"Toni" Hackl belongs to the most successful pilots of JG 77. On May 27, 1942 he was awarded with the Knight's Cross for forty-eight victories. During the Battle of Sevastopol in June 1942, Hackl emerged as the most successful German fighter pilot. On the Soviet side, the ace Kapitan Mikhail Avdeyev of 6 GIAP/VVS-ChF dedicated the following lines to Hackl in his post-war memoirs: "[He] appeared every day, always with his back protected by other fighters. Usually, he picked his victims carefully, and only rarely were his attacks without success. More than once, I tried to pursue [him], but this proved to be a most difficult undertaking. It was clear that [he] was an outstanding pilot. He deprived us of our sleep and never left us in peace. It was as if he jeered at us. A hundred times I examined my mind to find out different ways of attacking him--from above, from below, from the clouds or from the sun. But these fine theories always were shattered by the realities. [He] wasn't someone whom you could lure into a trap, or who could be made to lose his nerves through a frontal attack. He was a worthy opponent, and he definitely gave us a lot of headache." In the summer and early fall of 1942, II./JG 77-where Hackl headed 5. Staffel-stood alone against the Soviet 2 VA in the Voronezh sector. Here, Hackl increased his tally from 63 to 118 victories between July 2 and September 19, 1942. His last victory in this sector was attained against a LaGG-3 on September 19, 1942.