Col. Erich Hartmann, German Fighter Ace

LONDON - Col. Erich Hartmann, one of Germany's most daring World War II fighter aces, reportedly has died near Stuttgart, Germany. He was 71.

No cause or date of death was given in an obituary published Thursday in The Daily Telegraph.

A much-decorated hero of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, Mr. Hartmann scored 352 "victories," mostly against Soviet aircraft on the Eastern Front.

Born in Weissach on April 19, 1922, Mr. Hartmann was encouraged to fly by his mother, who was a glider pilot. He qualified as a gliding instructor in 1938, and began training for the Luftwaffe two years later.

On July 7, 1943, he destroyed seven Red Air Force aircraft above the Battle of Kursk in Russia. In 1945, he shot down five U.S. Mustang fighter pilots over Romania in two sorties on one day, and shortly afterward two more over Czechoslovakia.

"My only tactics," Mr. Hartmann once recalled, "were to wait until I had the chance to attack the enemy and then close in at high speed. I opened fire only when the whole windshield was black with the enemy."