database of Soviet IAPs, even the death of so many cars for the whole day is not confirmed). October 28, 1944 won 11 victories in one day. In December 1944 he was transferred to JG 7 , which participated in the Reich Defense and was equipped with Me-262 fighter jets. On this plane won 12 victories. Among the planes shot down by Rudorffer during the war years, there are 10 four-engine bombers and 58 Il-2 attack aircraft . Was shot down 16 times.

After the war he worked as a civil aviation pilot.

He died on April 8, 2016 in Bad Schwartau at the age of 98.