Udet and Leni Riefenstahl

[Patrick]

Indeed!

Here's more about Greim & Reitsch:

On April 23, Goering sent his famous message to Hitler, asking the Fuehrer if he (Goering) should assume leadership of the Reich. Hitler responded by relieving Goering of his command and ordering his arrest. The Fuehrer then summoned Greim to Berlin.

When Hitler's message arrived on April 24, Greim was at his headquarters in Munich. A less fanatical man would have ignored the dispatch, for flying to Berlin was little short of suicide. After all, not a single operational airfield remained in German hands in the dying city. Greim, howver, left at once for the capital of the Reich. He was accompanied by Hanna Reitsch, another fanatical Nazi and a famous stunt pilot, who was one of the few women to hold the Iron Cross. The next morning they arrived at the Luftwaffe testing and research base at Rechlin, where they intended to board a helicopter and land in the garden of the Chancellery. The only helicopter at Rechlin was damaged, however, so the pair appropriated a FW -190 and ordered its pilot, a sergeant, to fly to Gatow. Hanna was stuffed in the tail of the two-seat fighter as the general and sergeant hedge-hopped Russian flak to Gatow. Here, the next morning, Greim and Reitsch boarded an old Arado-60 (Ar-60) training plane and flew at treetop level toward Hitler's bunker. Over the Tiergarten in Berlin an antiaircraft shell shattered Greim's foot. Hanna Reitsch took over the controls and landed the aircraft in a shell-potted street on the east-west axis near the Chancellery -- a neat piece of flying indeed. Greim, in terrible pain, was carried to the Fuehrer Bunker.

From Men of the Luftwaffe
by Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr.

Mitcham's got a few things confused in this account. The FW-190 was of course a single-seat fighter, but it's possible that Rechlin had a two seater training varient (like a FW-190 S8). And Hanna didn't fly an "Ar-60" into Berlin. That would have been one of the very first fighters Arado developed back in the early '30s (my references only go back as far as an Ar-64). Seem to recall that she & Greim made that flight in an Ar-96. But the rest of the account is accurate.

She also smashed up while testing an Me-163 Komet, not the Bachem Ba-349 Natter I was thinking of . . .

[Bulldog90]

Thanks Greg!

Originally Posted by Patrick
Didn't Hanna eventually break her back while testing a German version of the Japanese Oka (Baka) interceptor?


Barker:
Better than breaking her back while celebrating with....'freunds'...


sorry, folks - carry on..

"Awww... What's a spine or two between freunds???"

"Prost!"

[TomVrille]

I notice that this thread has gathered a few fans of Ernst Udet (me too!), so maybe someone can enlighten me as to Udet's weapon of choice when he decided to do himself in. I have seen three different versions in print. The colorful version states that he used a Colt .45 that had once belonged to one of Pancho Villa's followers, or was even one of Pancho's personal weapons. The prosaic version says he used his service luger. The undecided version just says a pistol. Does anybody know which version to believe?

[Barker]

http://www.jastaboelcke.de/aces/erns...t_epilogue.htm

Ernst Udet some interesting tidbits...Pt.1

still looking...

That's a tough one to confirm, mein Freund!... I've been digging away, trying to find information on his suicide for the better part of an hour... and still nothing! I feel like my tailwheel is tied to a tree or something! I hope you have better luck. "Guter Jagen"!

"Prost!"

[Patrick]

Dang it! I've got a desk load of work and I've got three books out reading all about Ernst . All of them say pretty much the same thing about the gun -- it was a pistol. Nothing about Villa or a Luger.

He should have taken Der Dicke up on his offer to use Romiten for a month of hunting. After that , he could have quietly slipped off to lead an operational air unit & left the production headaches to Milch.

Patrick Dang it! I've got a desk load of work and I've got three books out reading all about Ernst . All of them say pretty much the same thing about the gun -- it was a pistol. Nothing about Villa or a Luger.

He should have taken Der Dicke up on his offer to use Romiten for a month of hunting. After that , he could have quietly slipped off to lead an operational air unit & left the production headaches to Milch.

... A far better outcome, to be sure! Ernst would have been happier, and he most certainly would have contributed more to the Fatherland. His loss was greatly felt... even if they didn't realize it at the time. "Hals und Beinbruch!"

"Prost!"

[Gregvan]

Hi,

According to Armand van Ishoven's biography of Udet "The Fall of an Eagle", which is pretty authoritative, the pistol was "his Mexican 12mm Colt".

Greg

[Barker]

Originally Posted by VonReichel

... A far better outcome, to be sure! Ernst would have been happier, and he most certainly would have contributed more to the Fatherland.

One of those searches produced a great deal about Herman "I didn't really do much in either conflict" Göring. Author's opinion is that Herman was so far down the road of his various appetites, public and private, that guys like Ernst were doomed.

Originally Posted by patrick

He should have taken Der Dicke up on his offer to use Romiten for a month of hunting. After that , he could have quietly slipped off to lead an operational air unit & left the production headaches to Milch.

I've always believed he would have been boxed out or trampled no matter what he did...he was around strange grown up games and there's only one way to play those.

His loss was greatly felt... even if they didn't realize it at the time.

Speak of appetites: ladies and aircraft and flying.
None of which are for middle & old age men, at least, not at the pace of what Udet had talked himself into.

In another time...perhaps pilots like him are valued and kept around for what they very much still Do Know...

Some things are still taught by a mentor rather than an instructor...Ernst would have been good at this.

Round Peg, Square Hole.

(sorry, baddun, there...)