Günther Rall

Günther Rall (born March 10, 1918, Gaggenau, Germany—died October 4, 2009, Bad Reichenhall) was a German World War II combat pilot, the third highest scoring fighter ace in history. He flew more than 600 combat missions, scored 275 victories (mostly against Soviet aircraft), and was shot down eight times. He was one of the founders of Germany’s postwar air force, serving as the Luftwaffe’s chief of air staff (1970–74) and military attaché to NATO (1974–75).

Rall’s birth coincided with the final year of World War I, and his father served on the Western Front with the German army’s signal corps. At school the young Rall excelled at sports and joined the Christian Boy Scouts, a precursor to Adolf Hitler’s Brownshirt youth organization. In 1936 Rall was accepted at the elite Infantry Regiment No. 13 and then was sent to the War Academy. He switched services in 1938 to begin pilot training with the Luftwaffe. He earned his wings in acrobatics, night flying, and instrument flying, graduating as a second lieutenant.

In 1939, a month before the start of World War II, Rall joined his first unit in Stuttgart, Germany, flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109; he would later move to the more-powerful Bf 109G. Rall was posted to Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52; English: 52nd Fighter Wing), which was to become one of the most famous wartime flying units in aviation history. Three of JG52’s legendary aces—Johannes Steinhoff, Friedrich Obleser, and Rall himself—served as commanders of the new German air force after the war.

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Rall, stationed in Trier, Germany, scored his first victory in 1940 when he shot down a French Curtiss P-36 Hawk, although the pilot managed to bail out. Posted to the Eastern Front after a stint in Romania, Rall participated in the Battle of Crete, Operation Barbarossa, Operation Typhoon, the Battle of Kursk, and many others before the Germans retreated from Russia. He suffered a broken back in a hard landing, and in 1943 he married Hertha Schön, the doctor who had treated him. The following year his left thumb was shot off during combat with a P-47 Thunderbolt. Rall’s final command was as wing commander of Jagdgeschwader 300. By the war’s end Rall had scored 275 victories, all but two on the Russian front, and had been awarded the Knight’s Cross with oak leaves and swords.

Rall was captured by the Americans in Bavaria and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in France. After being freed he returned to Germany and worked as a salesman. In 1954 Rall was invited by NATO to help establish a new air force in West Germany. He trained in the United States in the new F-84 jet aircraft before returning to Germany to train his own student pilots. In 1970 Rall was appointed chief of air staff of the new German air force, and in 1974 he was appointed NATO’s German military representative. Rall retired in 1975, but he continued to serve as a board member for a number of corporations and as a defense adviser to several foreign governments.