I had thought that Rudel had converted over to a Dora9 in early '45?

Haven't read "Stuka Pilot" for a while, I'll have to dig it out and have
a look.

He, and his Ju 87 unit, as well as an FW 190 A support unit, surrendered to US
forces. Do a google on Stuka Girl for a fascinating sidelight to Rudel's final
combat sortie. He purposely landed his faithful Stuka at an angle, sheering
the landing gear and wrecking the aircraft. In an accompanying Ju 87, a young
woman was flown out by an enterprising boyfriend-pilot. In one of the FW 190s,
a small Luftwaffe technician slithered out of the cramped radio compartment of
the fighter-bomber, after it had been landed as gingerly as possible to avoid a
noseover of other type of crash. It was at a wars-end ceremony for the US
405th "Thundermonsters" at their newly won German airbase. Rudel quite
literally crashed the party with his surrender 'delegation'.

Rudel flew several late war aircraft types but his Geschwader's primary mission
was battlefield support and for this purpose, he generally chose the Ju 87.
Beats the crap out of me why. He integrated FW 190 A and F fighter-bombers
into his CAS wing but stated that there was no more stable gun platform for
destroying armor than his trusted Stuka.

BTW, he was one of the few ardent Hitler supporters, in fact, his support
appeared to linger after the war. His guest appearance at a postwar GAF
airbase caused such a stir that his old comrade in arms, Walter Krupinski, lost
his job as its commander. Rudel is one of the nasty ones - one of the real
"true believers" who no doubt got some sort of satisfaction out of wielding a
precision instrument of destruction.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR Aircrew

"Got anything on your radar, SENSO?"
"Nothing but my forehead, sir."