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Udet, Ernst (1896–1941) Famous fighter pilot and Director-General of Equipment for the Luftwaffe, Ernst Udet was born in Frankfurt am Main on 26 April 1896. One of Germany's leading aces during World War I, credited with shooting down sixty-two enemy planes, Udet was awarded the Pour le Mérite decoration and later achieved further renown as a stunt flier, with flights over Africa, America, Greenland and the Swiss Alps. Appointed Brigadier in 1935, Udet was made Chief of the Technical Office in the Reich Air Ministry a year later. In 1939 he was promoted to Inspector-General of the Luftwaffe and was made responsible for Air Force Procurement. A talented designer, Udet favoured speed and manoeuvrability in aircraft as a result of his own experience as a fighter pilot, but lacked expertise in the field of long-range bombing and transport problems. Udet concentrated on developing single-engined fighters such as the Messerschmitt-109 (which he had personally flown in 1937), the dive-bomber Junkers 87, and light and medium bombers which corresponded to his own inclinations and the concept of the Luftwaffe as primarily a tactical force. The failure of the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain to inflict a decisive defeat on the Royal Air Force undermined Udet's standing with Hitler and Goering (q.v.). The flight of Rudolf Hess (q.v.) to Britain in May 1941 – Hess had originally turned to him to get the chance to fly his own plane – and Udet's confident assertion that he would never reach his destination, further lowered the Führer's opinion of his competence. An easy-going cosmopolitan by outlook and taste, uninterested in power intrigues, Udet became increasingly depressed by his capricious treatment at Goering's hands and the latter's blindness to reality. Following the failures of the Luftwaffe on the eastern front and a major quarrel with Goering, Udet committed suicide on 17 November 1941. The Nazi regime covered up the affair, attributing his death to an accident which had occurred while he was testing a new air weapon.