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As the days lengthened with the coming of spring, and clear blue skies beckoned, an eager young flyer wrestled with the difficult task of surviving his first hectic missions as a novice fighter pilot. North of the Caucasus Mountains, the landscape was unfamiliar to the raw recruit, and in the maelstrom of the dog-fight it was easy for an inexperienced pilot to become quickly and hopelessly lost. Below, a hostile territory waited to claim anybody breaking the rules of combat.
Like most novice fighter pilots, this fresh-faced, blondheaded lad needed some luck and, not without some effort and determination on his part, he got it. During his first combat he became totally disorientated, ran out of fuel but, largely due to his piloting skill, survived the inevitable crash-landing. Then, a few days later having just achieved his first aerial victory, he was immediately shot down again crash-landing and escaping his burning aircraft moments before it blew up. It was an initiation that would
have demoralised most aspiring fighter pilots, but not this man. This man was made of sterner stuff. This man would go on to become the highest-scoring fighter Ace in history. This man was Erich Hartmann.
Robert Taylor’s superb picture depicts Erich Hartmann in his Me109G4 in the spring of 1943. In a dramatic and moving scene during the Kuban battle in Southern Russia, Russian Stormoviks have made a determined attack on a Panzer division. Luftwaffe Mel09s from JG-52 have beaten off the attack, and the German tanks are on the move again. In the foreground the crew of a Russian Stormovik evacuate their stricken aircraft, while overhead a jubilant Erich Hartmann and friends make a low pass to celebrate their victory.
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