The German Aces Speak II

World War II Through the Eyes of Four More of the Luftwaffe's Most Important Commanders

By: Colin D. Heaton, Anne-Marie Lewis, Dr. Dennis Showalter - foreword, Trevor J. Constable - foreword

Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan

The much-anticipated sequel to The German Aces Speak gives voice to four more of WWII's most noteworthy German pilots.

When The German Aces Speak was published in 2011, Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine welcomed Colin Heaton's and Anne-Marie Lewis' masterful command of interview-based narrative, writing, “[W]hat might have been numbing recitations of dogfights are instead vivid descriptions of life as a warrior during World War II.”

Indeed, it is this unexpected perspective, brought to life by the authors' neutrality and thoughtful research, that illuminates a side of war largely hidden from the American public: the experience of the German Luftwaffe pilot.

In The German Aces Speak II, Heaton and Lewis paint a picture of the war through the eyes of four more of Germany's most significant pilots - Johannes Steinhoff, Erich Alfred Hartmann, Guther Rall, and Dieter Hrabak - put together from numerous interviews personally conducted by Heaton from the 1980s through the 2000s. The four ex-Luftwaffe fighter aces bring the past to life as they tell their stories about the war, their battles, their off-duty lives, their lives after the war, and perhaps most importantly, how they felt about serving under the Nazi leadership of Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler.

Together, the memories of the events captured in The German Aces Speak II continue one of today's most unique World War II series, unearthing a facet of the war that has gone widely overlooked for the American public.

©2014 Zenith Press (P)2018 Tantor

amazing

we have pre conceived notions of the germans who fought in WW2 this opens the door to the truth.

HOW IS THIS NOT A MOVIE?

Eric Hearts man story is the best I've ever read about a Pilot. I laughed, I cried, Then I realized how Great we have it nowadays. I high recommend this book to any one WW2 buff or not.

Interesting Views from German Pilots

As is the case with the first volume of this book, it provides interesting insights from German fighter aces from World War II. The stories are interesting and are a historical document. What is pretty amazing is how many of the key aces survived the war, even as overall losses increased greatly.

It is not surprising that all of these men professed to hate Hitler and especially Goering. It is difficult to determine if they held these beliefs at the time, or if it is simply looking back with 20/20 hindsight. My guess is that the beliefs developed over time as the German defeats grew and Hitler and Goering kept making mistakes. The beliefs probably reached full fruition when Goering called the pilots cowards and tried to blame them for the losses.

What is clear is that these were very brave men and that the Allies were very lucky that Hitler and Goering were in charge because they made many blunders that helped the Allies to win the war.

Exceptional performance by P. J. Ochlan

There has not been many audiobooks, in which the narrator strives to pronounce foreign language correctly. P. J. in this case did a wonderful job. His pronunciation of German words aren't perfect, but very articulate with German phonetic rules, and not heavily doused with an American English accent.
The stories are exciting to listen to. Many an occasion I felt like I was brought back to the air wars in their times. It was also a revelation that many of the aces weren't crazy about the ideology at the time, and just wanted to do their job.

Very good

Great to hear from the German pilots in their own words and unabridged. Very interesting.