Female Luftwaffe Pilots in Combat 1945

[Music] the battle of berlin the last climactic clash between nazi germany and the soviet union for mastery of hitler's capital would witness an extraordinary aerial mission that stood out among the many desperate luftwaffe operations during the battle because the pilot that flew it was a woman the luftwaffe did not have a tradition of female pilots indeed although hundreds of thousands of german women served in uniform during world war ii they were generally relegated to supporting or auxiliary roles such as nurses searchlight operators and communications clerks in the army air force and navy few women were seen on the front lines or in combat as the nazis had traditional views on women's roles and didn't think such duties befitting of german womanhood in this regard germany was very different from the soviet union where women saw plenty of combat as anti-aircraft gunners tank drivers snipers and bomber and fighter pilots in the american and british armed forces women were kept out of combat but special aerial ferry services were formed where qualified female pilots could find jobs fairing new aircraft to front line squadrons this could be dangerous work if they encountered german aircraft reluctantly the luftwaffe had permitted a few women pilots to undertake similar duties towards the end of the war acting as ferry pilots this group of flyers included some famous female test pilots chief among them hannah reich one other was better user born in 1919 she had worked as a stunt pilot in pre-war movies and had joined the luftwaffe in 1943 being made a hauptmann or captain her husband was knight fighter pilot hobtman hans jurgen user who was killed in a mid-air collision in 1944. working as a ferry pilot user flew the messerschmitt 109 the fokkerwolf 190 the junckers ju-87 stuka and the messerschmitt 110. [Applause] unlike british and american ferry pilots she always flew fully armed in case of an encounter with a hostile aircraft towards the end of the war user was undertaking training to qualify on the new messerschmitt 262 jet fighter as a stunned pilot she generally flew below treetop height as she put it as an added protection from roving enemy fighters on the 8th of april 1945 germany had suffered its first loss of a female pilot in action when melita countess von stauffenberg a relation by marriage of the count von stauffenberg who tried to kill hitler with a bomb at the wolf's lair on the 20th of july 1944 was killed when flying a booker bu-181 training aircraft she encountered an american p-51 mustang following the july plot many members of her family have been arrested and or executed her husband was one such detained and held at a special camp inside buchenwald concentration camp melita was a famous female pilot who had been awarded the iron cross second class and the gold front flying clasp for bombers with diamonds from hermann goring but privately felt a loyalty to germany but not to the nazi regime she managed to stay in contact with her family who as high profile hostages were fairly well treated at buchenwald and she flew several times to the camp to check on them on the 4th of april 1945 she had flown to buchenwald and discovered tua horror that the special enclosure was empty the high-profile prisoners including her husband had been moved to regensburg following her husband's trail on the 8th of april she and her male co-pilot had taken off for regensburg but were attacked by a p-51 mustang that was searching for trains to strafe though wounded von schtaufenberg managed to crash land the plane in a field she died two hours later in hospital her husband survived the war beta user also decided to launch a rescue mission on her own accord similar to that of von stauffenberg's by the 20th of april 1945 soviet forces had reached berlin's eastern suburbs user was deeply worried as her infant son and his nanny were still at a house in berlin soviet forces had begun to encircle the city time was running out yuza was serving as a pilot in ferry squadron one her unit was based at bart 280 kilometers north of berlin on the baltic coast desperate to get into berlin and rescue her two-year-old son and his nanny who were at a house at rangsdorf she took one of the squadron's erado aircraft and flew into guttau air base inside berlin arriving at gatau on the 21st of april 1945 the situation in berlin was dire with heavy street fighting as soviet tank columns fought their way towards the government quarter where hitler still tried to direct the battle from his bunker beneath the reich chancellery garden she commandeered a field car and a driver and drove through the ravaged city to a house at rangsdorf being reunited with her son yuza returned to the air base the following day 22nd of april to discover to a horror that the errado 66 had been destroyed by enemy fire searching around for some way out of berlin she ran into a luftwaffe air mechanic whom she knew and he told her that there was a five-seat zebel fh-104 communications plane that belonged to some general in one of the hangars next user went to the colonel commanding the base and pleaded for some fuel he permitted it and after quickly familiarizing herself with the twin engine plane while it was being fueled loaded her son his nanny her mechanic friend and also two wounded german soldiers aboard and took off heading north west flying northwest at low altitude she dodged some soviet flak and roving fighters before landing at lek 30 kilometers west of flensburg in northern germany her aviation career now over user settled in flensburg after the war and entered business she created a chain of famous sex shops which became very successful making her a millionaires in 1989 she received the federal cross of merit from west germany and incredibly only learned to drive at the age of 75. beta user died in switzerland in 2001 at the age of 81. melita von stauffenberg and beto usa were not the only female pilots to undertake daring end-of-war missions another being the aforementioned hannah rich but raichu's extraordinary berlin mission will be the subject of a future video so stay tuned thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 673,026

Rating: 4.9560981 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton, Berlin 1945, Female Pilots, beate uhse

Id: v8OsaIqxxwk

Length: 8min 33sec (513 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 22 2021

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