Robert F. Dorr - Fighting Hitlers Jets The Extraordinary Story of the American Airmen Who Beat the Luftwaffe and Defeated Nazi Germany

It may have been one of the largest air shows ever held. Certainly, it was the largest ever for an audience of one.

On Friday, November 26, 1943, a collection of the Third Reichs most advanced weapons stood readyalmostto be demonstrated to Adolf Hitler. The location was the German military airfield at Insterburg in East Prussia. The weather in the region is usually lousy, but this was a cold but clear day.

En route with the Fhrer from Berlin aboard a Junkers Ju 52 tri-motor transport plane, Reichsmarshall (Marshal of the Empire) Hermann Gring hoped his orders to set up an impressive display had been followed to the letter.

Gring knew he was in disfavor with the Fhrer, even though the German air force, the Luftwaffe, of which he was in charge, appeared to be winning the war. German fighters and fighter pilots were shooting down American bombers right and left. A month ago, during one mission, the Americans had lost sixty bombers, each with a ten-man crew aboard. Gring kept telling the Fhrer that the Americans would not be able to continue to lose bomber crews at this rate, that the Allies would never be able to launch an invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe because German fighter pilots commanded the sky.

Hitler heard this, was encouraged by it, but saw Gring, grotesquely overweight and addicted to morphine, as an asset of declining value. The Fhrer ardently hoped that what he would witness today would alleviate any doubts about Gring and Grings Luftwaffe, and ensure that Germanys airmen would continue to command the skies.

In fact, Gring was very much a hands-on leader of the air force he loved, and despite his flawshe was grossly overweight, had a reputation for enjoying fine food and wine, loved partying, and was publicly pledged to blindly follow Hitlerhe was more complex than his latter-day image suggests. He had counseled against Germany starting the war because he felt its forces were not ready. In Hitlers Charisma, Laurence Rees wrote:

Gring was a more complex character than the bluff, bullying caricature that is so often presented, and his views about the road Hitler was traveling were complex. It wasnt that Gring was against Nazi aggressionquite the contrary. What Gring worried about [in 1938]as did Hitlers generalswas a wide-ranging conflict that involved Britain, France, and potentially America and the Soviet Union as well.

Gring was happily married to the actress Emmy Sonnemann and was father to a daughter, Edda, who was just over a year old. They lived in epic splendor at his vast estate in Carinhall in the Schorfheide Forest and at his grand house in Berlin. Life for Gring was good.

Gring feared Hitlers temper. Even though he was officially the second-ranking figure in the Reich, he had never really been an insider. Jittery about what would happen on this day, Gring also saw this as his day to shine.

Gring looked like a child with a new toy, one observer commented, as he prepared to claim credit for Germanys recent scientific advances. The Fhrer was especially interested in a new jet aircraft called the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow). Today Gring would be certain it was showcased to good advantage. This was his chance, he believed, to restore his on-again, off-again status in good standing with the Fhrer. It was also a grand opportunity to outshine his rival, Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Erhard Milch, who held the title of air inspector general.

Several black, or secret, aircraft and items of equipment were ready for Hitlers inspection. None looked more dull or deadly basking in the winter sun than the Me 262, the Wunderwaffe or wonder weapon that was soon to be touted as the worlds first operational jet fighter. Gring had been singing the praises of the Me 262 for months. For todays show, two prototypes of the Me 262 were dismantled and shipped by rail with a crew of the Messerschmitt companys most experienced mechanics. The trip took them five miserable days through Czechoslovakia and Poland.

Although he was his countrys highest-ranking military officer, wearing an elaborate uniform of his own design dripping with awards and decorations, Gring was not as well informed about the Me 262 as he thought.

This soon became apparent after the Ju 52/3m landed at Insterburg just past noon, taxied to a halt in front of the top brass at the military airbase, and disgorged its very important passengers. Emerging from the transport were Hitler, Albert Speer, Gring, Milch, and an entourage of officers of the Luftwaffe. Hitlers personal pilot, and the only pilot Hitler would fly with, SS-Brigadefhrer (Major General) Hans Baur, said that he flew all of these notable people from Berlin, taking off from Tempelhof and making the short flight in good weather, so there was no problem in having the transport plane overloaded with so many notable persons. Hitler, it should be noted, did not like flying on a crowded plane, and always kept a seat for himself and his painting of Frederick the Great, the great German military leader he admired so much, in a case. He did not talk during flights, since flying scared him. Baurs recollection notwithstanding, some of the other luminaries may have traveled from Berlin aboard other airplanes or arrived by other means.

Karl Baur, chief test pilot for Messerschmitt and no relation to Hans, remembered Hitler arriving with a flock of Generals and grim-looking SS guards at his side. Karl Baur was a virtuoso in the cockpit of the new aircraft being developed with those new engines. He had no idea that within the short span of a couple of years he would observe his Me 262 at displays in two places with similar-sounding namesInsterburg and Indiana.