Hannig - Luftwaffe Fighter Ace

My flying career began with a conversation I had with a school friend in the upper fifth shortly after Easter 1940. He belonged to the Flieger-Hitlerjugend, a branch of the general Hitler Youth movement, whose aim was to promote gliding as a sport among boys aged between 14 and 18. Its members were taught to fly gliders free of charge by instructors from the NSFK (National Socialist Flying Corps). This corps, itself a part of the political SA, was the umbrella organization responsible for furthering the cause of all things aeronautical among an already air-conscious German public. As such it had taken over, and now controlled, every aspect of sports flying in the country.

But when my classmate suggested that I team up with him and learn to fly too, I foresaw a slight problem. Five years earlier, at the age of eleven, I had joined the Jungvolk. Modelled along the lines of the scout movement, the Jungvolk was for youngsters not yet old enough to enter the Hitler Youth. When I reached my fourteenth birthday, however, I had decided not to transfer my allegiance, but rather to stay with the Jungvolk and become a senior leader. Since that time I had worked my way up through the ranks and was now a Fhnleinfhrer (troop leader), in charge of a troop of 150 lads.

Despite my advanced years I therefore still belonged to the Jungvolk. And as a member of this junior organization I was not entitled, strictly speaking, to join the Flieger-Hitlerjugend. But if this difficulty could be overcome, I would grab the opportunity like a shot. To be able to fly had been my boyhood dream since the days of making paper aeroplanes. So my school friend made the necessary enquiries, I was accepted, and thus embarked upon my life of flying.

In the Whitsun holidays of 1940 the pair of us, both in uniform, set off by bike from Zobten, the village where we lived, for the nearby town of Bunzlau. This was the regional centre of what was then our part of Lower Silesia, but which is now in Poland. On arriving in Bunzlau we made our way to the NSFK workshops where we reported to the duty instructor. He in turn took us to the head of the establishment, an NSFK Sturmfhrer, who greeted us in a fatherly fashion with a smile and a friendly handshake. After asking a few questions, he briefly outlined for me the daily routine of a gliding school.

I was assigned to a group of fourteen Flieger-Hitlerjugend who were busy loading an SG-38 training glider on to a truck. This was in preparation for the drive out to the slopes next morning for a days flying. Two other groups were similarly engaged. Once all three gliders had been securely stowed, there was an hours lecture on the theory and practice of flight. Then the following days programme and duties were read out before it was time for supper. Once this was over we spent a convivial evening getting to know one another.

These few hours were enough to make me feel completely at home in the company of my new friends. The next morning I woke, washed, dressed and breakfasted as usual. But then began a new routine: morning parade and roll-call, followed by the order to climb aboard the vehicles. Soon our small convoya van, three trucks each carrying a glider, and an ambulance (!)were on the road and heading out to the practice slopes.