The son of a farmer, Otto Kittel didn’t conform to most people’s opinion of a successful Luftwaffe fighter ace, being more reserved and modest than brash and boastful, going about his duties in a ruthlessly effective manner. Initially posted as wingman to a more experienced pilot, Kittel eventually took part in the opening exchanges of Operation Barbarossa with his unit JG54, where it became one of the most successful on the Eastern Front. Otto Kittel was credited with 267 aerial victories during the Second World War, with his final victory being his 94th against an Il-2 Sturmovik attack aircraft on 16th February 1945, his 583rd combat sortie of the war.
Unfortunately, moments after dispatching his latest victim, the hunter became the hunted, as another Sturmovik attacked Kittel’s Focke Wulf from below, scoring hits on the German fighter which almost immediately crashed into a forest below. The unassuming and well-liked Otto Kittel stands as the fourth most successful air ace of all time, achieved in less than four years of operational flying over the Eastern Front. He was also the most successful Focke Wulf FW190 ace, and, with 94 victories against the excellent Il-2 Sturmovik, the most successful ‘Sturmovik Hunter’. Scoring all his victories over the Eastern Front, Kittel was the most successful fighter ace to be lost during combat.