Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot by Helmut Mahlke

Author:Helmut Mahlke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473822375
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2013-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

I submitted a full report on the débâcle to our Geschwaderkommodore and requested that he take the matter up with Jafü 2, stressing the fact that this was no way to conduct an operation. The following day Oberstleutnant Hagen and I travelled to Jafü 2 HQ determined to press home the point. General Osterkamp’s welcome was friendly and his disarming confession – ‘I readily admit, yesterday was an operational error on my part’ – completely took the wind out of my sails.

He went on to explain that he had been at his forward command post up on the cliffs and was watching through the scissors telescope as the action above Dover unfolded. If he had been leading the Stuka unit, he said, he would have aborted the mission the moment the Spitfire squadrons appeared. That did it! I found myself letting fly after all, telling the general in no uncertain terms what I had been bottling up inside me since the previous day. If memory serves, my outburst went something like this:

And just how do you imagine you would have managed that, Herr General? The Ju 87 is the slowest aircraft engaged in the present campaign. The enemy fighters have got nearly twice the speed we have. We couldn’t just ‘pack up and clear off’, even if we had wanted to. And with our meagre armament we’re dead ducks against a strong enemy force like yesterday’s if our own fighters don’t stay on top of things. We have been trained to attack our given targets no matter what the circumstances. But we have to go in fast, using the element of surprise whenever possible, and fly tactically to keep the enemy defences guessing.

What we can’t afford to do [I went on heatedly] is to stage a flypast along the English coast until every last enemy fighter has taken to the air – at least, not if our own supposed fighter escort doesn’t stick close.

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