But what about all of the relatives of all of the hundreds of British, Russian, and American airmen that he shot down?
Just think of all of the sweethearts and wives he must have devastated, as well as all of the fatherless children he must have created.
As has been stated, there are two points of view for every issue. Rall shot down 275 airplanes. A portion of those likely resulted in KIA pilots.
From a German perspective, you can argue that a LW pilot, during the war, felt very strongly about the civilian casualties caused by Allied bombing raids.
The reason that I, along with many other people, respect Rall is because we look at him as a human being. During the war, he followed orders and was very good at carrying out those orders.
After the war, ignoring his contributions to the post-war Luftwaffe, NATO, etc, he infused the classic warbird scene with passion at every opportunity. I never met him personally, but it is my understanding that he was so highly regarded because he was always willing to answer as many questions as you had and he genuinely loved aviation.
Thats the thing, though. The war has been over for sixty years. At some point, you need to move on. If the whole of Germany held your mindset, I wouldnt want to be an American, Brit or worse, a Russian making a visit...
He was a good man, regardless of nationality, and I will respect him as such.
