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After Stalingrad, after getting new airplanes we went to the battle of Kursk. You know in the meantime, I had some belly landings that were not that important. We got the order to go to battle. It was a big pocket battle of Kursk, south of Orel. This was a very, very decisive battle. The Russians knew that and just by incident they put a tank division in the area. The Germans wanted to close from the north and south to hold their pocket. The Russians broke in and also the Germans had to divert troops and they couldn't do that. It was a very serious fight between tanks and certainly a big engagement of German fighters.

There two things happened I'll never forget. I was hit by a Russian fighter against cooler and I had to make a belly landing. When I made the belly landing it was between the lines. And everybody was shooting at me. Ping, ping, ping. And then a German tank came. I'll never forget that. It was a tank from the SS division. It was in the south. They picked me up and took me in the tank. It was for me a lucky time.