Horst Rudat

Who was Horst Rudat?

Horst Rudat was a German World War II Luftwaffe bomber pilot. After the war he joined the Bundeswehr and attained the rank of Generalmajor.

In the weeks following Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France, Hauptmann Rudat was tasked with the leadership of a task force in 2./Kampfgeschwader 101. The task force was experimenting with the Mistel, a Luftwaffe aircraft bombing system, based broadly on the parasite aircraft concept. Rudat led a formation of 4 Mistel aircraft against the invasion fleet of off Normandy in the night of 24/25 June 1944. The HMS Nith, a British "River Class" frigate, was damaged killing nine of her crew.