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| Johannes Steinhoff (1966) |
This interview first appeared in World War II magazine in
February 2000
"Johannes Steinhoff was truly one of the most charmed fighter
pilots in the Luftwaffe. His exploits became legendary though his wartime
career ended tragically. Steinhoff served in combat from the first days of the
war through April 1945. He flew more than 900 missions and engaged in aerial
combat in over 200 sorties, operating from the Western and Eastern fronts, as
well as in the Mediterranean theater. Victor over 176 opponents, Steinhoff was
himself shot down a dozen times and wounded once. Yet he always emerged from
his crippled and destroyed aircraft in high spirits. He opted to ride his
aircraft down on nearly every occasion, never trusting parachutes.
Steinhoff lived through lengthy exposure to combat, loss of
friends and comrades, the reversal of fortune as the tide turned against
Germany, and political dramas that would have broken the strongest of men.
Pilots such as Steinhoff, Hannes Trautloft, Adolf Galland and many others
fought not only Allied aviators but also their own corrupt leadership, which
was willing to sacrifice Germany's best and bravest to further personal and
political agendas. In both arenas, they fought a war of survival.
