The Final Hours: A German Jet Pilot Plots Against Goering

by Johannes Steinhoff

Book Overview

Fighter ace Col. Johannes Steinhoff commanded an elite group of pilots trained to fly the first jet aircraft employed in combat, the famous Messerschmitt Me-262, at a time when Reich Marshal Hermann... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0933852509
• ISBN13: 9780933852501
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Nautical & Aviation Publishing Company of Ame
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A book capturing the love of flying combined with an incredible tale of mutiny

"The Final Hours" by Johannes Steinhoff is a gripping account of the final months of the Luftwaffe, told by one of Germany's top fighter aces. This translation retains the very readable style Steinhoff used to recall his emotional roller-coaster ride from the highs of leading a group of Me-109's in combat; his frustrations with Hermann Goering, which were shared by other fighter aces; the lows of his punishment for his participation in this mutiny; the joys of redemption as he led the only Me-262 group in the Luftwaffe; and the mixed emotions of spending his final days of World War II as a prisoner of war. Steinhoff begins the tale in the hospital as a guest of the Ami's (German slang for Americans) , following the crash of an Me-262 which left him permanently scarred. Readers immediately relate to Steinhoff, by feeling a sense of intense sorrow for this proud fighter pilot as he begins his recovery from horrific wounds. Along with two colleagues, these once-proud German soldiers, now feeling doubly depressed as both patients and prisoners, plan a bold breakout across the knee-high picket fence surrounding the hospital to go recover a type-writer to begin writing Steinhoff's memoirs. While sounding like a trivial excursion, this trek saved an incredible tale of the mutineers who tried to stop Hermann Goering. Upon receipt of orders directing "Fighter Group 77 to proceed immediately to Schoenwald airfield where it will be engaged in Reich Defense," Steinhoff moved high fighter group from Transylvania, Romania to an area near Berlin in October 1944. The allies are enjoying near air supremacy over the Reich, and former allies such as the Romanians, are now flying Me-109's against the Luftwaffe. With the Reich collapsing, Steinhoff recalls the words of Hermann Goering from the Areopagus, where he blamed the Luftwaffe commander's failure to espouse the ideals of National Socialism as the cause of the failure to protect the Reich. The Luftwaffe commanders thought they knew better - the proper use of the Me-262, the first operational jet aircraft in combat, could help turn the tide of war. Subsequent chapters recall the various paths the fighter pilots use to promote this taboo topic. The mutineers first try through the General of Fighter Pilots, General Galland; then through the SS; and finally through Hermann Goering himself. Surprisingly, rather than being executed, the mutineers are exiled to the four corners of the rapidly shrinking Reich. Finally faced with a dearth of experienced fighter pilots, Goering is forced to make Steinhoff's dream of leading the only group of Me-262 jet fighters into combat. The fluid writing style accurately describes the love affair between pilot and aircraft, as he steps through his pre-flight inspection and through the thrills of combat. Steinhoff also recalls some of the operational testing of new equipment, like an electric gunsight that leads enemy aircraft (didn't work) and rockets that sometimes w

One Man's Story of the End in Germany

In the final hours (well really months) of World War II, the German military was still fighting to hope against hope taht something could turn the tied of Allied victory. This was the time when in Hitler's bunker the synchopants were still trying to durry Hitler's favor. This was the time when the Americans, British and Russian armies were reducing the amount of Germany that was left under Nazi control on a daily basis. During this time, units like that of Gen. Steinhoff were still fighting against all odds to try to turn things around. By then, the Luftwaffe had better equipment in the rocket armed ME-262 jets than they had ever had before. But it was a time when a handfull of these superior planes were attacking thousands of bombers escorted by more thousands of fighters. Mr. Steinhoff continued to fly in defense of Germany until his 262 crashed on take off and he was horribly burned. This is a book about a war time hero (176 kills) watching his country fall apart. Then it becomes a story of a man, horribly burned struggling through months in hospitals getting his face put back into something not too horrible.