After completing training he was posted to the Fernaufklärungsgruppe 121 (Long-Range Reconnaissance Group) at Prenzlau. He was promoted to Leutnant (Second Lieutenant) on that date. Rudel had difficulty learning the new techniques and was considered unsuitable for combat flying, so on 1 January 1939, he was transferred to the Reconnaissance Flying School at Hildesheim for training in operational reconnaissance. In June 1938 he joined I./Sturzkampfgeschwader 168 in Graz as an officer senior cadet. In August 1936, after his Abitur (University-preparatory high school diploma), he joined the Luftwaffe as an officer cadet, and began basic training at the 'School of Air Warfare' at Wildpark-Werder. As a boy he was a poor scholar but a very keen sportsman. The son of Lutheran minister Johannes, was raised in a number of different Silesian parishes. Today it is Grzędy in the administrative district of Gmina Czarny Bór, within Wałbrzych County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Rudel was born on 2 July 1916 in Konradswaldau, Silesia, a province in the Kingdom of Prussia. 1.2.2 References in the Wehrmachtbericht.Rudel flew 2,530 combat missions claiming a total of 2,000 targets destroyed including 800 vehicles, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, 70 landing craft, nine aircraft, 4 armored trains, several bridges, a destroyer, two cruisers, and the Soviet battleship Marat.

The most highly decorated German serviceman of the war, Rudel was one of only 27 military men to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, and the only person to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds ( Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit goldenem Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten), Germany's highest military decoration at the time. Hans-Ulrich Rudel (2 July 1916 – 18 December 1982) was a Stuka dive-bomber pilot during World War II. Writer, Businessman, member of the German Reich Party Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Gold Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds

Hans rudel stuka