Helmut Mahlke

5291. Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot, by Helmut Mahlke Translated by John Weal (read 11 Jul 2015) The author went into the German Navy in 1932 and into the Luftwaffe in 1935 where he became a Stuka pilot. The memoir appears to have been written long after the war, but is very precise in regard to dates and action he was involved in.. He says some words about how awful the Versailles treaty was, but has no word of condemnation for Hitler. He appears to have had no political views during the war, but was a very gungho pilot. Usually when reading a war memoir one tends to empathize with the author, but I could not do that in this book and was always glad when he or his outfit had trouble--though there was little that went wrong for him most of the time till his near fatal downing in July 1941. So he does not tell of the dire events which finally overtook the Nazis as the war went on, I found this book good reading even though the memoir ends in July 1941 and one does not get to hear him tell about any defeat, unfortunately.… (more)