German Bf109 fighter pilot movie:"I Flew for the Führer"; Heinz Knoke diaries PART 1 

I read the diaries of Heinz Knoke and the guy was insane one of the best combat pilots ever its a shame not all the world know about this brave man.

And both sides of the story should be told ALWAYS! Germany included

Read his book several years ago. Recommended.

I read this book when I was about 12 years old in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil...I remember he's the one who dropped a bomb on a bomber formation, for which he received a phone call from Goering himself, and he answered it in attention, but in his undies.. German fighter aces stood high on my imagination as true heroes,. like Molders, Graff, Marseille, Galland, Rudel...

Amazing, you really give the History channel a challenge!

Thanks for this little treasure! Impressive graphics, true story. It looks like a lot of work went into this, thanks for sharing it. Best wishes to you from the Allegheny Highlands of Pennsylvania USA.

Hi biltongbru , now that's what IL-2 1946 movie is all about !! absolutely lovely job , cinema and editing , marvelous ! 5 stars . Thank you so much for making this video , it's superb and I wish I can get my hands on the original video file rather than downloading from youtube , would love to have it in original HD quality ;-) S! HolyGrail

Great work buddy, I had never seen anything edited this way before, and also a great way to use a game engine to produce a valuable historical reconstruction! 5 stars, keep up the good work!

Made this movie a couple of years ago...just for fun....

Beauitfully done! Thanks for sharing.

I've written my own ww2 story called "Tiger". It tells the German's perspective of the battle of the Rhine as a tank crew sees it all fall apart and that they were lied to all along.

excellent job.. & the voice work is excellent too.

Even when they were shooting at them american flyers admired the bravery of these german pilots who day after day went up against great odds to defened their homeland as any patriot would do. My dad God rest his soul was a left waist gunner in a B24 of the 458th bomb group and he simply marveled at the skill and bravery of the luftwaffe pilots and was glad when a fighter was shot down and the pilot parachuted to safety cuz like the americans the german pilots were also human beings and very courageous .Many demonize all germans as jew hating nazis but the luftwaffe was not that way. Many of the great aces like Galland' hartmann' barkhorn ' priller and steigler despised hitler but loved their country and defended it against attack .I have nothing but respect for those brave pilots of the luftwaffe and am glad someone told their story as there are always 2 sides to every story.War is hell and it was no less tragic and terrible for the germans who lost pilots and lovrd ones in the bombing and fighting as the american forces did.

The Germans suffered more from ground-attacks by fighters after the bombers had hit their target than the suffered from air-air combat losses. This is is the classic weakness of fixed-wing aircraft: you need to operate them off runways or at least decently-prepared fields. Especially the 109 which was a nightmare on a rough field. The Allies would blow planes out of the sky then go down on the deck hunting, it was rough for the Luftwaffe.

I' am impressed! Well job. I would like see more of these video in the near future...Especially Novotny kommando with awesome Me 262... :D

great job....it may be called upon when a major film will be produced like "Memphis Bell"..but viewed from the German side......allthough I suppose "A Higher Call" comes first in line

So nice good work mate

Superb work!!!

Great job! Even for today's standards. Respect.

I never knew of that tactic either let alone it being used successfully.

Great job , well done !!

I was wondering this also. However, Knoke states in his book that they used 15 sec fuses.

I have never heard of Luftwaffe pilots, or even Allied pilots flying above a formation then dropping a bomb on the formation. That's incredible! And horrific. The bomb struck one of the B-17's, exploded and took two other B-17's. I doubt they practiced that, but it seems to me much better than just randomly jettisoning a bomb that has already been attached to your airplane.

Well done mate

I read the book years ago.

That gravity bombs might have been worth it but all the misses would be on German territory. The 88 idea is not workable with the planes they had and the fighter cover that you would need. They did, however, eventually use rockets fired at the tight boxes of bombers fired en mass from the side. It was very effective but too late to turn the tide.

If war was fought like that today they would not last 20 years

why are you asking these particular questions in the comments to a movie about a BF109G pilots' exploits in 1943? When did this become a forum for the discussion of the conflict between capitalism and marxism, between fascism and democracy, etc?

Amazing!

Very cool and very well made, the only bad thing about it (which, is just a small bad thing in a whole lot of awesome) is the german voice actor over-acting, or overplaying

@healer378 : Well that could work but in fact later on there were "swarm buster" grenades /rockets fired from the wings of the fighters....

what kind of figther aircraft from ww2 had a 50mm cannon mounted? never heard of it

Great video

Memorable! =)

Great Vid !

Wait, you made that yourself??? oO

Good job very nice video vote like

was just try to fine how the cannon shoots on the Bf109E

Both my grandpa´s were pilots in WW2. One for the RAF (flying the Hurricane, the Spitfire and later the Typhoon) and the other one for the Luftwaffe (109-E and -G). They are both long dead but I still remember the times when the were sitting together and talked about old times. It was like sitting in the cockpit with them.

It is good for you to post the other side of war. I served in the U.S. Air Force and never forgot that the soldier, sailor, airman or marine on the other side was a human being also. The other thing people forget is that not all Germans were Nazis, but they were determined to defend their homeland. War is hell for all sides.

I know we were the bad guys in WW2 but Bf-109 is simply awesome.

True, the luftwaffe was a great fighting unit. But even with prop fighters of equal quality and even jets. It still became a matter of too little, too late!

They flew high above the formation and dropped time fused bombs. The Germans had limited successes with this method and was discarded especially when the Allies started with fighter escorts.

these guys were brave,,great pilots no doubt tres, tres bien fait tinus

Those men had brass balls... Allies and Axis. Amazing.

That was great, and finally not some biased American stuff like dogfights because only watching battles America won is really boring. overall great job :)

I spoke to Heinz Knoke in early 1993 just a few months before he passed, he said "We were just boys doing our job" ... he signed his book that I sent to Bad Iburg , 'I Flew for the Fuhrer' , for me and actually put a brown grocery bag cover on it ... he was not a monster !!! ... He was an accident of history like all those that fought in WW2 ... had I been born just two years earlier, I would have fought and probably died in Vietnam !

Their stories still were more exciting than Snow White, Mother Hulda, Struwwelpeter, Rumpelstiltskin and the other crap we were forced to listen to and later read at school. Their medals were genuine, too.

Very well made Tinus, you have talent and have nicely illustrated the Knoke's script. Thank you for sharing this with the community, Ciao L (Veteran)

Excellent! Thanks for posting.

Great work. Sad of course, all wars are.

@healer378 Knoke " invented " this method and they had limited successes. The Bf109's had to climb high above the bombers at a certain altifude difference and then drop the bomb with a time delayed fuse. When the bombers were eventually escorted all the way by fighters the Germans discarded the Bf109 bombing because of vulnirability to these fighters caused by the heavy bomb.

This is EXCELLENT!! 2 thumbs up!!!

yes,Heinz Knoke my hero and Erich hartmann 352 shot down plane!!!!!!!!

I know it made for fun but there were heroes from Luftwaffe (GAF in ww2 )

That's true. There was this entire NZ Lockheed Ventura squadron which was shot down, just because some penpushing top brass demanded that the stupid target be bombed at all costs. The squadron was unlucky enough to be met with a experten from some German fighter conference in the vicinity of the target.

the diffrence between luftwaffe and aeronautica pilots was that they weren't keen to shoot to parachuted pilots and crew members while americans and british did "hunt the ace". maybe the name "flying fortress" was given to encourage new recrutes to apply in it, but they had so many of them .

Those Bf-109Gs and other add-on aircraft are from the PC flight simulator “IL-2 Sturmovik.” ✌️

Once they almost were. Dec and his squad were flying air support on D-Day but Al and his friends were grounded on "Führer´s Orders" for that wretch insisted on D-Day being a hoax. By the way: Only two Luftwaffe pilots (I can´t remember their names right now) attacked the landing zones and almost got court-martialed. My German grandpa was shot down four times and three times wounded, my Irish one was never shot down but once wounded so badly they almost retired him. Have a nice day!

@RittenWerd Thank you for the complements and I am glad that you enjoyed the movie! :)

I know a lake in East Germany (former Middle Germany) there is a Lancaster on the ground. They cannot remove them because all bombs are still on board. It was a random hit by young flag helper girls in Dec 1944. The British pilot tried to landing on the lake and it failed.

yes, the america airforce pilot's where instructed to shoot parashuted pilots of the luftwaffe and aeronautica, specially if those were aces

He's trolling...he also seems to think its morally wrong to show respect for German and Japanese air aces because they belonged to " the cold blooded evil that was the Axis, Germany, Japan and Italy"(his words). A narrow-minded, childish view.

50 mm cannon on a Bf-109? I smell heavy bogus.

Pretty awesome....Animation outstanding....Really enjoyed it...Thank you

i must say this is very good. hopefully someone will make this in to a full length feature. still waiting for dambusters

The BF-109 in this movie have the grafics of IL-2 1946

georgie lucas behind this one...let's hope not :)))

At 03:50, the german pilot has a british oxigen mask from the '50s/'60s !!!

Great Job!!! I do love the aircraft of that age, I already made a Dornier do 17Z from hobby Craft 1.48.

I had never heard of dropping bombs on bombers. Interesting, thank you.

Outstanding account from a german pilot

Shame he never earned the swords...I presume he had the Oak Leaves?

GREAT! Big, BIG thanks for uploading! ;)

The cannon mounted in the nose was a 30mm round, not 30 caliber.

Looks like IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 Is it? Because the resemblance is strikingly amazing

I could watch videos like this for hours!

tell me hows it feel to work and feed the Jews? uh american?

@academicusprecarius Well spotted, you are correct, the 8th USAF used the D version in 1943 (without the nose turret). Unfortunately the flight simulator did not have this version available

The boy in the striped pajamas

Hi Holy Grail; It was fun and a pleasure to make this movie (6 months) I will soon make available an original for download. Thanks also for your modding work and sure they are included with this production.... Thanks for the complements.

I like to see WW2 from the point of view of the 'other' side. I have read literally dozens of WW2 books from both sides. Especially Pilots, being one myself. I have to say, out of ALL of them, the absolute best was one written by a German Soldier "The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer". However, Guy Sajer wrote his book in what I would call a 'normal' readable tone. Very different from Heinz Knoke. I haven't read his book, only the qoutes here. Heinz writes like a dedicated Nazi. That's OK for the time, but I find that a bit hard to read. I have just finished watching a series of RU-vids by Fritz Boost a ME109 Pilot. A really humble man and a pleasure to listen to.

Hey Heinz.....your side lost! it's what losers do best.....remember the faces of those you gunned down? I think not.....going too fast to see their faces. My dad a Captain in the South Pacific......Killed 66 Japanese Soldiers.....and remembered each and every face....and had each and every nightmare that came with the ride!......he never bragged never spoke much....but did what was asked of him.....to protect freedom!

I like 5.42 best. Gut gemacht!

American genocide on women and children of German cities, Berlin, Dresden, Nuremberg etc, can you imagine the Americans whining if Boston, NY, Washington,Chicago etc were bombarded by Germany. Listen to the whining of The Japanese attacking Hawaii.

yes but no one used the atomic bomb except usa

My great uncle’s Fortress was shot down by a BF109 on Dec. 5, 1943 over Bordeaux, France. The letters he wrote home to the family in the weeks and days leading up to his death are amongst my most prized possessions. It was his 19th mission. War is hell, no hard feelings to the Luftwaffe pilot who was doing the exact same thing I would have done in his shoes.

I bought Knoke's book probably more than 20 years ago, I should probably read it again. Another good fighter pilot book is Blue Skies by Bill Olmsted, one of my favorites.

That's an Uber score yah?

Using high speed mosquitos instead of slow lumbering b24 and b17 and they would never have cought them from behind anyway. A screen of mosquitos could have also helped to stop high speed frontal attacks.

This better than what the History Channel had done in a couple of years. Bravo!

Nicely done! Well written. Hit close to home as on june 16th 1943 at 1:26am my grandad in a halifax was shot down. I talked to a guy who was a boy living in the farm house by the bog it landed in. His uncle was commandeered to remove the dead some 6 inches in the soft ground as it was soft.......so many good men on both sides making widows n orphans for the greedy.

Yes sir it actually happened. I have read Heinz Knoke's book. (The man this is based after). The whole bombing above the bombers idea wasn't planned. He had to make a last minute decision I can't remember the exact details but he basically decided to just do it without the permission of his superiors. The first run with them was relatively successful. May not have caused damaged but it broke them up. When he returned Goering asked who gave him permission, he said no one and then praised him.

Nice Movie!!!

History is written by The Victors and only favors the victors and almost always vilifies the actions of a defeated especially if the actions of the defeated were honorable and the defeated were actually innocent of the alleged crimes. The crimes of the victor is whitewashed their terrible crimes against Europe because they knew that there had been complicit in a war of conquest a war of terror against an innocent country Germany who only wanted to do business within its own borders a country who was strengthened from within economically and not militarily. In 1933 Germany was limited very strictly in their military the combined forces of the West Great Britain USA and of the Soviet Union were up to 100 times that of Germany so Germany was never a threat. Therefore if Germany decided to rebuild her economy from within and strengthen middle class and to remove herself from the hegemony of money of the bankers from Wall Street and from the petrochemical cartel of the USA then she would be threatened with war because she had no military to defend herself. look at all the countries in the world who have great resources but a small military what happens to them when they decide to trade within their borders and chooses with whom they want to trade with they are subject to economic sanctions they are subject to threats there's a book written by Jeff Perkins called confessions of an economic Hitman describes this and at the end if necessary the US military goes in and creates a puppet dictatorship then invade the country and they impose their own willl on those countries. Now look at the countries who the USA cannot do anything about Russia China and North Korea what do they have in common they have nuclear Arsenal they have huge militaries the US dare not even come close to doing what they did to Germany and a host of other independent nations for example Venezuela and many South American countries also Nicaragua Guatemala Ecuador Panama and Libya and Syria because they will get their hand slapped. So Germany built their military in order to protect German interests not to create a war. Germany never built any strategic bombers she never built a huge Navy in the second World War her U-boats were a defensive weapon they were never an offensive weapon you cannot invade countries you cannot participate in landings on shores and indeed countries with U-boats. U Boat are strictly a defensive weapon the same goes with the German Army and the German air force and all of her services they were built for a quick War to end the war quickly to defeat the enemy quickly and then for Germany to go back within her borders and return to life unfortunately and tragically the West allies and Soviet Union had other plans and look what we have now.

The guy in the cartoon looks nothing like the handsome Heinz Knoke. I don't think the sunglasses depicted were the style of the '40s. Narration was OK.

A visually unique animation & accounting of real events obtained from prime source material. I hope to see more of your realizations of the same subject matter!

7:09 me when the video starts

Great video, and a super book. Total respect

Around 8 mins the pilot reports he has a new 109 with a 50mm cannon! Perhaps I misheard him, but there was never a Messer with that size gun anywhere on it.