Erich Hartmann is the undisputed world's greatest
fighter ace at 352
kills. He was dubbed the "
Black Devil of the Ukraine" by Russian
fighter pilots, a name earned by way of the unique black markings on the
nose of his
Luftwaffe Bf-109, and his uncanny ability to shoot down lots and lots o' planes.
Yet it wasn't that he was such a great shot--in fact he wasn't the best shot in the world--it's just that he was one of the few pilots crazy enough to fly incredibly close to his targets. It is said that once he flew in such close
proximity to his target that he downed it with a single
cannon shot; often, the explosion from the
downed aircraft resulted in his plane getting damaged by flying so close to the
enemy aircraft, that he lost a number of planes for this reason alone.
After the war, he was captured by the
British and was imprisoned for over a decade in a
Soviet concentration camp for war prisoners and political
dissidents. After 10 1/2 years of imprisonment he was commissioned in the West German Airforce and served until the early 1970's.