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Colonel
General Ernst Udet (April 1896 – November 1941) was the second-highest scoring
German flying ace of World War I. He was one of the youngest aces and was the
highest scoring German ace to survive the war (at the age of 22). His 62 victories
were second only to Manfred von Richthofen, his commander in the "Flying
Circus".
 From
motorcycling to flying
Ernst Udet was fascinated with aviation from early childhood. He wanted to join the
army in 1914, but was only 160 cm tall and did not qualify. In August, when the
Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club appealed for volunteers with motorcycles, Udet
applied and was accepted. Udet's father had given him his motorcycle when Ernst
passed his first year examination. Along with four friends, Udet was posted to the
26 Württembergischen Reserve division as a "messenger rider". After injuring his
shoulder when his motorcycle hit a shell hole, Udet went to a military hospital,
and his bike went for repair. When he tried to track down the 26th division, he was
unable to locate it and decided to serve in the vehicle depot in Namur. During this
time, Udet met officers from the Chauny flying sector who advised him to be
transferred as an aerial observer. However, before he received his orders for
Chauny, the army dispensed with the volunteer motorcyclists, and he was sent back
to recruiting officials.
Udet tried in vain to return to the fighting, but was unable to get into pilot or
aircraft mechanic training offered by the army. He soon learned that if he were a
trained pilot, he would be immediately accepted into the air force. Through a
family friend, Gustav Otto, owner of an aircraft factory, Udet received private
flight training. The training cost 2,000 marks and new bathroom equipment from his
father's firm. Udet obtained his civilian pilot's license at the end of April 1915
and joined the German Army Air Service.
Military
life
Oiginally Udet flew in Flieger-Abteilung 206, an
observation unit, as an enlisted pilot with observer Lieutenant Justinius. He
and his observer won the Iron Cross 2nd class for nursing their Aviatik B
two-seater back to German lines after a shackle on a wing-cable snapped.
Justinius had climbed out to hold the wing and balance it rather than land and
accept capture. As a result of the structural failure of the Aviatik that
caused Udet and Justinius to go down and that cost Leutnant Winter and
Viezefeldwebel Preiss their lives in a similar incident, the Aviatik B was put
out of duty. Later, Udet was court-martialed for losing his aircraft in an
incident the flying corps considered bad judgement. The aircraft, overloaded
with fuel and bombs, stalled after a sharp bank, plunging the two men into the
ground. Miraculously, they both survived. Udet was placed under arrest in the
guardhouse for seven days.
On his way out of the guardhouse, he was asked to fly a Lieutenant Hartmann to
observe a bombing raid on Belfort. A bomb thrown by hand by the lieutenant became
stuck in the landing gear. Udet performed some aerobatics to shake it loose. As
soon as the Air Staff Officer heard about it, he was transferred to fighter
command. That was in 1916.
Fighter
pilot
Ernst Udet was given a new Fokker to fly to his unit at Habsheim. Mechanically
defective, it crashed into a hangar on takeoff. An older Fokker was then sent to
Udet. At Habsheim, his first aerial combat was a near disaster. Lining up on a
French Caudron, he found he could not force himself pull the trigger and was
strafed by the Frenchman. A bullet grazed his cheek and smashed his goggles. From
then on, he learned to attack aggressively and made a number of kills, downing his
first French opponent in March. Later that year, he joined Jasta 15, claiming five
more victims before transferring to Jasta 37 in June 1917.
It was during his service with Jasta 15 that Udet wrote he had encountered Georges
Guynemer, the French ace, in single combat at 5000 metres. Guynemer preferred to
hunt alone. Udet saw him coming and the two circled each other looking for an
opening. They were close enough for Udet to read the "Vieux" of "Vieux Charles" on
Guynemer's Spad. For an instant, Udet had him in his sights, but the gun jammed.
While pretending to dogfight, he tried to unjam it. Guynemer saw his predicament,
waved and flew away. Udet wrote of the fight, "For seconds, I forgot that the man
across from me was Guynemer, my enemy. It seems as though I were sparring with an
older comrade over our own airfield."
Eventually, all the pilots of Jasta 15 were killed except Udet and his commander,
Gontermann. Gontermann became somewhat gloomy, and remarked to Udet, "the bullets
fall from the hand of God ... Sooner or later they will hit us."
Udet applied for a transfer to Jasta 37. Gontermann fell three months later, by
accident, when the wing of his aircraft came off. He lingered for 24 hours without
awakening, and Udet later remarked, "It was a good death."
By late November, Udet was a triple ace and Jastaführer. He modeled his attacks
after those of Guynemer, coming in high out of the sun to pick off the rear
aircraft in a squadron before the others knew what was happening. His commander in
Jasta 37, Kurt Grasshoff, witnessing one of these attacks, selected him for command
over more senior men when Grasshoff was transferred.
In the Flying
Circus
Udet's success attracted attention for his skill, earning him an invitation to join
the Flying Circus, Jagdgeschwader 1, an elite unit of German fighter aces under the
command of the Red Baron Manfred von Richthofen and later Hermann Göring.
Richthofen drove up one day as Udet was trying to pitch a tent in Flanders in the
rain. Pointing out that Udet had 20 kills, Richthofen said, "Then you would
actually seem ripe for us. Would you like to?"
Of course Udet would. After watching him down an artillery spotter by frontal
attack, Richthofen gave Udet command of Jasta 11, his own Jasta. The group
commanded by Richthofen also contained Jastas 4, 6 and 10.
Udet's enthusiasm for Richthofen was unbounded. In contrast, he had little good to
say about Göring. Richthofen demanded total loyalty and total dedication from his
pilots, cashiering immediately anyone who did not give it. At the same time he
treated them with every consideration. When it came time to requisition supplies,
he traded favours for autographed photos of himself that read: "Dedicated to my
esteemed fighting companion". Udet remarked that because of the signed photographs,
"...sausage and ham never ran out."
One night they invited a captured English flier for dinner, treating him as a
guest. When he excused himself for the 'W.C.' the Germans fell over themselves
trying to hide from him that they were watching to see if he would try to escape.
On his return the Englishman said, "I would never forgive myself for disappointing
such hosts." However, the English flier did escape later from another unit.
Udet considered Richthofen as scientific in battle and cold in his combats,
describing his blue eyes and the sun shining off his blonde hair. Richthofen liked
to strafe enemy columns in squadron formation, both guns firing, killing large
numbers. He was the first to invent the forward base. While the enemy could mount
three missions a day, Richthofen could mount five. In dogfights the head-on attack
found favour.
Richthofen fell in April 1918, and Udet was not at the front. He had been sent on
leave due to a painful ear infection, which he avoided having treated as long as he
could. While at home he reacquainted himself with his childhood sweetheart, Eleanor
"Lo" Zink. Notified that he had received the Pour le Mérite, he had one made up in
advance so that he could impress her. He painted her name on the side of his
Albatros fighters and Fokker D VII. Also on the tail of his Fokker D VII was the
message "Du doch nicht" - "Definitely not you".
Of Richthofen, Udet said, "He was the least complicated man I ever knew. Entirely
Prussian and the greatest of soldiers." Udet returned to JG.I against the doctor's
advice and remained there to the end of the war, commanding Jasta 4. He scored 20
victories in August alone, mainly against the British. Udet would become a national
hero with 62 confirmed kills to his credit. Privately, he would question Göring's
own achievements during the war.
Udet was one of the early fliers to be saved by parachuting from a disabled
aircraft. On June 29, 1918 he jumped after a clash with a French Breguet. His
harness caught on the rudder and he had to break off the rudder tip to escape. His
parachute didn't open until he was 250 feet from the ground, causing him to sprain
his ankle.
Between the
wars
Between the First and Second World Wars, Udet was known
primarily for his work as a stunt pilot and for playboy-like behavior. He flew
for movies and for airshows (e.g. picking the cloth from the ground with the
top of the wing). He appeared with Leni Riefenstahl in three films: Die weiße
Hölle vom Piz Palü (1929), Stürme über dem Montblanc (1930), and S.O.S.
Eisberg (1933) . Udet's stunt pilot work in films took him to California. In
the October 1933 issue of New Movie Magazine there is a photo of Carl Laemmle
Jr.'s party for Udet in Hollywood. Laemmle was head of Universal Studios which
made SOS Eisberg as a US-German co-production.
He married 'Lo' on February 25, 1920; however, the marriage lasted less than three
years. They divorced on February 16, 1923. It has been said that Udet had many
lovers on the side. His talents were numerous - juggling, drawing cartoons, party
entertainment, etc.
The adventure of Udet's life continued without pause after the war. On his way
home, he had to defend himself against a Communist who wished to rip the medals off
his chest. Udet and Ritter von Greim performed mock dogfights on weekends for the
POW Relief Organization, using surplus aircraft in Bavaria. He was invited to start
the first International Air Service between Germany and Austria, but after the
first flight the Entente Commission confiscated his aircraft.
These efforts were good publicity for Udet. An American, William Pohl of Milwaukee,
telephoned him with an offer to back an aircraft manufacturing company. Udet
Flugzeug was born in a shed in Milbertshofen. Its intent was to build small
aircraft that the general public could fly. It soon ran into trouble with the
Entente Commission and transferred its operations to a beehive and chicken coop
factory.
The first aeroplane that Udet's company produced was the U2. Udet took the second
model, the U4, to the Wilbur Cup race in Buenos Aires at the expense of Aero Club
Aleman. It was outclassed and the club wanted him to do cigarette commercials to
reimburse them for the expense, but he refused. He was rescued by the Chief of the
Argentinian Railways, a man of Swedish descent named Tornquist, who picked up the
tab.
In 1924 Udet left Udet Flugzeug when they decided to build a four-engine aircraft,
which was larger and not for the general population. He and another friend from the
war, Angermund, started an exhibition flying enterprise in Germany, which was also
successful, but Udet remarked, "In time this too begins to get tiresome. ... We
stand in the present, fighting for a living. It isn't always easy. ... But the
thoughts wander back to the times when it was worthwhile to fight for your
life."
Udet's war time friends were in seemingly inexhaustible supply. He and another,
Suchocky, became pilots to an African filming expedition. The cameraman was another
veteran, Schneeberger, whom Udet called "Flea", and the guide was Siedentopf, a
former East African estate owner.
Udet described one incident in Africa in which lions jumped up to claw at the
low-flying aircraft, one of them removing a strip of Suchocky's wing surface. Udet
and his crew also ventured across the Figtree Hotel, built by Lord Lovelace, and
went hunting with an American named Sullivan.
Building the
Luftwaffe
Though not interested in politics, Udet joined the Nazi party in 1933 when Göring
promised to buy him two new US aeroplanes, the Curtiss Export Hawk II. The planes
were used for evaluation purposes and thus indirectly influenced the German idea of
dive bombing aeroplanes, such as the Junkers Ju 87 (Stuka) bombers. They were also
used for aerobatic shows held during the 1936 Summer Olympics. Udet piloted one of
them, which luckily survived the war and is now on display in the Polish Aviation
Museum (pictured).
Udet became a major proponent of the dive bomber, taking credit for having
introduced it to the Luftwaffe, which was already interested in such designs. By
1936 he had, due to his political connections, been placed in command of the T-Amt,
the Reich Air Ministry's development wing. However, he had no real interest in this
job, especially the bureaucracy of it, and the pressure led to his addiction to
alcohol (brandy and cognac).
In January 1939, Udet visited Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana,
or ASI). He accompanied Italian Marshal Italo Balbo on a flight. In early 1939,
there were distinct signs of German military and diplomatic co-operation with the
Italians.
When the Second World War began, his internal conflicts grew more intense. Aircraft
production requirements were much more than the German industry could supply, given
limited access to raw materials such as aluminium. Göring responded to this problem
by simply lying about it, which further upset Udet. After the Luftwaffe's defeat in
the Battle of Britain, Göring tried to deflect Hitler's ire by blaming it on Udet.
Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union drove Udet further into despair.
Suicide
On November 17, 1941 Udet committed suicide, shooting himself in the head while
speaking on the phone to his girlfriend. Evidence indicates his unhappy
relationship with Göring, Erhard Milch and the Nazi Party in general was the cause
of his mental breakdown.
According to Udet's biography, The Fall of an Eagle, he wrote a suicide note in red
pencil which included: "Ingelein, why have you left me?" and "Iron One, you are
responsible for my death". With "Ingelein" referring to his girlfriend, Inge
Bleyle, and "Iron One" to Göring. The book The Luftwaffe War Diaries states
something similar, that Udet wrote "Reichsmarschall, why have you deserted me?" in
red on the headboard of his bed.
Udet's suicide was concealed from the public and at his funeral he was lauded as a
hero who had died in flight while testing a new weapon. (On his way to attend
Udet's funeral the World War II fighter ace Werner Mölders would die in a plane
crash.) Udet was buried in the Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery, which is located in
Berlin.
Source : Some of the information on this
page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Ernst Udet -
Reflector - Biography
