Not air-to-air, as he flew the slow Stuka, but by the sheer number of missions flown, being shot at on every mission. Had numerous crashes, lost a leg in one and was back flying a month later.
At one point he was ordered grounded by Hitler, so as not to allow the Russians a chance to kill a national hero, but he disobeyed the order.
(Everybody knew what happened at his funeral, and after the initial hubbub died down, his grave became a popular site for flight officers to visit.)
“Rudel died in 1982. During Rudel’s burial ceremony, two Bundeswehr F-4 Phantoms appeared to make a low altitude flypast over his grave. Although Dornhausen was situated in the middle of a flightpath regularly flown by military aircraft, Bundeswehr officers denied deliberately flying aircraft over the funeral.
“Four mourners were photographed giving Nazi salutes at the funeral, and were investigated under a law banning the display of Nazi symbols. The Federal Minister of Defense Manfred Wörner declared that the flight of the aircraft had been a normal training exercise.”
http://i.imgur.com/wHR6Abc.jpg
