Gunther Rall: Luftwaffe Ace & NATO General

Gunther Rall, Luftwaffe fighter ace and NATO general, waited fifty years before authorizing this biography. It spans a childhood in a defeated country, his rise to third-ranking ace of all time with 275 victories, three meetings with Hitler, and a distinguished post-war career. The book vividly describes aerial dogfights, a mid-air collision, promotion to squadron leader at the age of 22, and wing-commander at 27. Rall talks of his wife’s efforts to smuggle Jews out of Germany, the struggle to survive in brutal Russian winters, and his days as an American prisoner of war. He tells of his test pilot service for the U.S. Air Force’s F-104 Starfighter supersonic jet, and his appointment as Chief of the new German Air Force. This is the biography of a man’s life during turbulent times before, during, and after World War II.