Hans-Ulrich Rudel

Hans-Ulrich Rudel
Hans-Ulrich Rudel in 1945 (Adolf Galland in the background)
Nickname(s)	Eagle of the Eastern Front
Born	(1916-07-02)2 July 1916 Konradswaldau, German Empire
Died	18 December 1982(1982-12-18) (aged 66) Rosenheim, West Germany
Buried	Dornhausen
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Luftwaffe
Years of service	1936–1945
Rank	Oberst (colonel)
Unit	StG 3, StG 2
Commands held	SG 2
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds
Other work	Founder of relief organization for Nazi war criminals Neo-Nazi activist Election candidate from the extremist German Reich Party

Hans-Ulrich Rudel (2 July 1916 – 18 December 1982) was a German ground-attack pilot during World War II and a post-war neo-Nazi activist.

The most decorated German pilot of the war and the only recipient of the Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds, Rudel was credited with the destruction of 519 tanks, one battleship, one cruiser, 70 landing craft and 150 artillery emplacements. He claimed nine aerial victories and the destruction of more than 800 vehicles.^[1][2] He flew 2,530 ground-attack missions exclusively on the Eastern Front, usually flying the Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bomber. He was known as the "Eagle of the Eastern Front".^[3]

Rudel surrendered to US forces in 1945 and emigrated to Argentina. An unrepentant Nazi, he helped fugitives escape to Latin America and the Middle East, and sheltered Josef Mengele, the former SS doctor at Auschwitz. He worked as an arms dealer to several right-wing regimes in South America, for which he was placed under observation by the US Central Intelligence Agency.

In the West German federal election of 1953, Rudel was the top candidate for the far-right German Reich Party but was not elected. Following the fall of Perón, Rudel moved to Paraguay, where he acted as a foreign representative for several German companies.

In 1976, Rudel attended a conference in the United States with various members of the United States military and defense industry as part of the development of the A-10 Thunderbolt II; Rudel's status as a highly decorated attack aircraft pilot and particularly his experience at destroying Soviet tanks from the air was considered relevant to a potential conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.^[4]