In the world of aviation history, few figures stand out as prominently as Hanna Reitsch, one of the most renowned female test pilots of the 20th century. Her story, as told in her memoir The Sky My Kingdom, is a compelling account of passion, resilience, and an unyielding pursuit of dreams. For fans of the Maier Files, where a mysterious female test pilot emerges, Reitsch’s story echoes the spirit of courage and enigma. Her life...
During the course of the Second World War, the German Wehrmacht formed a total of fifteen heavy tank battalions (schwere Panzer-Abteilung) equipped with Tiger or King Tiger heavy tanks – twelve for the Heer (Army) and three for the Waffen-SS. In the decades since the war, a number of excellent memoirs from former Tiger-tank crews have appeared, including Otto Carius’s Tigers in the Mud and Richard von Rosen’s Panzer Ace. Additionaly, several unit histories about the various Tiger-tank battalions have also been published; in...
Rudolf Hess’s murder, an eyewitness report from Abdallah Melaouhi.Abdallah Melaouhi: Although until this day I had experienced a lot of misery, pain, anguish, war and death, I had not witnessed any excessive misery. Even though in that part of the world where I come from the people who lived there—including myself—had gone through and experienced more than what the average Central European would have experienced in a lifetime. As mentioned earlier, I had learnt that my grandfather was executed by […]...
Reinhard ‘Teddy’ Suhren fired more successful torpedo shots than any other man during the war, many before he even became a U-boat commander. He was also the U-boat service’s most irreverent and rebellious commander; his lack of a military bearing was a constant source of friction with higher authority. Valued for his good humour and ability to lead, his nickname was acquired because he marched like a teddy-bear. Despite his refusal to conform to the...
By 1945 World War II had ended, but in Lithuania the war against the Soviet Union had only just begun. One of the bloodiest battles of the Lithuanian armed resistance, the battle of Kalniškės, was fought only days after “VE day”. Lithuanian farmers, school teachers, university professors, university and high school students, and a small number of remaining non-commissioned officers and lower ranking officers from independent Lithuania’s military, organized themselves into a partisan movement that...
Mein Flugbuch are the memoirs of the third highest-scoring fighter ace in history, Günther Rall. Memoirs are considerably more than recollections put to paper. What’s more, they are more than journalistically composed genuine stories. Memoirs are comprised of two important elements: scene (the story) and reflection. Without reflection, you don’t have a “memoir” — you have an arrangement of vignettes that decribes occasions, but does not permeate the occasions with significance and relevance. Significance and relevance originate from reflection. A […]...
Gehlen’s memoirs are an interesting read and a remarkable view behind the scenes of the eastern front and the fully idiot decisions imposed by politicians (read Hitler), overruling the best military strategies. But don’t expect dangerous revelations. Although there’s an intriguing claim that Martin Bormann, chief of the Nazi party organization, was a Soviet spy personally protected by Hitler. Also a remarkable statement is that in 1939 the German and Prussian army was not yet...