BREAKING: Executives at OpenAI & Anthropic are privately preparing for a potential catastrophic AI incident that could trigger a massive public backlash. โ Axios
Erich Hartmann is the highest scoring fighter ace in the history of air warfare. He was credited with 352 kills, almost all of them on the Eastern Front, and he was only 23 when the war ended.
He was forced to crash land more than a dozen times. In 1943 he was captured by Soviet troops after going down behind their lines. He faked an injury, waited for his moment, jumped off the truck, and made it back to German lines.
He used to say his proudest achievement wasn't his score. It was that he claimed he never lost a wingman.
In May 1945 he surrendered to the Americans, who handed him over to the Soviets. He spent the next ten years in Soviet prison camps. He refused to cooperate, refused to inform on others, and was repeatedly told he would never go home.
He was finally released in 1955. His son, born while he was away, had died. Hartmann went on to serve in the West German air force and died in 1993.