This is coolbert:
I see that the distinguished German combat aviator from the era of the Second World War [WW2] - - Hans Joachim Herrmann - - has passed away. Age ninety-seven, referred to has Hajo Herrmann, Hajo seeing extensive action as a bomber pilot on a variety of fronts, ending the war as a commander of air defense units [night fighters]!
"Hajo Herrmann (1913-2010) was an outstanding German Luftwaffe pilot who also distinguished himself during the Second World War as a courageous air force commander and innovative air defense tactician."
During WW2 [and before that too] piloting a bomber aircraft in the skies over:
* Spain. [Spanish Civil War]
* Poland.
* Norway. [the 1940 campaign and the attacks on the Arctic convoys both]
* England.
* Sicily.
* Greece.
* Malta.
"As a bomber pilot, Herrmann flew 320 missions and sank twelve ships totaling 70,000 tons. He also flew more than 50 night fighter missions, destroying nine Allied bombers He was shot down four times, and wounded twice."
Subsequently - - a commander and innovator of air defense tactics as used by the Luftwaffe to defend the skies over Nazi Germany. In command of and flying missions as a night-fighter pilot! Successfully completing fifty missions, nine allied bombers shot down.
At the very end of the war - - conceived of and directed the units known as the "Rammjäger Sonderkommando Elbe". Fighter pilots instructed to "down" an allied bomber by RAMMING!
[this tactic was not so very successful - - extremely wasteful of men and machines!]
Survived the end of the war - - incarcerated in a Soviet prison [forced labor camp] for ten years.
"At the end of the war Herrmann became a Soviet captive, and was held for ten years in Soviet Russian prison camps."
Subsequent to his prison release - - became a lawyer, his new career lasting almost until his death.
Comments:
* Hajo flew 320 bomber missions. Shot down four times, wounded twice. Contrast that record with an American bomber pilot during the same conflict, twenty-five missions and your tour of duty was over! An American pilot having only a one in five chance of surviving twenty-five missions! Hajo flew - - 320!! The odds speak for themselves!
* German combat aviators should not be understood to be so totally omnipotent in the skies over Europe. The top pilots quite often were shot down on multiple occasions and yet kept going!!
* Freeman Dyson has stated that the German night fighter pilots were among the ONLY German military service that emerged from the war with their honor intact, highly respected by their allied adversaries. Hajo was among them?
* Hajo as did Erich Hartmann survived ten years in a Soviet prison [labor camp]. Such men by their very nature just seemed to have a robustness of mind and body that cannot be denied.
* I would be remiss to not mention that as an attorney, Hajo defended on occasion persons best described as "Holocaust Deniers"!
coolbert.
I see that the distinguished German combat aviator from the era of the Second World War [WW2] - - Hans Joachim Herrmann - - has passed away. Age ninety-seven, referred to has Hajo Herrmann, Hajo seeing extensive action as a bomber pilot on a variety of fronts, ending the war as a commander of air defense units [night fighters]!
"Hajo Herrmann (1913-2010) was an outstanding German Luftwaffe pilot who also distinguished himself during the Second World War as a courageous air force commander and innovative air defense tactician."
During WW2 [and before that too] piloting a bomber aircraft in the skies over:
* Spain. [Spanish Civil War]
* Poland.
* Norway. [the 1940 campaign and the attacks on the Arctic convoys both]
* England.
* Sicily.
* Greece.
* Malta.
"As a bomber pilot, Herrmann flew 320 missions and sank twelve ships totaling 70,000 tons. He also flew more than 50 night fighter missions, destroying nine Allied bombers He was shot down four times, and wounded twice."
Subsequently - - a commander and innovator of air defense tactics as used by the Luftwaffe to defend the skies over Nazi Germany. In command of and flying missions as a night-fighter pilot! Successfully completing fifty missions, nine allied bombers shot down.
At the very end of the war - - conceived of and directed the units known as the "Rammjäger Sonderkommando Elbe". Fighter pilots instructed to "down" an allied bomber by RAMMING!
[this tactic was not so very successful - - extremely wasteful of men and machines!]
Survived the end of the war - - incarcerated in a Soviet prison [forced labor camp] for ten years.
"At the end of the war Herrmann became a Soviet captive, and was held for ten years in Soviet Russian prison camps."
Subsequent to his prison release - - became a lawyer, his new career lasting almost until his death.
Comments:
* Hajo flew 320 bomber missions. Shot down four times, wounded twice. Contrast that record with an American bomber pilot during the same conflict, twenty-five missions and your tour of duty was over! An American pilot having only a one in five chance of surviving twenty-five missions! Hajo flew - - 320!! The odds speak for themselves!
* German combat aviators should not be understood to be so totally omnipotent in the skies over Europe. The top pilots quite often were shot down on multiple occasions and yet kept going!!
* Freeman Dyson has stated that the German night fighter pilots were among the ONLY German military service that emerged from the war with their honor intact, highly respected by their allied adversaries. Hajo was among them?
* Hajo as did Erich Hartmann survived ten years in a Soviet prison [labor camp]. Such men by their very nature just seemed to have a robustness of mind and body that cannot be denied.
* I would be remiss to not mention that as an attorney, Hajo defended on occasion persons best described as "Holocaust Deniers"!
coolbert.
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