Some of you seem to enjoy my stories. I hope they aren't burdensome.
Barkhorn storytime:
>Once I had a forty-minute battle in 1943 with a hot Russian pilot. Sweat was pouring off me, and I wondered if he was in the same condition. We both pulled every aerobatic maneuver we knew, and we may have invented some new ones as we went. I couldn't nail him, nor could he get me. He belonged to one of the Guards Regiments, in which the Russians concentrated their best pilots, and his aircraft had its whole nose painted red. We knew the names of some of the Russian aces, the Stalin Hawks, but I have no idea who this pilot was who fought me to a draw.
Hartmann, on a similar subject:
>It should be said that the Soviets knew who we were by name. We knew a lot of their pilots, too. I knew of Kozhedub, Pokryshkin, Morosov, Litvyak, and the like. I think Barkhorn and I were in the fight near Kursk where Litvyak was killed. The date seems correct, as does the location.
(Note: Erich is referring to the battle of Kursk. Hartmann and Barkhorn covered Rudel during the Kursk engagement, and Litvyak (Sanya) fought nearby. But there's no indication that JG-52 ever fought in the same location as Litvyak. She was shot down during the battle.)
