I Flew for the Fuhrer by Heinz Knoke Book Review
Throughout history, men have fought for a number of reasons, be it for country, God, money, glory, world domination etc. For Heinz Knoke, it was the former and a bit of the etc. The book I shall be reviewing is I Flew for The Führer, an autobiography by Heinz Knoke. A German fighter pilot during world war 2. The book contains the details from his childhood in the countryside, to his training as a pilot, and lastly to the eventual fall of the Nazi regime.
During his younger years, Heinz Knoke was the son of a policeman in the peaceful town of Hamelin, Germany. From a young age, he became fascinated by planes and flight, which was quite recently invented, and wanted to become a pilot himself. It was on July 6, 1938, where he was able to fly a plane for the first time. The plane was an old transport plane, which only cost him a few marks, for a fifteen-minute joyride. It was also on the same day , and the year which was the height of the mobilization of the German forces, where he was given the opportunity to take the preliminary examination for entry into the Luftwaffe, the German air force. During his training, there was an incident where he, with his flight instructor in tow, nearly crashed into a nearby church. Fortunately, his flight instructor, Senior Lieutenant Woll, was able to bring the plane back in control and narrowly avoided plummeting to their doom.
After his training, he was first stationed in the Eastern front where he took part in initial operations during the invasion of the Soviet Union, and was later reassigned to the Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG1) in July 1941. A few months later, on August 28, 1941, he got married to Elisabeth “Lilo” Markowski. In February, 1942, he participated in Operation Donnerkeil. In 1943, as the United States stationed more bombers in England, Allied bombing intensified, and as a result, so did the Luftwaffe’s operations to intercept and defend against them. Since the American B-24 bombers were heavily armed and were well defended, the Luftwaffe had difficulty in effectively shooting them down. Heinz Knoke and his friend Dieter Gerhardt, later developed a strategy to disrupt the strong defense of the combat box formation of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). It was during that period of time, 1943-1944 where he obtained most of his confirmed kills and was recognised as an ace pilot. In April 1944, he was assigned to an experimental station in Bavaria to test flight a new wonder weapon of the Third Reich, the Messerschmitt Me 262, one of the first fighter planes powered by a jet combustion engine. On April 29 of the same year, he was shot down, but survived. During the Allies’ naval invasion of Normandy, he was still recovering from his wounds. He fought in the Western front and was shot down once more, but was able to barely escape Allied capture. On April 27, 1945, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, one of the highest awards in the German military.
As with nearly every German citizen during the early years of world war 2, Heinz Knoke was supportive of the war and was proud to be of service to the Fatherland. However, nearing the end of the war, he began to become disheartened over the immense loss of life and destruction which Germany was headed to.
This book is easily one of my favorite world war 2 books, as it holds the memories of a normal human being. At first, I was kind of surprised upon seeing him become an ace pilot, as well as receiving the Knight’s Cross. It shows just how well this book had made me realize that he was nobody special, and was just living his life the way he wanted to under the circumstances. If you are a war history enthusiast like me, I would definitely recommend that you read this book.