Try:
The Blond Knight of Germany
The Eric Hartman story. He shot down 352 Allied aircraft.
I second that recommendation, good book.
A quick story about Hartman, told to me by a buddy's dad, John Sr., who was RAF and there at the time-
During the development of the Harrier, the Tripartite evaluation squadron was formed, comprised of British, American, and West German personnel (the expected users of the service aircraft). Amongst many, Erich Hartman and my buddy's dad were two of the pilots involved, flying the P1127.
For one early flight, they were briefed to make a vertical takeoff, take the plane around the pattern, then come back, transition to the hover and make a vertical landing.
Being a British plane, the RAF had first go. Their pilot wobbled into the air, made a wobbly circuit, and a rather wobbly vertical descent to landing.
The American pilot got in, made an only slightly wobbly takeoff, a very nice circuit, and a nice transition to vertical flight, with only some wobble.
Hartman then had his turn. His takeoff and hover was perfect, his circuit was perfect, his transition back into the hover was perfect. But as he started to descend, he began to wobble, and it got worse and worse until he smacked the aircraft into the ground and collapsed the undercarriage.
As everyone was running out to the crashed aircraft, Hartman climbed out and began stomping back towards the hangar, obviously fuming. As he passed everyone going in the opposite direction, he said loudly, in his thick German accent, "Three hundred and fifty three!" and kept going.....
Gerhard Barkhorn was another of the German pilots involved, and I have since read a very similar account of such an event attributed to him (which I suppose would go something like "Three hundred and two!"). So, like all stories from history, someone probably mixed something up somewhere. It is possible that the rather elderly, but spry, gentleman who told me his first-hand account mixed up the two pilots, or someone else did. Still a lovely story.
Another amusing John Sr story, this one witnessed by me. John Sr was visiting in the US, and John Jr and I took him to an airshow. An F-8F Bearcat was performing his flying routine, and John Sr commented on how he had flown those while instructing, I believe he said, the Thai air force, and that the pilot was very good. Afterwards, he said he'd really like to get a close up look at a Bearcat again. I went over to the security folks, explained that John had flown Bearcats, and would they allow him to get out to the ramp and look at it. They readily agreed, and we escorted him out as the Bearcat taxied in to it's spot. Once stopped, and shut down, the pilot leaned out of the cockpit and said "Hello John, you've gotten old!" to which John replied "Indeed, Howard. So have you".
Cheers
Brother Ahab you earned this one!
