Tales of a Ju88 pilot

[Monostripezebra]

A very well known pilot who is famous for flying gliders into his 90ies on a competative level gives a sobering insight into the harsh realities of warfare.

 

http://video.flyingheritage.com/v/116079411/hans-werner-grosse.htm

[xvii-Dietrich]

Thanks for posting this. It is always interesting to hear the first-hand accounts.

 

I found the section when Herr Grosse speaks about the exaggerations of claims extremely interesting (26:16 onwards), explaining that it was partly a defence mechanism, as "niemand schuld sein wollte an der verlorene Krieg" (= no-one wants to be held personally responsible for losing the war).

[Lusekofte]

Well I hope someone text this one day

[Retnek]

Well I hope someone text this one day

It's there already, see English transcript right below the video ;-)

[Retnek]

Cited from this exceptionally honest interview:

 

"Katja: At the time, military awards were also given out. Did you get any and what did they mean to you? What did you think of them? Hans-Werner: Well I just had a look through my diary and there’s a comment in there: "Whoever has an active imagination and is a good liar, he’ll get the badge." I never claimed to have sunk a ship but I’m lucky enough that I didn’t have to rewrite my war story. Just as an example: I flew behind one of my friends at night in the North Sea and suddenly he dropped both of his torpedoes. They would have flown just past my right-hand side because we flew so close together, even at night time. And then I flew straight ahead for another two minutes, that‘s 12 kilometres, until I fired at some target or other that I wasn’t sure about. And of course I didn’t say: "I sank something." And this comrade of mine then said he fired at a 10 (thousand) tonne cruiser and that it went up in flames and probably sank. Of course that wasn’t true because I would have had to fly over the 10,000 tonne cruiser if there had been one. So people lied a lot and people had very active imaginations. But in hindsight it can probably be explained by the fact that nobody wanted to feel responsible for losing the war and that, as a survival mechanism, people needed to come up with a story about how they gave their all to defend the fatherland. I came from the coast, I know how long it takes a ship to sink, and I also watched the navy training in Swinemünde. I knew that it couldn’t simply be there and then just disappear. I never claimed to have sunk it and I didn’t get any medals for it, except for a Wound Badge. And at the time it made me think: Jesus, the others are all heroes, you must be an awful coward because you didn’t sink anything. In retrospect I’m very happy with my stance on the whole thing because on the 20th, or rather on the 12th of February 1945, we attacked a convoy in the North Sea, and because of the sinking announcement from our garrisons, an armed forces report came out where they said: During this mission in the North Sea, two cruisers were sunk by daring torpedo bombers, one of them in the Leander class. Two destroyers were sunk and seven cargo ships were sunk. Seven further cargo ships were hit and then probably sank in the gale-force storm. I made contact with the water during that mission when I was supposed to attack an aircraft carrier, but I fired my torpedo at a destroyer and, after I fired the torpedo, the destroyer turned towards me, meaning I didn’t hit it. And then a corporal pilot spoke to me and said: "Lieutenant, sir, I saw your destroyer exploding." And then I said: "I find that hard to believe. It just turned towards me" "Yeah, did you not see mine exploding too?" I said: "I didn’t see any destroyer exploding. I can’t help you there." Thank God I had that attitude, because it was tempting to say "Well, he did confirm it, so it must be true." And I said it already, but that’s why I didn’t need to rewrite my story of the Second World War. I’m very pleased with that. In that mission where so much was apparently sunk, not a single ship was even hit. What people saw can be explained in part by the fact that U- boats were attacking the convoy at the same time. Then depth charges were dropped and they exploded and, well, that creates a big fountain. And when we peeled off after the operation, then the ones who were looking back – the radioman and the aerial gunner – they say the convoy for the first time and every time they saw an explosion they said: "Hit! Hit!" And then suddenly this incredibly exaggerated report came out."

 

Compare: http://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Ju-88/KG26.html

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geleitzug_JW_64

https://www.warsailors.com/convoys/jw64.html

 

"So I was in mortal fear again and it was too much for a young mind to deal with. And I have to say that after the war, the people who experienced those types of things, and who survived them, they were so psychologically damaged – we weren’t allowed to mention it back then. A German boy, because he came from a German mother, had an innate courage and was never afraid. All these stupid things were told to us. And so all the fear that you naturally felt, you thought it was some kind of personal flaw. So we came back, and I have to say we were all a bit screwed up ... more or less. And you can see it. Now you’re allowed to talk about these things. Even in the comparatively less dangerous wars in Afghanistan and so on, dozens and dozens of soldiers come home [shell] shocked and have to be psychiatrically treated. That sort of thing didn’t exist in our day because fear didn’t exist."

 

"so back we were on methamphetamines – what people call “uppers” today and they do keep you awake, but don’t necessarily make you perform very well, as people had hoped, but rather they stop you from being able to have a normal, decent sleep. And a lot of people were overworked too because they took these "uppers" or these methamphetamines and then felt invincible, but they were becoming more and more incapacitated. I couldn’t tolerate the stuff – thank God. The one time I took it, I couldn’t sleep for three nights and since then I haven’t taken any. I was lucky. Lots of them who just treated it like candy and started taking it with alcohol, they became junkies and of course they jeopardized their crews because of it."