There were more Stuka aces than just Hans-Ulrich Rudel. Rudel’s well-deserved and warrior qualities somehow eclipsed the limelight from others, among them was Dr. Ernst Kupfer. Furthermore, in Kupfer we found both an outstanding warrior (636 combat missions!) and a pretty fine officer. Sadly, he didn’t live to see the end of the war; he die in a routine plane crash in late 1943.
The gaunt looking Kupfer gazes defiantly at the camera wearing his Knight Cross, neat LKp W 101 flight helmet and sporty Nitsche und Günther Splitterschutzbrille googles. This portrait looks like one of the many produced by Wolfgang Willrich. That face…..
Aviation Rapture 