Günther Rall

From The Air Combat Wiki

The third most successful fighter ace in history.

Günther Rall was born on 10 March 1918 in Gaggenau, Germany, as a son of a merchant. He joined the Army and became a cadet in 1936. He then entered the War College in Dresden, where he was influenced to join the Luftwaffe. He qualified as a pilot in 1938 and was posted to JG 52, with the rank of Leutnant.

Rall first saw combat during the Battle of France, and on 18 May 1940, he scored his first victory, a Curtiss Hawk fighter. Later JG 52 was moved to Calais where it took part in the Battle of Britain. Because of heavy losses in the unit, he was given command as a Staffelkapitän of 8./JG 52 on 25 July, and was promoted to Oberleutnant on 1 August. He fought with JG 52 over Britain until the unit was withdrawn to replace losses.

Rall then took part in the Balkans Campaign in the spring of 1941. He also took part in Operation Merkur, the airborne invasion of Crete in May 1941. After the successful conclusion of Merkur, JG 52 was transferred back to Romania to help defend the oil fields there from Soviet bombers. With Operation Barbarossa, Rall found repeated opportunity for combat, scoring his second, third, and fourth victories in three days of June 1941. During a 5 day period, Rall and his Staffel destroyed some 50 Soviet aircraft. He hit his stride in October, with 12 victories.

JG 52 was then attached to the operations of Heeresgruppe Süd and continued operating on the southern flank of the Eastern Front. On 28 November 1941, Rall scored his 36th victory, but on the same day his engine was hit and seized up. He crash landed behind German lines and broke his back in three places. His injuries were such that he had to spend nine months recuperating before he could rejoin his unit in August 1942, in which month he downed 26 Soviet aircraft. In the following month he was awarded the Knight's Cross.

From August to November Rall claimed another 38 enemies, bringing his total to 101 victories. On 26 November 1942, he was given the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross by Adolf Hitler personally. In April 1943, he was promoted to Hauptmann and was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 52 on 6 July. On 7 August, he logged his 150th victory, with his 200th coming near the end of September, for which he was awarded the Swords. In October 1943, Rall had his best month, downing 40 aircraft. A month later, he became the second pilot (after Walter Nowotny) to achieve 250 kills. During 1943, Rall was credited with 151 airplanes, a figure exceeded only by Nowotny (196) and Hermann Graf (160).

On 19 April 1944, Rall was transferred to JG 11, were he took up position as Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 11. JG 11 was tasked with Reichsverteidigung (Home Defence) and Rall led his unit against the bomber fleets of 8th Air Force. On 1 May 1944, Rall was promoted to Major, a rank he retained until the end of the war. On 12 May, he was wounded again after having fought four P-47 Thunderbolts and shooting down two. He had a thumb shot off and was hospitalized for many months because of the onset of infections. He returned to active duty in November.

His last posting was with JG 300, operating from a variety of airfields in southern Germany during the last months of the war. It is unlikely that he saw much combat action during this period. He was taken prisoner by American forces after the fighting in Germany ended.

During the war he achieved a total of 275 victories: 272 on the Eastern Front, of which 241 were against Soviet fighters. He flew a total of 621 combat missions, was shot down 8 times and was wounded 3 times.

Günther Rall settled in West Germany after the war and continued his career in the Luftwaffe der Bundeswehr after the re-militarization of West Germany in 1955. From 1 January 1971 to 31 March 1973, he held the position of Inspekteur der Luftwaffe der Bundeswehr and from 1 April 1974 to 13 October 1975, he was a military attache with NATO. At the end of his career he had attained the rank of Generalleutnant.