My Chat with General Gunther Rall - John Martin Bradley 

wo er sich herumtreibt ;D

They were among the best pilots. I respect them for that. No thoughts about politics.

Since occupation in 1945, Germany and its children has been subject to deliberate and unrelenting Zionist 'reducation' indoctrination and propaganda with a particular associative synonymous with "evil" bias against anything stemming from the 1933-1945 period.

@@JohnMartinBradleyStuff They WERE the best pilots. Of course they didn't get rested/rotated but that only increases your chances to be killed and 50% of the top aces with over 100 victory [which were ALL German] survived the war. Of course you probably already know this, just thought it would serve useful for others to iterate it.

I was sat next to him at a conference. One of the most courtly gentlemen I have ever met..

He was still skiing in his late 80s. I think, after breaking his back (and getting scalped and breaking his pelvis), he was back in combat within a year, sitting on a cushion to ease the pain when pulling heavy Gs. He attributes his getting through the first night to a male nurse who sat with him and kept him from drifting off. He told me "This fellow was not combat material, if you understand me, but he is the reason my bones are not rotting in Ukrainian soil". Later in Vienna he fell in love with his doctor and they married and had a long and full life together. He had tears in his eyes when he talked about her. A truly extraordinary man and, I believe, a role model for us. Especially in those times when we think things are too hard. When I am in those situations I think of Gunther and tell myself to man-up and be more like him.

@@JohnMartinBradleyStuffbeautiful words. Thank you.

@Uncle Joe Rudel was a consultant on the A-10 project, in fact everyone who participated in developing the plane had to read Rudel's book.

The tecnics teached by Galland were used also in the Falklands War by the argentines

@Uncle Joe The Soviets and Western powers used alot of documents from the Gestapo and Abwehr- Dienst , against each other to gain the upper hand in an arms race during the Cold War!

@ zubb8 Nonsense. They had nothing to do with the USAF. They were trained by the Americans. The Americans had nothing to do with Galland and advised the Bundesluftwaffe not to appointment him because they thought he was too close to Göring and Hitler during the war

Without doubt the most extraordinary man I have ever met.

You're a lucky man, I envy you.

Thank you Michael.

Hehe, thank you for your kind words and yes he was an incredible man. A truly remarkable man.

Thank you.

I totaly agree! This reminds me of the corresponding szenes of the animated Film "The Wind rises", which where absolutely adequate, touching and beautiful.

Gunther Rall a true Knight in his profession. Not caught up in the horse crap of ideology, but lethally objective in his duty.

Mike Hughes It is a pleasure Mike. Chats with other pilots to follow ...

Can't wait, Gunther Rall is one of my favorites. My mother was born in Danzig in 1938 and her brother was in the Luftwaffe. He was not a pilot though.

Mike Hughes The other videos and recordings are of the other pilots I spoke to - here is a shortlist of them www.combatpilots.co/?page_id=720

@@mikehughes5150 My mothers father was in the waffen ss kia in Kursk Battle 7/1943. Her uncle was a fighter pilot in a fw190 and mia in Italy late 3/1945. My mother met my father in Frankfurt Germany in mid 1955 and married in late 1956. I was born in Frankfurt am Main in 3/30/1957. My fathers grandpa was in the 82nd airborne as a medic with capt.s rank. He was allowed to carry a weapon , which was a 30. Cal. carbine. He was in dday, Market Garden, and wounded in The Battle of The Bulge! He wasn't too inclined about talking of his experiences. Too many bad things in war he went through in seeing people lose their lives. Also, my uncle, on dads side, was kia in South Vietnam mid-3/1968 tail end of TET! Happened 10 days before my 11th bday. He was kia in Central Highlands near Pleiku. My family did pay a price on both sides of the coin!

It was indeed a great honour. He was among the best of men.

Thank you Gene.

yes you ar right !!!!!!

Believe me it was my pleasure :D

Thank you. It was a truly special time for me too.

There is no such word as "nazi." It is a made-up propaganda slur used to slander the German National Socialist movement. The proper term is National Socialist... National Socialist German Workers' Party, in German, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei NSDAP. The epithet "nazi" is derived from the sound of the first two syllables of the word Nationalsozialistische when spoken in German.

Thank you and yes I should have cut out that bit :)

Thank you. Yes a very interesting man indeed.

Thank you Paul, I'm glad. I enjoyed it too :)

Thank you for your kind words.

Thank you.

Thank you.

A man indeed. In my darkest moments I find myself thinking of him and pick my sorry arse off the floor and carry on. He was a man indeed, a great man and a good man. And one I admire and respect greatly.

🙏

I agree entirely.

Was hartmann considered arrogant?

@@SA-yn6pg just watch his Interviews he was more up jim self than rall was I've seen both piglets interviewed of the two heartman was more arrogant of the two but I guess that comes with being the best ace in history

Thank you. I asked him about the difference between the superchargers on the Bf109 and the Spitfire and he chose not to answer the question. Also about the Bf109 wing slots. Having interviewed about 40 WWII veterans, I feel it is best not to pursue a line of questions that make my host uncomfortable for whatever reason.

He talks about this in his autobiography

I have a signed copy! But I shall never part with it :)

It took me a while to get my head around this too. Unbeknown to me at the time, the 109 had slots on the leading edge of the wings that extended on, eg, landing to reduce the stall speed (at least I think that was the purpose). This meant the aircraft could be flown from less than ideal airfields without ripping off or damaging the undercarriage, when hitting potholes etc etc. Apparently these slots had a habit of extending unexpectedly in tight turns, occasionally putting the plane into a spin.

Dude, the word you're looking for is "slats". Neither "slots" nor "flaps" make any sense in that context.

Unfortunately I only had a few hours with him and most of it was spent photographing him. He then invited me to have a Scotch with him and I filmed the few minutes we sat and chatted before I had to head to the airport. I wish I had recorded the conversation while I photographed him. Such a great and interesting man.

Or, how the fw190 and me109 would of stacked up against the Amrican Corsair and Hellcats?

well, it was all about beeing outnumbered and outressourced, they were actually real good

@@danbarb9728 Nazi- German pilots had to do with the cards that were handed to them! Fighting on 3 fronts; western europe, Soviet Union, and North Africa, was a strain on a blitzkrieg economy with maybe, 1 tenth the resources of the allies. Considering, Nazi- Germany did a damn great job in fighting the allies, but it was inevitable that time wasn't favoring Nazi- Germany!

Ein wirklich fuhrer!

@@hugbug4408 ?

@@hugbug4408 Ein Autofahrer???? 🤨

@@gomezgomez6299 Trying to brush up on my rusty German.

@@hugbug4408 Es ist sehr gut!

Be grateful for what we got.

Thank you for your kind words, Jonas. Yes he was a remarkable man to chat with and kind too. In due course I shall be posting the Czech pilot, whom I also liked very much. A different man completely, but also an extraordinary man. General Miroslav Standerer from Pilzen. We also drank Scotch, except we drank an entire bottle. When his wife came home from work she was furious with me and kicked me out of the apartment :)

@@JohnMartinBradleyStuff That sounds, like a pleasant kind of interview. Maybe it will become something like "your thing" to chat with the pilots with a bottle of Scotch next to you. You might get more information from them haha. I really look forward for that interview. Keep up the good work John! Greeting from Czech Republic. :)

@@jonascerny9499 haha Jonas, that is a brilliant idea, I wish I had thought of that sooner! And thank you again. I shall tell you a little story about Miroslav. There was something Kafkaesque about his life, including his time flying. He was involved in several dogfights with the Luftwaffe, but never shot down a single aircraft (a very common thing among fighter pilots, BTW). But the point I want to make is that while people like Gunther Rall were extraordinary and indisputably brave, for me, the most brave of all the dozens of combat pilots I interviewed was Miroslav. Why? Because he told me that after his initial taste of combat, he was terrified every time he climbed into the cockpit. He was sure that "this is it, this is my last flight, I am going to die now". But he went up again, again and again. That is the sign of a truly brave man, in my opinion. I liked him very much and I admire him greatly. A truly brave and humble man, with a great deprecating sense of humour and a big heart.

@@JohnMartinBradleyStuff Thank you for this brief part of the interview! I belive that Miroslav fought for the RAF, correct? If so, i wonder what he told you about his return to (then) Czechoslovakia. It's crazy, what the communist did to these heroes who came back. That's one of the things from our history, for what i'am as a Czech citizen really ashamed of. Anyway like i've said, really looking forward for that interview John, cheers!

@@jonascerny9499 Jonas, one of the reasons I have been so tardy in dong General Standerer's interview is because I want to "do him justice". There are several extraordinary stories here. Firstly, Miroslav escaping Czechoslovakia (with many other Czechs and Moravians etc. and not just pilots) to join the French air force with whom they fought against the Germans. And then a large number of them made their way to England after the fall of France, in Miroslav's case, over the Pyrenees and eventually to Lisbon and Liverpool. Where we (the British) were slow to appreciate this gift from the universe and later shamefully poor at acknowledging and respecting (e.g. Battle of Britain celebrations not including Czechs and Poles so as not to offend Uncle Joseph). The second story is that when these Czech heroes returned to their home country, many were later imprisoned by the communists and quite a few put to death. Miroslav escaped Czechoslovakia a second time and made his way back to Britain to re- rejoin the RAF after the war. In addition to a fine bottle of Scotch I sent him as a present after meeting him, I sent him a DVD of the outstanding film DARK BLUE WORLD.

My grandpa was a paratrooper 82nd airborne div. . A medic with capt.rank and allowed to carry a weapon which was a 30cal.carbine. Grandpa parachuted into Normandy(dday) 6/6/1944, WENT into Holland 9/1944 operation Market Garden, and wounded in the ardennes( Battle of The Bulge) ; battle took place from mid-12/1944 to late 1/1945. He didn't like talking about it. Too many bad memories!

And Gunther Rall credits getting his thumb shot off for his survival; he is certain that, had he not been seconded out as a casualty, he would have kept flying until he was shot down and killed.

It sure did, in the Battle of Britain luckily it kept the Spit on par with the 109 compared with the Battle of France. Illegal of course, the USA was neutral at the time.

Hi, the book is called My Logbook.

Thank you.

Movie was good!

Because... Bolshevism, because Stalin, because totalitarianism!

Hi Glenn. I am not an historian, but it is my personal opinion they kept them for so long for two simple reasons. Firstly because they could. And secondly because Stalin wanted to punish them. Most of them died in captivity.

John Martin Bradley Yes i Think you har right sad the u’s and the british siden du notting Thea Werge not nazi ther was LUFTWAFFE PILOTS,and Wat a grelt man He was rip Jan thomsen

Did they? Yes. Were the allowed to? Not according to the rules followed by the Western allies. The Soviets followed their own rules.

@@GWulf47 Right in all counts! Stalin sent innocent soldiers who were filmed shaking hands with allied soldiers, to siberian gulags as traitors. Some were evan executed! Stalin was a rotten , evil person!

To date I have photographed and interviewed 32 WWII pilots and six women partisans / resistance fighters in ten countries. I have many more videos and recordings, but unfortunately I am very short of time, so it will be a while before I can collate them and post them. Also I am trying to find and photograph / interview as many of the surviving combatants as I can before it is too late - so this is my priority at the moment (July 2017). it is expensive time consuming work and this is not my day job ... and I am a also single father widower raising two kids ... excuses excuses I know :D so watch this space and in time there will be more.

John Martin Bradley Understood. I wanted to do this style interview with my Grandfather who was a Stuka pilot but sadly I didn't get a chance ☹️

Your interview was most entertaining, thank you John. Capturing history in this way is invaluable, listening to first hand accounts that are not altered by bias. I was in an unpopular war and have to shrug with some despair at inaccuracies and blatant distortions of some events. An acquaintance of mine (Tinus le Roux) has also done some interviews that may be of interest you - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R1X21-pUQsw.html Keep up the great work. Small suggestion if I may, is to use an extended microphone for improved audio quality :-)

@TopSecretVid You may enjoy this - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R1X21-pUQsw.html

It's a shame. They had great courage.

2eme_Voltigeur Sadly he passed away in 2009. Born 1918.

It is unfortunate to hear that, even more so because he looks so full of life in the video. Moving about, making jokes. A generation of heroes is fading away :(.

2eme_Voltigeur He was intellectually sharp and had been skiing every year until a short time before before I met him. A remarkable man in so many ways. I liked him very much.

I have seen and heard him in cable WWII documentaries for years, and I was always impressed by his professionalism, intellect, wit, civility and humor. A dignified and courageous man... RIP, General Rall!

I was there to photograph him, not video him. The recording was just an aside to go back to later to make notes.

I asked him about this. I beleive he did not.

I asked him if he knew any former Soviet contemporaries from WWII, but he said he did not. He expressed an interest in learning the fate of a Soviet major he shot down and spent a few hours with - this tells me he was unsuccessful in finding the guy.

You mean "???" about the slots

@@opoxious1592 this comment was 4 years ago but yes I think I was confused about the word sl**s :)

Kenneth Johannessen Almost certainly. But as far as I know the most famous ones are all gone. Sadly.

Erich Rudorffer died last year. Heinz Rökker is still alive but not as famous as other pilots. But he wears the knightcross with oak leaves