Following the withdrawal of German units from North Africa, Erich Rudorffer was transferred to JG 54 on the Eastern Front and promoted to Gruppenkommandeur of II/JG 54.

Entering combat that June, he was know to have filed multiple claims, scoring eight VVS aircraft in two separate missions on 24 August, another five fell before his guns on 14 September, followed by seven more claims in one mission on 11 October. Then on 6 November he bagged a staggering forthteen enemy aircraft.

However during the following four winter months of 1943-44 Hptm. Rudoffer was not able to add more than four victories, one of them, a Yak-7 was filed as his 124 victory on this day, 11 February 1944, a Yak-7 shot down northwest of Tarassowka.

In fact not was not util the spring of 1944 that he scoring took off once more, by adding another six confirmed victories on 7 April 1944 four Il-2s and two Yak-9s, thereby reaching 133 kills. And on 24 August he manage to reach a total of 150 abshusse and three months later, on 28 October he scored his 200th.

Major Erich Rudorrfer would end the war flying in JG 7 equipped with the Me 262. On February 1945, he took command I. Gruppe JG 7. Here Rudorffer amassed another 12 victories while flying the Turbinjäger, to bring his total to 222 victories in 1000 combat missions. His tally included 136 on the Eastern Front, 26 in North Africa and 60 on the Western Front including ten 4-engined bombers. He was also lucky to survive being shot down a total of 16 times.

After the war, Rudorffer moved to Australia and started flying commercial flights. Later, he worked for Pan Am and then for the German civil aviation authority. When he died on 8 April 2016, at the age of 98, he was the last of the Swords recipients to pass away.

Note that this aircraft had a hybrid camouflage scheme of possibly the new colors RLM 81 and 82 applied by the unit over the factory-applied RLM 74/75/76.

Its interesting to note that I. and II./JG 54 of the "Grünherz" Geschwader would continue to use the A-6 version at least six month later, although the later Fw 190 A-8 was available, the pilots in those two Gruppen still preferred this subtype, which had the same cannon armament as the A-8, but did not carry the heavier fuselage mounted 13 mm MG 131 machine guns. This allowed them to maintain their edge in maneuverability over the Soviet opposition in air combat.

Please also note that this is not the same aircraft that Rudorffer took over from Hptm. Horst Adameit I./JG 54 and used by him during the Soviet offensive towards Finland, as a part of Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey the German support of their brothers in arms.

Please note that this profile is one of nine made by me during the week. It would be included in my upcoming Luftwaffe Fighter Aircraft book, Profile Book No 18.