The toughest individual WW2

[Lortto]

Definitely Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat. The guy spent 225 days on patrol with his U-196 from 13th of March 1943 to 23rd October 1943. That takes guts & libido control.


http://www.uboat.net/men/kentrat.htm

 

[Ebusitanus]

I agree about Rudel the Stuka pilot, now thats a real though guy. He also landed several times behind enemy lines as to pick up shot down wingmen. In one of these landings his plane got stuck into some mud and him, his gunner and the crew of the other Stuka escaped the Russian patrols only to swim across the Dniepr to see his faithful crewman drown in the process. Once he reached with the other guys the opposite riverside his two collegues were caught by a Russian patrol while he manged to flee barefoot and half naked. For days he went walking at night till one day he found some Romanian troops who brought him back to his disparied squadron.
In 1945 He got his right leg shot off by an AA shell only to see him get again on his trusty stuka a couple of week later with a still completely unhealed stump on a wooden leg only to destroy another 30 Russian tanks before the end of the war.

And he did not even drink alcohol..only a glass of milk before flying and then when back on his airfield instead of breaking down in exhaustion from his long flights he just went on to do sports.
This guy went to Argentina after the war and with his wooden leg climbed its highest mountain on the Andes. He kept on trekking, climbing and skiing till his death.
A convinced Nazi he never got any recognition from the Bundeswehr after the war like other more "agreeable" Aces like Hartmann or Graf did.
On his funeral in south Germany two Luftwaffe pilots against any orders or rules went on themselves as to make a fly over the ceremony in sign of respect to this great warrior. Needless to say, both pilots were thrown out of the Army.

They really should make a movie about this man someday.

 

[String]

agreed, Rudel was one toughasssob
and a lucky one too..

 

[Montemurro]

Originally posted by Halibutt
Horthy became an admiral before WWI.
Cheers

I know I'm a bit late, but I would just like to point out that Horthy was a captain until the 1st of March 1918, when he was appointed rear admiral and fleet commander.

 

[L G]

Guy Sajer was a great soldier......great book too, one of my all time favorites.

 

[Keynes]

Churchill

 

[L G]

ahem...:wacko:

 

[unmerged(19835)]

Churchill? Tough?

I guess it's really easy to be tough when your a couple thousand miles away from the jungles of Burma or the deserts of North Africa and a healthy distance away from the beaches of Normandy.

My vote is for Rudel. I read somewhere that Stalin put a price of like 10,000 rubels (sp?) on his head.

 

[unmerged(17346)]

I'll toss my vote in for Rudel as well.

 

[unmerged(11486)]

Rubels for Rudel. You mean rubles.

I think that this guy was obviously quite tough, but it is also impossible to say who was the single toughest guy in a war, especially because of their accomplishments. What if a pilot of a Brewster Buffalo in the Dutch Air Force was the toughest, but he got killed quickly because of his crappy plane? Or what about an American merhcnat sailor, killed by a German U-Boat? All kinds of things can determine toughness, not just accomplishments, albeit they are hard to measure.

Steele