The Blond Knight of Germany

the long version

An excellent book about Erich Hartmann, the WWII German fighter Ace whose kills were all on the Eastern Front (from November 1942 thru end of the war). He had 352 confirmed aerial victories (the most of all time), and the appendix lists the date/time/location/enemy craft of each. An amazing read, with details of events of his life and exiting battle descriptions. It states that his method was to close in to basically point blank range (and he learned to get out of the way when his first kill's shrapnel brought down his own plane!). A very distressing section details the end of the war, when he refused to 'escape' in a plane to the west, and instead went with his men and civilians in a convoy, and got picked up by an American tank group that was too far East. The Americans turned them over to the Russians and the resulting horrific events were pretty stomach turning. He then spent over 10 years in a Russian gulag, eventually being released. It's an amazing story, and the book has many photos as well as sketches of the types of planes described.