Günther Rall, a third ranked Luftwaffe ace with 275 victories, a NATO military attache later on and 27 victories claimed ace, Arthur Gärtner speak about FW-190. Must see for any LW fan! High quality! Horrido!
As a child, I grew up among the ruines of the devastated german cities. Hopelessly outnumbered, he was among the very few home defenders who stood up against thousands of allied bombers destroying mostly civil targets. He and his comrades have my utmost respect! Do not blame these soldiers for the mistakes of the politicians.
so much this. and history channel is running 360 battle which is not bad... but it runs it at ungodly hours, to not interfere with bear wrestling man pawn shopping ancient aliens. PS I like ancient aliens show.
Thanks, Soho 1977. I really appreciate these kind of memories from a time of dogfights that will never be seen again. Those german fighters were incredible, taking on account that every single victory had to be confirmed thoroughfully ...they were an elite. Adolf Galland were in my country, Argentina, after the war among other german aces and helped to create an Air Force who proved his courage during the Malvinas war. ...
many germans could speak english, and also very well. some pilots in those days still had a certain sense of chivary. they refrained from shooting the parachutes of bailed out pilots or strafing those who crash landed. many veterans seek each other out after the war, because only they could understand what happened during those battles. talking about it brings relief and calm, but it would be extremely difficult to talk to someone else as they could never understand.
Günther Rall always seemed in the interviews I have seen to be a decent man with no bitterness which is hard to understand as he must have lost many friends and comrades through his long war.his record speaks for itself a great pilot and air warrior.and patriot as his post war career shows.Germany did not seem to rotate their pilots in the same way as The allies did they just seemed to fly on and on even the aces luck can run out. They lost many outstanding pilots to superior numbers and diminishing supply’s as one pilot said ironically we get the iron cross or a wooden cross.i am british and wish-he had not been so successful but respect where it is due to GR
Well yes he do. Page 209-210; "Rankin also tells me with a sly grin that my final wartime total of 275 is incorrect: before Powers shot me down, I had damaged Zemke's second wingman so severely that he had had to make an emergency landing, which would bring my actual overall score to 276." I don't think it could get any more clear than that.
huge respect to alte hase gunther rall the guy received his wings in 1938,only a handful of german pilots saw WWII from the beginning to the end and 275 victories.... please note that the guy never was part of the nsdap(the nazi party),that allowed him to enlist in the post war luftwaffe
I'll look into it and if I may suggest two other books...Erich Hartmann's autobiography is worth a read as is The Interrogator by Raymond Toliver. The Interrogator is about a Luftwaffe corporal who interrogated downed American pilots in a non-threatening/non-violent way with incredible results.
What makes you say Rall was not a decent man? He was a professional soldier who took the business of war seriously. As a soldier, he understood the mechanism of surrender. Although he may have had other motives (like making enough money to allow him and his family to eat and have a roof) he did his duty after the war as a soldier should. And there are degrees of enemies as well; the Allies were interested in Germany standing up again, as it most certainly did. That wasn't Stalin's aim!
I read his biography, Blond Knight Of germany. i am getting my inpho from there. There are numeruous quotes by U.S. officers that say if they knew how russianss would treat POWs they would never let them pass the virtual border to the east. You should read it, it is really good book. And btw, i think that Hartmann was at eastern front when the last days were counted. He wasn't in the last days of defending Berlin and JV 44
I dunno if it was an easy plane to fly with ,if u were a pilot with hundreds of missions on 109s . It was really a very good looking killing machine :)
Not to be picky, but the correct number is actually 276 although he was never officially credited the last one. The P47 he was shooting at when he himself was shot down did go down, as testified by american pilots.
yes.. totaly understood, you can be rest assured some soviet pilots flew in the Civil war, as the Republic I believe was flying the RATA.. Il-16 however war time, Russia pilots were in the mix from the Finnish-Russo war till the end. thats what I meant to say.
@cyberOwwwOecho i meant that this program shows american pilots as the best while they are not,you can compare american to japanese aces who started the war at the same time
The fw190 would have outperformed the p51 an p47 easily if BMW would have improved the 801 earlier in the war then they actually did. This engine had a great potential and many prototypes made it above 2000 hp and some to 2500 also at higher altitude but none of them entered full production like the D2 or so.
The 190D was far superior than any version of the 109.....yet some if Germanys aces chose to stay with the 109 platform....that by 1944 was getting long in the tooth.....
Its also amazing that the Germans were the only ones, besides the Russians I beleive to fight ALL through the War. The allied pilots only really had to fly for a year I think, or so many sorties. Battle of Britian time for the Brits probably not the same case until 1942 or so... not sure but I know the Germans fought on... no matter what the cost. Sad that so many good men lost their lives after so many bloody sorties.
he did but he didn't gave his real award mate. not sure if it's also in that book or the other... i have GRAF GRISLAWSKI, a pair of aces. think i read it there.
I don't know where did you get that info. What i know and heard is that they kept they real DIAMONDS and CROSSES at home,. those with them were a copy.
@grpcaptmandrake Ivan Nikitovich. Alexandre Pokryshkin.Nikolai Guayev.Grigorig Yevstigneyev. just to name a few high quality Soviet Pilots. The Eastern front was no Picnic. and leave Hartmann out of your diatribe, he went on to give valuable service in the USAF.
I believe that is a bad translation. I believe what he is referring to is the Fw190's tendency to snap into a violet opposite direction roll if stalled in a hard turn. That is if you are banked hard right and pulling hard into a right turn if you pull too hard the left wing will stall first and you will suddenly and violent roll to the left and possible fall off into a spin if you do not recover quickly.
lol,...sorry to pop your bubble, dude. But there were no F6F at Midway. Btwn June 4-7th 1942 only six months after Pearl Harbor Historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." All of the combat happened btwn opposing forces airforces. Japan suffered a crushing defeat. Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers & the cream of the empires pilots & aircrews. Afterwards Japan could not afford or produce pilots fast enough to replace the rate of attrition.
Well, hartmann also joined them..so that makes them a less worthy pilots? Your opinion in this case is completely wrong. Use your brains, not the heart.
To beerosteerm; If Americans didn't/don't have problems with them neither do I Plus..you should educate yourself a bit..read more..then you wouldn't make those retarded statements..btw..most of the german aces become U.S. military consultants after the war..NATO attaches and so on..so shut your dirty mouth forever and gtfo.
Plus I am sure that people who know and participated in all these events have a real opinion and know the values those men had. Not only on german side. Only internet rats, like yourself can post something idiotic like the things you did.
@cyberOwwwOecho but where did you get this information from, to tell you the truth i took mine from wikipedia.lol.anyway this is nice piece of information especially when programs like dogfight show that american pilots are WAY better than japanese and german pilots and all other pilots
Luftwaffe training system was always far behind methods used by USAAF and RAF during WW2. Günther Rall found it after WW2 when he was trained to fly US made jet aircraft. Rall told that Luftwaffe didn't have any procedure methods and so he found in 1950's how much LW had lost with its arrogance and ignorance of training pilots.
i will leave your posts mandrake, so everyone sees how stupid you are. I suggest that you first inform your ignorant brain then post something other than rubbish you already did. We will admire your own stupidity. This man was a respectful pilot and a military attache over at NATO after the WWII. Not only that but a real sport and a gentleman before everything.
Thanks, Soho 1977. I really appreciate these kind of memories from a time of dogfights that will never be seen again. Those german fighters were incredible, taking on account that every single victory had to be confirmed thoroughfully ...they were an elite. Adolf Galland were in my country, Argentina, after the war among other german aces and helped to create an Air Force who proved his courage during the Malvinas war. ...despite the result, they were a fierce rival to the English forces.
