Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot

摘要

In his book jacket photo, the author looks like a child with a premature-aging disease, which must be what command of a Stuka squadron at the age of 26 did to a young German. Yet Helmut Mahlke was one of the lucky ones. His entire combat career, between September 1939 and July 1941, precisely matched the time during which the Junkers Ju-87 flew nearly unopposed, except during the Battle of Britain, when Spitfires and Hurricanes destroyed them relentlessly. But over Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Russia, the Stuka either was heavily escorted by fighters or flew in skies empty of opposition.