Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Grendel on June 14, 2003, 03:06:53 PM
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We met... General Gunther Rall.
275 victories.
Amazing person. Unfortunately there wasn't much chance to ask questions, especially because my 2 sheets long of question list was by my mistake such a small print that mr. Rall couldn't read it there in public :)
And my English language is just too bad so I could ask the questions in public, amidst all those people.
I'll post couple items later, after this "debrief beer" is out of my head.
As "press" I was most priviledged though to enjoy a short 1-to-1 interview with him, though. Sad to say, to you, I used that for other general purpose questions, to find background about herr Rall. I found him to be most pleasant, wonder old gentleman, who thorougly had enjoyed his life, enjoyed his time training in the US in the 50s, has lots of friends in the US and thinks that the NATO is very important force for the Europe and the world.
"Germany after the war was about rebuilding, inspirational to repair, it was about what I have to give to others. Today, the mentality of people is what I can GET from others."
I REALLY would want to spend a day with him, asking questions and pondering the world with him... 275 aerial victories, in just 621 combat missions. What an AMAZING rate! He flew the Me 109 in various versions from 1940 to 1945, but as Julle said, also all captured Allied types and even Messerscmitt 262.
I got the whole thing in tape, English language. I HOPE I'll get the stuff in video, too. It'll be available sooner or later.
(http://www.byterapers.com/~grendel/scan/historia/rall/rall1.jpg)
Grendel and mr. Rall :)
(http://www.byterapers.com/~grendel/scan/historia/rall/rall2.jpg)
(http://www.byterapers.com/~grendel/scan/historia/rall/rall3.jpg)
More on herr Rall:
http://www.google.com/search?q=gunther%20rall&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Julle comments:
I...WAS...THERE!
WOOOHOOO!
This guy flew the German fighters (mostly the 109) and he carefully tested and studied the P-38, 47, 51 and the Spit. He trained german squadronleaders to fight those captured AC. We are talking about a guy who had a LOT of sorties in all these planes. If anyone should ever make a WWII aircombat simulator hei-d need to call up this guy to end speculations.
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Cool! I wanna meet him, wonder if he's coming to the states anytime soon?
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Thats Great,,,I have his Book, Very Intresting
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I've seen several great interviews with him on Discovery. I especially liked the one where he talked about his Wilde Sau missions flying 110's at night. Looks like the last few years have not been kind to him though.
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what do you mean? he must be over 80 years old and doesn't show it.
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Ol' Mr Rall looks still like the interview he did in the early 90's this guy doesn't age :D I'd be great to meet him, from the interviews I've seen about him looks like he has quite a personality I bet talking to him about just life experiences would be about as cool as well :D
Mr. Rall
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Fantastic!, I look forward to hearing it
Ive also seen many an interveiw with gunther Rall and they are among the best you'll see.
He is one of those pilots who talks technically and not just about what he felt like.Should be a great interveiw if its anything like his others! :)
will you post the recording ?
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A side note: I still can't believe those restoration people painted over the airfilter on that G6 ... doh!
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Its a late "italian" style filter, not the early mesh one...
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I met him several years ago at an event that the local CAF organized with several US and German pilots from WWII, and got to spend about five minutes talking with him (too many other people). I have portrait/aircraft prints for both him and Walter Schuck that I got signed at the event.
One of the other German pilots who was there actually lives locally; he was a pilot in, IIRC, KG51, transferred in as they were transitioning to the Me-262 Sturmvögel. If I ever find enough free time to get back into modelling, I want to make a diorama of a situation he described to me: The 262 didn't have a steerable nosewheel; it castered. When taxiing to the runway, if you hit the inside brake too hard, you could get the nosewheel to caster 90°, at which point the plane wouldn't roll any further, so if you didn't have ground crew around, you had to set the brakes, get out, and kick the nosewheel back into line so you could taxi. (this was before the fuel situation degenerated to the point where the 262s would be towed out to the runway before they started their engines.)
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Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
Its a late "italian" style filter, not the early mesh one...
Yes, but they still painted it! If you close the filter valve you would strangle the engine ... DOH!
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very cool
you are fortunate - such opportunities are fading fast
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They were painted during the war too so I'm not sure what you're concerned about..
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The filterports too??? I thought they were supposed to draw in air?
(sorry for hijack)
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The filter body just has backward open louvers to draw air in.
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Ahh *phew*. Thanks for the info. :)
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Kossu adds:
This "meeting" was not a private one, but arranged by the Aviation Museum Society, Finland and was open to all. That's why it was pretty hard to get down to the gritty details as the time for questions was limited to about 15 minutes. This first lecture took place at Tikkakoski Air Force Base's OC and continued with a tour at the Finnish Air Force Museum.
http://www.jiop.fi/ksimuseo/
Anyway, General Rall sure is a good story teller and didn't need any kind of notes or aids during his over an hour "lecture". Very good info in that lecture too, and some stuff you don't normally think about very much.
For example when he described his experiences flying the Me 262, he said that one of the great things (among many others) about it was that the radio was soo good, and crisp sounding without any interference from the engine ignition system, which usually garbles the radios in planes with internal combustion engines. Never thought about that before...
One of his best comments was when somebody asked him about the best tactics against the P-47s....
"Just shoot them down"
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Very cool!
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275 huh?
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Yup, and those are the confirmed ones. LW didn't count probables.
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A side note: I still can't believe those restoration people painted over the airfilter on that G6 ... doh!
That 109G-6 is NOT restored. It´s parked there after her career was over in about 1954...
Don´t know about the paintings, but the AC was flightworthy when it came to the museum...
BTW: I have been sitting in that cockpit with the canopy closed...
julle
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It has been repainted though, after its career was ended ;)
...and, Oh yes, it was grrrreat to meet the general :) . Although it happened a day later than with these guys above. Herr Rall gave 2 more lectures the next day in another Finnish aviation museum. Got an autograph and a hand shake... :D
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I envy you Julle! Where is this museum? I might pack up the car and drive east to look at this. Do visitors normally get to sit in the planes?
Btw. why isn't this 109 being flown today? If it was airworthy when the museum got it it should be quite easy getting it back in the air. Flying 109's are as rare as plutonium these days.
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Just a Bf109, flyable or not, is rare in Finland. There are only 2 of them in showable shape. They would not risk them for flying.
And No.. One cannot sit in them anymore for the same reason. They are irreplacable. Julle got his chance while there was still the old museum director. New director does not allow it anymore.
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Where in Finland is this museum? Now that I got lots of spare time on my hands I'd also like for you guys to let me know when something big like this happens, I might just drive over to say hello. :)
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http://www.jiop.fi/ksimuseo/
julle
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Thanks.