The German aces speak II : World War II through the eyes of four more of the Luftwaffe's most important commanders

227 Pages·2014·2.97 MB·English

by  Heaton

The German Aces Speak II
World War II Through the Eyes of Four More of
the Luftwaffe’s Most Important Commanders
Colin D. Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis
This book is dedicated to the men who flew fighters in World War II, and
especially to our late friends, Col. Edward R. “Buddy” Haydon, USAF, who
flew in the 352nd Fighter Group, and his wonderful late wife, the lovely Nelda.
She waited for him to return despite the odds. They are missed very much and
always remembered.
Maj. Urban L. “Ben” Drew, USAF, also left us for his final sortie, and his
friendship and assistance over the years are a part of the lasting legacy of the
history we produce.
“The warrior merely carries the sword on behalf of others. His task is a lordly
one, because the warrior still agrees to die for the mistakes of others.”
— Alexandre Sanguinetti
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Foreword by Dr. Dennis Showalter
Foreword by Trevor J. Constable
The Blond Knight of Germany:
Oberst Erich Hartmann
The Luckiest Man Alive:
Gereraloberst Johannes Steinhoff
A Leader of Aces:
Generalmajor Dietrich Hrabak
The Third Man:
Generalleutnant Günther Rall
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
W E WISH TO THANK all of the Luftwaffe men who assisted with this series of
projects over the years, especially the men featured in this volume. We
also wish to thank Norman Melton for his perpetual assistance and
friendship as well as longtime friends Mike and Ursula Steinhoff Bird. They
have been the most supportive people over the last two decades. We also thank
Dr. Dennis Showalter and Trevor J. Constable for their assistance and interest in
our works over the years, and for writing the forewords. Thanks also to former
Luftwaffe pilots Jorg Czypionka and Kurt Schulze for proofreading the
manuscript.
We also wish to thank the men mentioned in this book for their friendship and
assistance, as well as granting the many interviews over the years before they
left us: Erich Hartmann, Johannes Steinhoff, Dietrich Hrabak, and Günther Rall.
They were fine men and good friends. Special thanks to our friends, the late
Colonel Raymond F. Toliver and Trevor J. Constable, who brought the men of
the Luftwaffe to the postwar world and created the great interest in the subject. It
was they who created my interest, which persists to this day.
Special thanks to our agent, Dr. Gayle Wurst of Princeton International
Agency for the Arts. Her dedication and diligence have been a key factor in the
production of our projects, and for that we are eternally grateful. We would also
like to mention Steven Daubenspeck, Elizabeth Demers, Scott Pearson, and Erik
Gilg at Zenith Press and thank them for their support in bringing the voices and
stories of these aces of World War II to life.
Introduction
L IKE THE FIRST VOLUME in this series, this book focuses on four German
fighter pilots who were not only heroes to their nation but also brave men
embroiled in a war beyond their control, dedicated to their code of honor as
aviators. They were gentlemen of the old school, warriors in a violent conflict
who believed in the code of chivalry and fair play. This may sound archaic now,
given the devastation of the Second World War and the horrors of the Holocaust,
which painted all wartime Germans with a demonic brush, especially after the
world awoke to the scope of the almost unspeakable genocide that the Nazis had
wrought.
Detractors will try to argue that the airmen of the Luftwaffe were no better
than the Einsatzgruppen, the extermination squads that followed German forces
and eliminated “undesirables” per the grand plan. This collective predisposition
is, unfortunately, grounded upon misinformation and postwar perceptions. It is
of utmost importance to present accurately the men behind the successes and
tragedies of the war. We created this series of books to present the personal
stories of German aviators in their own words. This oral history method provides
a deeper understanding of the nature and evolution of aviation history as well as
the agonies and victories these warriors endured. The four German pilots
included in this series were like their fellow professional soldiers in that they
were dedicated to the survival and protection of their country and their people.
As authors, we have found many verified examples of Germans who acted with
impeccable conduct and honorable intent; readers thus have the unique
opportunity to examine the war from their perspectives.
Many of these men received high postwar security clearances and positions,
and some—such as Johannes Steinhoff, Dietrich Hrabak, and Günther Rall—
reached the apex of the command structure within the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO). Steinhoff, Hrabak, Rall, and Erich Hartmann are just four
representatives among the tens of thousands of young men who may not have
wanted a war and may not have believed in their nation’s political platform.
The recollections from these four aces are the expanded, unabridged versions
of interviews we conducted over many years, as time allowed, with Hrabak,
Hartmann, Steinhoff, and Rall, and which we have previously published in
abridged format in various magazines such as World War II, Aviation History,
and Military History. Whenever possible, we used relevant secondary and
primary source material to corroborate and supplement the aces’ oral testimony.
We present these aviators’ thrilling stories of the war to educate and entertain
We present these aviators’ thrilling stories of the war to educate and entertain
readers, and to provide an insight into the German perspective on the greatest
conflict in history.
Foreword
By Dr. Dennis Showalter
N EVER DID MEN FIGHT better in a worse cause than the soldiers of Nazi
Germany. Among them, the fighter pilots stand out. And among the fighter
pilots, pride of place goes to the Experten. “Ace” was a word the Germans
did not use. The British and Americans averaged five victories. Over thirty
Luftwaffe pilots scored 150, or more. Experten indeed. A surprising number of
these extraordinary pilots survived the war. Four of them tell their stories here,
and their reading takes me back to my collaboration with Johannes Steinhoff on
Voices from the Third Reich. I can still hear the old-timers comparing missions
and experiences, aircraft types and opponents—and, yes, even girls.
In these pages, Steinhoff describes going against American heavy bomber
formations. Gunther Rall compares British and Russian fighter pilots. Hartmann
recalls some of his epic dogfights—and his ten postwar years as a Soviet captive.
And yet these men inspire a wider question: how to explain their participation in
a system that is an enduring stench in humanity’s nostrils? Their dismissive
contempt for the Reich’s leaders, from Hitler and Göring to the functionaries and
flunkies that buzzed around the air bases, is a consistent theme. So is their
willingness to challenge the competence of the desk heroes who tried to tell
them how to fight a war. But one looks in vain for systematic, principled
questioning.
This gap can be explained on three levels. First, these pilots were constantly
at the air war’s cutting edge. There was no rotation to training schools, no war
bond tours. Instead the Experten were moved from threat point to threat point
until their luck ran out—and luck, as Hartmann says, was a big part of survival.
But maintaining the complex skills of a fighter pilot was even more important.
Survival in air-to-air combat was not a passive act. It ultimately depended on
killing, man to man, an enemy no less skilled and determined than oneself. And
particularly as stress and fatigue increased, that goal required, above all, focus:
mobilizing will power to concentrate on the immediate.
A second crucial factor was the fighter-pilot culture. Owing something to the
images of World War I in the air, much to the prewar youth movements, and
even more to German romanticism, this mentality emphasized a free spirit that
eschewed mundane considerations. It was a significant element of the
Luftwaffe’s ethos. And it discouraged anything resembling systematic
introspection.
Third on the list comes the conviction, universal among the Experten in
particular, that they were defending families and homes, a culture, a way of
living. Nazism’s success in conflating these with National Socialist ideology, in
making them metaphors for the thousand-year Reich, does not render these
ideals illegitimate. “You need to understand, Dennis,” Johannes once said, “we
pilots believed—no, we knew—that we were fighting for everything God gives
men to fight for.” This may not be a justification. It is an explanation.
Foreword
By Trevor J. Constable
T HIS OLD WORLD HAS turned over a few times since the late Col. Raymond F.
Toliver and I embarked upon the task of telling something of the German
side of the fighter war. Prejudice still rules in many circles, and Ray should
have been advanced to general. I recall with some humor the incredulity of
German ace Heinz Bär, on learning that Ray had flown a stunning 750 different
types of aircraft. Bär had 220 aerial victories to his credit, but Ray’s
achievements topped his in Bär’s personal opinion.
When The Blond Knight of Germany eventually came out, it was with a
minimum printing. It sold out quickly but was not renewed. The book was sold
as a paperback version, which was done without any reference to either of us
authors or Erich Hartmann, with whom we had a full agreement.
Then there was a call from Howard Hughes in the middle of the night to
secure the film rights to Blond Knight. Hughes called it “the greatest book about
a fighter pilot I ever read.” Howard had the rights for about a year before giving
up on it. There was too much opposition. However, today it is different, but there
is still staunch opposition to any film regarding Erich, even now.
All four aces in this book are veterans of NATO. You can hear them speak to
you as if they were still alive. Thanks to the enterprise of getting them to speak
about their lives as they unfolded, you have their comments on a wide range of
subjects, including the Nazi hierarchy. General Steinhoff’s views on being
grabbed by Göring is classic stuff. You will want to hear it more than once. You
have in your hands a rare piece of history by four men who made it.