There's a reason I'm a Luftwaffe dweeb.
"6th March, 1944
Last night there were more engines droning overhead. the British attacked Berlin with more than 1,000 aircraft.
At noon we are sent into action against the Americans who are heading for the same objective. Once again I am in command of the Gruppe.
In the first frontal attack I shoot down a Fortress just north of the airfield and leave a second one in flames. I cannot watch it crash, however, because I am fully occupied with several Thunderbolts try to get on my tail.
My Staffel loses Sergeant Veit. The body was found in a cornfield just north of the airfield where he was shot down.
On our second mission I succeed in shooting down yet another Fortress. It also went down during the first frontal attack, aimed at the control cabin. Probably both pilots were killed and the controls put out of action, because the plane crashed without any signs of fire.
During the ensuing dogfight with the Thunderbolts my tail plane was shot full of holes, and my engine and left wing were badly hit also. It is all I can do to limp home to our field. On coming to land I discover my left wheel has been shot away. The right wheel will not retract. I am forced to make a one wheel landing.
Immediately I order a reserve aircraft to be prepared for me to take off on a third mission. It is destroyed during a low level strafing attack. Two of the mechanics are seriously wounded.
4 Staffel places one of its aircraft at my disposal by order of the Commanding officer. Specht and I take off together, with Flight Sergeant Hauptmann and Sergeant Zambelli as our wingman.
When we attempt to attack a formation of Liberators over Lueneberg Heath, we are taken by surprise by approximately forty Thunderbolts. In the ensuing dogfight our two wingmen are both shot down. After a wild chase right down to ground level the Commanding Officer and I finally escape with great difficulty.
After landing I receive word from Diepholz that Flight Sergeant Wenneckers is in hospital there after being shot down and seriously wounded.
In a telephone conversation with Division during the night, the Commanding Officer requests that the Gruppe be withdrawn from operations temporarily. We cannot continue.
The request is refused. We are to continue flying until the last aircraft and the last pilot. Berlin, the capital city of the Reich, is ablaze from end to end.
It has become very silent in the crew room. Jonny Fest and I it there alone in our two arm chairs far into the night. We do not speak much. The pile of cigarrete butts in the ashtray grows steadily, as we extinguish one cigarette after another.
Jonny keeps staring in a distrait way at the pictures on the wall. To me it seems as if we might expect to see the faces to move and hear the familiar voices of our late comrades break the silence in the room....
Wolny.... we were returning from his funeral in the Chief's car, when a girl suddenly dashed into the road carrying a wreath of pine on here arm. It was his fiancee. She had been ashamed to stand beside us at the grave, because she was afraid that she still could not control the grief which overwhelmed her when told of his death three days before...
Steiger.... looked exactly like his twin brother. I met him at Tuebingen last year, and at first thought he was Gerd. The resemblence was startling: their mother claimed to be the only person who could tell them apart....
Kolbe... they found his body in the wreckage, but it was minus both hands. Then his wife asked for the wedding ring. How could we possibly tell her the truth?...
Kramer... why, oh why did that boy have to lose his head that time his aircraft went down in the sea?...
Gerhard... his mother writes to me often, and I have to tell her all about her brave son. She hopes that his death for the freedom of our people and the survival of the Reich will not have been in vain...
Fuehrmann.... on the spot where his Messerschmitt carried him down when it plunged into the Moor we erected a tall oak cross. At its base we nailed two five franc peices....
Doelling.... did not return from his second mission. His body was claimed by the sea.
Killian.... his perpetual affairs with women caused me plenty of trouble....
Dolenga... whatever became of his very charming wife? I was best man at their wedding at Jever...
Nowotny... his father in Bruenn wrote to me that two of his brothers had also been killed in action...
Raddatz.... his darling Myra Lydia shed enough tears at the time, but did not take long to find consolation elsewhere. Still she was not the only one who found his charms irresistible....
Arndt... did not return from his first mission....
Reinhard... my good buddy once showed me a photograph of his six brothers and himself, all together, all in uniform, all wearing the Iron Cross First Class...
Zambelli... used to play the accordion. His alert came when he was int he middle of playing a lively dance tune. His accordian was still lying on the table when the rest of us returned from the mission on which he was killed....
Weissgerber....
Hetzel...
Kreuger....
Veit....
Hoefig...
Trockels....
Troendle...
Now only Jonny and I remain...."
To better explain the gravity of the situation even this early in the war, in the third mission he describes his Gruppe, II/JG11, taking off with 4 aircraft. Generally full operational strength of a Gruppe is around 40 aircraft, which means that by March 1944 II/JG11 was operating with 90% of its pilots killed or wounded.
Heinz Knoke's "I Flew for the Fuehrer" is at this point my favorite book in my rapidly expanding library. It's a very interesting insight into the German point of view on the war, as the memoirs start directly before the Blitz of Poland through the BoB until the end of the war. He served in JG52 during the Battle of Britain and Operation Barbarossa, then was transferred to JG1. The majority of his career was as staffelkapitaen of 5 staffel of JG11. He served in combat on Reich Defense duties until October 9th 1944 when he was crippled during relocation by a roadside bomb planted by Czech terrorists. At this point he had 33 kills including 20 heavy bombers.
