Audiobook7 hours
Duel Under the Stars: The Memoir of a Luftwaffe Night Pilot in World War II
Written by Wilhelm Johnen and James Holland
Narrated by Steven Crossley
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Wilhelm Johnen flew his first operational mission in July 1941, having completed his blind-flying training. In his first couple of years he brought down two enemy planes. The tally went up rapidly once the air war was escalated in spring 1943, when Air Marshal Arthur Harris of the RAF Bomber Command began the campaign dubbed the Battle of the Ruhr.
During this phrase of the war Johnen's successes were achieved against a 710-strong force of bombers. Johnen's further successes during Harris's subsequent Berlin offensive led to his promotion as Staffelkapitan (squadron leader) of Nachtjagdgeschwader and a move to Mainz. During a sortie from there, his Bf 110 was hit by return fire and he was forced to land in Switzerland. He and his crew were interned by the authorities. The Germans were deeply worried about leaving a sophisticatedly equipped night fighter and its important air crew in the hands of a foreign government, even if it was a neutral one. After negotiations involving Göring, the prisoners were released.
Johnen's unit moved to Hungary and by October 1944 his score was standing at thirty-three aerial kills. His final one came in March the following year, once Johnen had moved back to Germany.
During this phrase of the war Johnen's successes were achieved against a 710-strong force of bombers. Johnen's further successes during Harris's subsequent Berlin offensive led to his promotion as Staffelkapitan (squadron leader) of Nachtjagdgeschwader and a move to Mainz. During a sortie from there, his Bf 110 was hit by return fire and he was forced to land in Switzerland. He and his crew were interned by the authorities. The Germans were deeply worried about leaving a sophisticatedly equipped night fighter and its important air crew in the hands of a foreign government, even if it was a neutral one. After negotiations involving Göring, the prisoners were released.
Johnen's unit moved to Hungary and by October 1944 his score was standing at thirty-three aerial kills. His final one came in March the following year, once Johnen had moved back to Germany.
Related to Duel Under the Stars
Related audiobooks
12th Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division in Normandy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood and Soil: The Memoir of a Third Reich Brandenburger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From the Realm of a Dying Sun: Volume 1: IV. SS-Panzerkorps and the Battles for Warsaw, July–November 1944 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lucky 666: The Impossible Mission Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Vietnam Air War: From The Cockpit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5South Pacific Cauldron: World War II's Great Forgotten Battlegrounds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enduring the Whirlwind: The German Army and the Russo-German War 1941-1943 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stalingrad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War on the Eastern Front: The German Soldier in Russia 1941-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Retribution: The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943-44 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hogs in the Sand: A Gulf War A-10 Pilot's Combat Journal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Army Sniper: A Memoir of the Eastern Front in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battleground Prussia: The Assault on Germany's Eastern Front 1944-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lightning Sky Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Flew for the Führer: The Memoirs of a Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tanks in Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battle for the Ruhr: The German Army's Final Defeat in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radio Operator on the Eastern Front: An Illustrated Memoir, 1940-1949 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Red Snow: The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tidal Wave: From Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Iron Crosses Grow: The Crimea 1941-44 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Last Man Standing: The 1st Marine Regiment on Peleliu, September 15-21, 1944 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Frozen Chosen: The 1st Marine Division and the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Germans in Normandy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The German Aces Speak: World War II Through the Eyes of Four of the Luftwaffe's Most Important Commanders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Viper Pilot: The Autobiography of One of America's Most Decorated Combat Pilots Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Biography & Memoir For You
If He Had Been with Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divine Rivals: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twisted Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Local Woman Missing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Blood and Ash Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fairy Tale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Five Years: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Duel Under the Stars
Rating: 4.390625 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
32 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great details and authenticity and gives U a glimpse of the how the Germans dealt with the air war from 41 - 1945
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very interesting to see the perspective of someone on the other side of the Allies. You get to see from an actual participant the way they felt towards the war and their feelings about Hitler. At one point at the end of the book, he said he wasn't continuing to fight because he was some fanatic of Hitler and the regime, but only because of his personal integrity and the rest of the guys around him that relied on his decisions and attitude. Spoiler Alert: The other side wins!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5By mid 1943 Germany was being bombed around the clock. While the effectiveness of this offensive is often called into question, the evidence suggests that roughly 50% of Germany's entire war effort was devoted to defending against the RAF's strategic night bombing campaign. By the time the RAF launched it's first 1,000 bomber raid in May 1942 the city of Cologne, for example, had devoted nearly one hundred million RM to civil defence including bunker building. Hitler of course had ordered the 'Sofortprogram' of huge civil defence projects from the first raids on Berlin that took place in mid-1940. But despite these huge investments Bomber Command effectively blinded and defeated German defenses over Hamburg in July 1943 - including the German night fighter arm, the Nachtjagd. One German night fighter ace airborne in defence of Hamburg on 27 July 1943 was 23-year old Bf 110 night fighter pilot Wilhelm Johnen. Thanks to the deployment of ‘Window’ Johnen had - in his rage and frustration -found himself heading towards Amsterdam; « ..it was obvious no-one knew exactly where the enemy was or what his objective would be, (yet) an early indication of the direction was essential so that the night fighters could be introduced into the stream as early as possible.. » Johnen’s long out-of-print memoir « Duel under the stars - a factual report from a German night fighter pilot » is recently republished by Pen and Sword imprint Greenhill. In simple, uncomplicated language which does much to preserve the ‘immediacy’ of an account first published in English in 1957 - Johnen describes his initial training, the creation of the German fighter force established to counter Bomber Command’s night offensive, his posting to NJG 1 and the first victories as the lumbering four-engine bombers are stalked through the night skies by growing numbers of ‘panther-like’ fighters bristling with cannon and stag-antler radar antennae guided by an all-embracing system of radar defence. Johnen was one of those night-time ‘stalkers’ and his book features some remarkable descriptions of night-fighting and of life on an operational air-base in war-time Germany. The author has much in common with the young crews of Bomber Command. He also describes in detail the backdrop of tactical innovations by the ‘boffins’. And while the RAF had the strategic edge at all times, German nightfighters were able to score some heavy tactical victories, the Lancaster being especially vulnerable to the upward firing armament of the Bf 110. But the reality for the Luftwaffe was one of decline and defeat. Johnen himself was briefly interned in Switzerland after being forced to land there but in October 1944 was awarded the Knight’s Cross for 33 bomber victories. In early 1945 he was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of III./NJG 6 but by this stage of the war with the Allies pressing deep into Germany itself downing bombers was no longer a priority and night-time sorties involved ground strafing armour and troop concentrations. Your reviewer was fortunate enough to know Johnen’s comrade Peter Spoden -who also features here heavily- as a friend and assisted in the preparation for publication of his memoir ‘Enemy in the Dark’. This new edition of Johnen’s ‘Duel under the stars ‘ is introduced with a new 10-page Foreword from historian James Holland, features a selection of over 100 photos and can be recommended to a new generation of readers without reservation