The only man in history to be “chased” by four P-47 “Thunderbolt”, have a thumb shot off (after previously breaking his back in another crash), bale out of his crippled Messerschmitt, and lived to tell us about it. 2-7-5 air to air “wictories”. This man packed more action and experiences into 7 or 8 years than most men do in a lifetime (and more often than not with a twinkle in his eye and a wry smile). Thank you for telling us about it Herr Rall. Godspeed.
No thumb on the left hand! He lost it in combat! Quite a pilot and quite a man! They built them good in Germany, the machines and the men! Rest in peace!
This man is as a sharp as a tack. He tells a fantastic story & allows the listener to appreciate a little of what it was like to be a WW2 pilot, shot down, injured & eventually sent to the UK for interrogation.
Outstanding interview! I had the honor of meeting General Rall along with Col. "Gabby" Gabreski and Major Urban "Ben" Drew at an art print signing in Eastpointe, Michigan in the mid 1990's. My buddy and I got several pictures taken with General Rall. He spoke for over an hour to the 25 or so WWII buffs who were in attendance. He stressed as he did in this interview that their was a gallantry among fighter pilots that seemed to end after WWII. How he hoped a pilot could bail out safely from a plane he shot down. He joked that as it was four P-47's that took him out and forced him to bail, he wondered if Gabreski shot off his thumb. All three men truly seemed like old friends with no ill feelings about what happened during the war. After the speeches and the signings Gen. Rall milled around with the crowd and we got to talk one on one with him. He was an absolute gentleman. He told us his tactic for attacking B-17's while protecting himself but said he felt great remorse if he didn't see parachutes. I asked him what he thought of the Me-262. He laughed and said "The cockpit was much more comfortable than the 109". He continued that "The speed was amazing, it rode very smooth at high speed, but it was hard to land, you had to come in much faster than a 109 or 190 or you'd start to stall and the landing gear needed to be much stronger." I must have shook hands with him four times. He signed two boxed model airplanes and an 8"x10" for me. Major Drew signed a model of the "Detroit Miss" P-51 and Col. Gabreski signed a vintage 1965 Revell model of a P-47 with his decals. A day I will always remember. One interesting thing from this interview I never knew or thought about was the Luftwaffe having captured US and British aircraft. I need to Google some photographs of those planes in German markings. I'm retiring in two months and still occasionally build plastic models. Those would make for some fun airbrushing. Chuck Owl, many thanks for posting this great interview.
You lucky son of a bitch. Me being a fair but younger then most WW2 aviation enthusiasts, I dont think I'll ever get the opportunity of meeting any pilots who flew. I would've given my left thumb to meet Gen. Rall.
@@Levottomat01 Levo, I also had the honor to meet General Rall (several times, in fact), at the Air & Space Museum back in the '90s, and, like you, I did not discover his world until 1990, and wonder how many other of these men I did not get the honor to meet. You are correct--I think all of them are gone by now--but their heroism will live forever!
I sometimes think that young people in our era of public relations, celebrity, and media nonsense in general have trouble recognizing a hero when they see one. Rall is a hero.
Yeah these guys were so bad@$$ The Germans were good guys too it sucks that my generation (28yo) and ESPECIALLY the generation in high-school and college in 2022.. have such a childish and oversimplified understanding of the world. They're almost all, a bunch of virtue signaling weaklings and social climbing cowards. Looking for the next person to say something that challenge the narrative of everything they're being taught.. like "AHHH HEY EVERYONE WHAT THAT GUY SAID WAS DUMB WASNT IT GUYS? GERMANY WAS JUST FIGHTING FOR THEIR COUNTRY? OBVIOUSLY NOT. GERMANY WAS FIGHTING FOR HATRED AND GENOCIDE IDIOT.. THATS WHAT THE TEACHERS AND FILMS SAID. OBVIOUSLY YOU ARENT PAYING ATTENTION." People do that to try and virtue signal and be social climbers. By picking soft targets. Like people who speak out and challenge the narrative at high risk socially. But cowards don't even really care about the truth. So they don't care whether a person is telling the truth or not, they're not interested in debate even. Just using the situation to look virtuous and tough. For calling out someone for "being a bad person" for sharing a perspective
had the honor of meeting Gunther Rall when I was stationed in Germany flying F-16 - he was small, jolly, blue blue eyes - but had the look of a Jager - a hunter - when I shook his hand his thumb was missing - he was very proud that Hub Zempke shot it off in an areal dual -
I had the honor of meeting General Rall several times, and even spoke with him. He was a very kindly, charming gentleman, though I thought he was rather nervous and high-strung. They don't make 'em like him anymore!
Brian Moore... and for the German Volk, and ultimately, western civilization. The only thing that stopped the USSR from overrunning all of Europe was the presence of the American Army there to defeat Germany, and, of course, American atom bombs. Britain without America would never have defeated Germany, and any forces they had on the continent would have been brushed aside by the Red Army. If Britain had not been led by Churchill who ignored (and, indeed, hid) many generous peace offers from Hitler, and America and Britain not supported Stalin with massive economic aid and war supplies, Germany might have defeated the world's largest (in 1941) army and Europe would have been a very different place post-war. The British Empire would have not been destroyed! It's ironic that England declared war on a leader who was an unabashed Anglophile and saw the British Empire as an indispensable force for good in the world, Hitler, and allied itself with two leaders who were bent on the Empire's destruction... Stalin and FDR.
gunther rall is one of my favorite luftwaffe aces and he was a great pilot ace and true gentlemen and he made appearance at duxford flying legends,i would love to met him and get his autograph 😊😊😊
What I regret is that most of these interviews with former Luftwaffe pilots are in English. From the historical and documentary pont of view it would be much more genuine, more natural if they spoke their own German language. It can all be translated. And what is more: their English is not all too good. They could epress themselves much better in German. An English speaker may see this differently but I being Swiss would like to listen to them speaking in German. Would an American or English speaking pilot be forced to give an interview in German ? Most probably not. Is it perhaps also a kind of humiliation ? An enemy is totally defeated and subjugated if you force him to speak the language of the victor - but of course never equally good, which is part of the humiliation. Or is it perhaps just German kindness ? If they had insisted on speaking in their own language, perhaps it would have been considered as German arrogance.
@@0xrobot760 Vielen Dank. Schön, dass ich nicht allein bin mit dieser Beobachtung. Da keiner der Herren mehr lebt, lässt sich leider nichts mehr machen. Wirklich sehr schade. Ich wundere mich, dass sie nicht darauf bestanden haben Deutsch zu sprechen. Gewiss eine Folge der Anpassung nach Niederlage, Demütigung und Gehirnwäsche.
@@renatovonschumacher3511 you're wrong, there's many interviews with german aces and there speaking in german with English over them ,another thing if these guys helped the USA after the war it would make sense for them too speak in English with them don't you think......check out the video about the fw 190 lots of german aces on there
Always good to hear what the "other" side were going through. Normal guys just like ours, with the same fears and ambitions! Never mind the politics of the time.. What men like Herr Rall went through is something I hope not one of us has to live through!
Günther Rall (10 March 1918 - 4 October 2009) was a German lieutenant-general, the third most successful fighter ace in history and later head of the West German Luftwaffe during the Cold War. He achieved a total of 275 victories during World War II: 272 on the Eastern Front, of which 241 were against Soviet fighters. He flew a total of 621 combat missions, was shot down eight times[2] and was wounded three times. He fought 1940 in the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, 1941 in the Balkan Campaign and over Crete. By the end of the war, he reached the rank of Major and was the commander of JG 300 when the war ended. He claimed all of his victories in the Messerschmitt Bf 109
gott bless our fathers, and their fathers, and their line that came before for making us the strong men in mind and heart that we are today and spare our children any mistakes we may make.
Came here after watching a great 2 part documentary on Hans Marseille. I wish he would’ve survived the war to give an interview like this. I thought it was cool that Rall mentioned him in this interview.
One thing that always strikes me about Rall, both in this clip and on other pics is the lovely sprarkle in his eye and a smile potentionally always on its way out :) I suspect him to be in unusually high spirits at all times. One could wonder if this was one of the reasons why he managed to survive the war where so many of his colleagues were downed and lost as time passed by
Six months in a cast with a broken back...and still finished the war with 275. Amazing. Had the thrill of meeting him and Steinhoff at a signing. Have his and Steinhoff's signatures in Steinhoff's The Final Hours. Later at another symposium with Walter Schuck. Spent my early 20s running to anywhere WWII pilots were appearing in the early 90s.
Amazing man-9 months out of the war and he was still 3rd highest scoring ace-just think if he wasn't out for that time-he might have been the highest scoring ever
I had a chance to meet Günther Rall in the early 2000's in Finland. Sadly, I was too hungover to go - and it was the last chance, he died some time later.
Rudy R Well Battlefield hasn't made a WW2 game in a long time also the flying in any battlefield game is not realistic at all. There are plenty of games like Battleground Europe, IL-2, Warbirds etc. that are more like the real thing than Battlefield.
+gehlen52 My father was taught how to fly by Erich Hartmann, who became a civil flight instructer after leaving the military. Has a signed picture where they are shaking hands after my father won his wings. Not that it's any of my credit, by I'm really proud of it. Family heirloom right there. :)
+Hans-Christian Bauer -Hello. I read about your dad way back just before joining the US Army during Vietnam. You have much to be proud of. A great pilot and the leading ACE of all time.
+Hans-Christian Bauer Hello again Hans. Excuse me! Your dad was trained my Eric Hartmann. Still something to be proud of as your dad was trained by the best. Gunter Raul was of course a very brave and skilled pilot as were so many others.
Gene Garren I missed your first comment, but yes, my dad was not Erich Hartmann himself. :) He just gained his private pilot license under Mr. Hartmann's tutelage. Anyway, thank you for the setiment.
schon eigenartig, daß die meisten Interviews dt. piloten in englischer Sprache vorhanden sind - das Interesse war bei den ehemaligen Gegnern wohl um einiges höher einzuschätzen....
In Deutschland darfst du ja quasi heute noch nicht mal um die Kriegstoten trauern... und wehe, wer die Bombardierung ganzer Städte kritisiert... das kann ja nur ein Nazi sein... ;)
is leider wirklich so... wenn jemand wie rall mal im fernsehen befragt werden würde, würde heute keiner nach seinen erfahrungen fragen oder wann und wie er abgeschossen wurde da würde man so schnell wie möglich auf kriegsverbrechen umschwenken, nach dem holocaust fragen und die gesinnung nachforschen bloß keine bühne bieten für damalige soldaten. man will ja das bild des bösen deutschen bewahren -.-
Abensberg Vielleicht kennst du die US-Sendungen (mit Animationen) über den 2. WK auch... normalerweise reden da die Amis... und stellen sich als ganz grosse Helden dar... und manchmal wird ganz klar übertrieben... Diese Folgen (z.B. "greatest tank battles") werden dann auch auf Deutsch übersetzt und z.B. auf N24 gezeigt. Aber was wird nicht gezeigt? Bei aller Fairness... die Amerikaner haben auch Folgen produziert, da ist z.B. das Afrikakorps Mittelpunkt. Nur gibt's diese NIE IN DEUTSCHER ÜBERSETZUNG. Sonst gäbe es plötzlich ja eine Sendung, in der nicht alle Deutschen nur blöd aussehen würden... und das ginge ja echt nicht... sowas darf man im deutschen TV nie zeigen...
My father, us air force, worked for general barkhorn in the mid seventies in ramstein west Germany. I still have two signed 8x10s of him. Being the son of a German mother and a father whose mother was German, I still find that period of world history fascinating. People facing each other in battle still is a waste, regardless of the country's ideals. The USA had no other choice.
Eric Hartman did and Eric Hartman is the top scoring ace of all time. Hartman spent 10 years in Siberia as a POW at the end of the war. Came back after being held by the Communists and joined the new Luftwaffe. Hartman flew all the jets Rahl flew and trained in the U. S. Hartman knew the F104 was a mistake and did not mince any words about it. Hartman flew the F-4 Phantom too. Hartman was no ass kisser or a politician either. Hartman felt the F104 was a dangerous jet. Their was a reason the USAF dumped the 104 after just two years in the active duty. Read the book the Blonde Knight of The Skies about Eric Hartman; this book was not written by Hartman, it was written by two U.S. Air Force officers. Hartman shot down 352 aircraft and destroyed 70 on the ground. He was never shot down by an enemy aircraft. Hartman says his greatest achievement was not downing 352 enemy aircraft, it eas never losing a wingman. Hartman is quite humble and chose to stay with his groundcrews at the end of the war. He could have flown off to the west and surrendered to the Americans, but he stayed with his mechanics, orderlies, squadron staff and they were captured by the encircling Soviets who raped all the women they saw and brutally held him captive for 10 years until 1955. He later became a Colonel and Jet Fighter group commander in the post WWII Luftwaffe.
Кирилл Николаев That's not fair to say that. The allies committed atrocities too. To call all the Germans war criminals because the actions of a group is not fair
War is a terrible happening but sometimes necessary. It is sad when anyone has to fight with people like Gunther, He is the kind of man with whom to have a drink in a bar. Lucky, Brave and very interesting
He is very right in his very last comment. No arm had more losses than fighter wings but submariners. It puts the glorification of fighters and their pilots in a different aspect.
The Germans had an incredibly gifted pool of talent to form up their Luftwaffe from. The idea of making these men fly until they were killed remains a mystery to me. It kind of explains the huge disparity in skill between pilots at the beginning of the war and the ones at the end. Apart from the few remaining Experten, most pilots were sent in combat after as short as 8 hours of flight training in a 109. It was pure madness...
Chuck Owl Yeah that is what the war of attrition did to the luftwaffe over time ' at the start of the war the germans had the best fighter pilots but they could only fly so many missions until their luck ran out in contrast to the allied side which had a unlimited supply of replacements so their best pilots were rotated home after 40 missions .
Chuck Owl Yeah that is what the war of attrition did to the luftwaffe over time ' at the start of the war the germans had the best fighter pilots but they could only fly so many missions until their luck ran out in contrast to the allied side which had a unlimited supply of replacements so their best pilots were rotated home after 40 missions .
Tomas Colquhoun Many Luftwaffe pilots were true gentlemen indeed. Many RAF and USAF pilots befriended their former foes after the war. It's not a mystery why so many of the remaining Luftwaffe pilots became consultants for the U.S. in the 50's and 60's.
Bert-Hasso Kemnitz the restrictions on trade on the German populace forced by the French and British governments at the time caused alot of disenfranchised civilians who were sold a lie
Europe is on the verge of extinction and yet here are still people claiming the war was unjustified. Human stupidity is truly unbelievable. It doesn't have boundaries.
I really like this guy..remember he is not an enemy any longer and he has gained the respec tof MANY flyers Allied flyers at that! The other thing is many of these guys were just serving their country..and if you ask them, many of them didnt like Hitler at ALL!!
Great anecdote at the end of the RAF Tangmere personnel addressing him (and the Stuka-ace Hans Rudel) as ‘Gentleman’ and enquiring if they’d had lunch. So British.
My father fought against the German Army in the French Alps and he said they were outnumbered 100 to 1. He commanded a rifle company and took 250 soldiers to the battle and only 10 soldiers walked out after ten days. He was wounded and I spoke to many of those soldiers and it rained bullets, mortars and artillery shells like rain. I was told that ground forces suffered under terrible conditions and thank these veterans for their service. My father spoke to many German Aces including Erich Hartmann when he worked for different Aerospace Companies.
Generalleutnant Günther Rall war ein fantastischer Pilot! Sein Gespür für die Englisch Sprache war ausgezeichnet. Er ist gut gesprochen. Ich hoffe, dass er Christus als Herrn wusste
thanks for the appreciation of the german language, but it takes a little more than google translate to write some straight german sentences ;). if i may correct you: "Er beherrschte die englische Sprache und konnte sie ebenso gut sprechen. Ich hoffe, dass er ein gläubiger Christ war."
Amazing the head start the German pilots had with all that training. Not to take away any of their skill at all, just saying their early battles must of seemed like fighting amateurs in many respects.
Gunther was a man caught up in the times. Our history tells us they were NAZI's and to be despised. The victors write the history. He got very good at bailing-out which tells me he wasn't going to die needlessly for anyone.
ive met this man in the early 1990s. He was giving a speech with other WW 2 pilots .He said he really wasnt into German politics and spent most of the war sleeping in a tent in the mud or in a hospital.He even talked about meeting Hitler a few times .he was shot down 10 or more times. I saw his hand and he didnt have a thumb and had alot of scars on him He said he was floating down in a parachute and a British plane was shooting at him and blew his thumb off
Rudy, yes. That's because playing the sim games is not the real thing. It's the fun and the challenge without the constant fear of death. We don't need to know history to spend an hour flying about the screen shooting at things. For the real pilots of the time one error would cost them their life. Thank God the gamers can play without this issue even entering their minds.
Bf109 G-4 he als flew the k-4 and tried out several others like fw-190d-9 and some allied planes like the spitfire and the p-38 and i think the p-47 as well cause i recall him sayin somewhere that it was a grand plane but not when it came to climbing cause it was heavy as fuck
Nothing different, time, or country. I graduated Embry-Riddle A.U. Joined the USAF with dreams to fly fighters. Very competitive, end up flying rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong, yeah, “Top Gun” quote, but same analogy.
Ghunter rall se ganó la confianza de los aliados lk hoy es la OTAN al tratar con una enorme gentileza y perdonarle la vida a su adversarios al final de la 2 gerra ello lo catapunto alexito como prominente empresario y extraordinario soldado heroe canadiense me hubiera encantado conocerlo personalmente o a sus familiares murio en el 2009 soldados extrordinario ..
Paraphrasing here: Be careful with old people of a profession in which they usually die young. This man forgot more about war than most of us will (hopefully) ever learn. In a way I envy him for his experiences.But still I am grateful that won't have to (if all goes according to plan) live through them myself.
+Kinopanorama Widescreen Preservation Association Incorporated. Well if I had studied english in high school, alone from my vocabulary it had to be the ugliest language on the planet. You dont even understand the meaning of the original comment and randomly reply to my comment with an insult based on your personal observation at your age of 16. Thank you for your input.
+MsRomantiker Es sind viele an seiner Geschichte interessiert. Oberst Rall spricht ein recht akteptables Englisch, und ein Interview in dieser Sprache macht seine Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen der ganzen Welt zugaenglich.
+Paul Mcdonough As much as I like the RAF, I don't think that's true. The German pilots of this time had fought in Spain, Poland and France...many of them were great pilots that just had more combat time than their british counterparts. The British RAF had a smaller percentage of combat veterans and a big part of their pilots were recruits fresh out of flight school. IMHO, German High Command did a number of tactical blunders that forced the Luftwaffe to fight on the terms of the British. Bombing London instead of the airfields, for instance, was a fatal mistake. Forcing German fighters to fly with the bombers instead of clearing air corridors in front of them was also a mistake. Extending the range of the fighters' missions to the point that they only had 5-10 minutes of fuel when they engaged british fighters was yet another mistake. No matter how good your pilots are, if you send them in missios where the odds are against them... they have much greater odds of being shot down, just like the B-17 and B-24 crews were during the daylight bombing campaigns of 42-43.
+Chuck Owl Honestly, the switch from bombing the airfields to london wasn't nearly as fatal as one would think. Read Stephen Bungay's Most Dangerous Enemy, it s a really enlightening look at the battle.
![Video from the Past [09] - Interview with Fritz Boost, a Luftwaffe Pilot](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VkYJr0upL9U/mqdefault.jpg)
![Video from the Past [09] - Interview with Fritz Boost, a Luftwaffe Pilot](/img/tr.png)
![Video from the Past [18] - Willy Messerschmitt (English)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZhkPehytF7E/mqdefault.jpg)
The only man in history to be “chased” by four P-47 “Thunderbolt”, have a thumb shot off (after previously breaking his back in another crash), bale out of his crippled Messerschmitt, and lived to tell us about it. 2-7-5 air to air “wictories”. This man packed more action and experiences into 7 or 8 years than most men do in a lifetime (and more often than not with a twinkle in his eye and a wry smile). Thank you for telling us about it Herr Rall. Godspeed.
No thumb on the left hand! He lost it in combat! Quite a pilot and quite a man! They built them good in Germany, the machines and the men! Rest in peace!
@@fuentesramen You don't know anything, so stop talking rubbish!
@@fuentesramen Why don't you go and troll somewhere else, little man--you fucking idiot!
@@fuentesramen Clown
A .50 cal from a P-47 claimed his thumb
He lost it in a fight against p47s from Hub Zemke's wolf pack
This man is as a sharp as a tack. He tells a fantastic story & allows the listener to appreciate a little of what it was like to be a WW2 pilot, shot down, injured & eventually sent to the UK for interrogation.
Anyone that can live to tell his story of those days, I take my hat off to you sir.
Outstanding interview! I had the honor of meeting General Rall along with Col. "Gabby" Gabreski and Major Urban "Ben" Drew at an art print signing in Eastpointe, Michigan in the mid 1990's. My buddy and I got several pictures taken with General Rall. He spoke for over an hour to the 25 or so WWII buffs who were in attendance. He stressed as he did in this interview that their was a gallantry among fighter pilots that seemed to end after WWII. How he hoped a pilot could bail out safely from a plane he shot down. He joked that as it was four P-47's that took him out and forced him to bail, he wondered if Gabreski shot off his thumb. All three men truly seemed like old friends with no ill feelings about what happened during the war.
After the speeches and the signings Gen. Rall milled around with the crowd and we got to talk one on one with him. He was an absolute gentleman. He told us his tactic for attacking B-17's while protecting himself but said he felt great remorse if he didn't see parachutes. I asked him what he thought of the Me-262. He laughed and said "The cockpit was much more comfortable than the 109". He continued that "The speed was amazing, it rode very smooth at high speed, but it was hard to land, you had to come in much faster than a 109 or 190 or you'd start to stall and the landing gear needed to be much stronger."
I must have shook hands with him four times. He signed two boxed model airplanes and an 8"x10" for me. Major Drew signed a model of the "Detroit Miss" P-51 and Col. Gabreski signed a vintage 1965 Revell model of a P-47 with his decals. A day I will always remember.
One interesting thing from this interview I never knew or thought about was the Luftwaffe having captured US and British aircraft. I need to Google some photographs of those planes in German markings. I'm retiring in two months and still occasionally build plastic models. Those would make for some fun airbrushing.
Chuck Owl, many thanks for posting this great interview.
You lucky son of a bitch. Me being a fair but younger then most WW2 aviation enthusiasts, I dont think I'll ever get the opportunity of meeting any pilots who flew. I would've given my left thumb to meet Gen. Rall.
Met him too at seminar in Finland when he published his book. He told some funny stories too, i still remember that pissing tube incident...
Thor - you lucky dude!
@@Levottomat01 Levo, I also had the honor to meet General Rall (several times, in fact), at the Air & Space Museum back in the '90s, and, like you, I did not discover his world until 1990, and wonder how many other of these men I did not get the honor to meet. You are correct--I think all of them are gone by now--but their heroism will live forever!
Don't you mean EAST DETROIT buddy?! LOL CHEERS FROM MICHIGAN!
I sometimes think that young people in our era of public relations, celebrity, and media nonsense in general have trouble recognizing a hero when they see one. Rall is a hero.
I agree
Yeah these guys were so bad@$$
The Germans were good guys too it sucks that my generation (28yo) and ESPECIALLY the generation in high-school and college in 2022.. have such a childish and oversimplified understanding of the world.
They're almost all, a bunch of virtue signaling weaklings and social climbing cowards. Looking for the next person to say something that challenge the narrative of everything they're being taught.. like "AHHH HEY EVERYONE WHAT THAT GUY SAID WAS DUMB WASNT IT GUYS? GERMANY WAS JUST FIGHTING FOR THEIR COUNTRY? OBVIOUSLY NOT. GERMANY WAS FIGHTING FOR HATRED AND GENOCIDE IDIOT.. THATS WHAT THE TEACHERS AND FILMS SAID. OBVIOUSLY YOU ARENT PAYING ATTENTION."
People do that to try and virtue signal and be social climbers. By picking soft targets. Like people who speak out and challenge the narrative at high risk socially. But cowards don't even really care about the truth. So they don't care whether a person is telling the truth or not, they're not interested in debate even.
Just using the situation to look virtuous and tough. For calling out someone for "being a bad person" for sharing a perspective
Yes he is. Nothing to tarnish this man's courage, patriotism or professionalism.
Well Said.
had the honor of meeting Gunther Rall when I was stationed in Germany flying F-16 - he was small, jolly, blue blue eyes - but had the look of a Jager - a hunter - when I shook his hand his thumb was missing - he was very proud that Hub Zempke shot it off in an areal dual -
How tall?
Those men were amazing, what a strenght... my respect to all those fighter pilots, from all countries.
A true hero and gentleman. He later served in the new Luftwaffe retiring as a lieutenant-general.
I had the honor of meeting General Rall several times, and even spoke with him. He was a very kindly, charming gentleman, though I thought he was rather nervous and high-strung. They don't make 'em like him anymore!
Wonderful video about a brave man who fought for his country.
Brian Moore... and for the German Volk, and ultimately, western civilization. The only thing that stopped the USSR from overrunning all of Europe was the presence of the American Army there to defeat Germany, and, of course, American atom bombs. Britain without America would never have defeated Germany, and any forces they had on the continent would have been brushed aside by the Red Army. If Britain had not been led by Churchill who ignored (and, indeed, hid) many generous peace offers from Hitler, and America and Britain not supported Stalin with massive economic aid and war supplies, Germany might have defeated the world's largest (in 1941) army and Europe would have been a very different place post-war. The British Empire would have not been destroyed! It's ironic that England declared war on a leader who was an unabashed Anglophile and saw the British Empire as an indispensable force for good in the world, Hitler, and allied itself with two leaders who were bent on the Empire's destruction... Stalin and FDR.
@@fuentesramen How do you know? Are you God?
@@GWulf47My god another ignorant big headed yank who thinks the US was the be all and end all, well you are clearly wrong on all accounts.
gunther rall is one of my favorite luftwaffe aces and he was a great pilot ace and true gentlemen and he made appearance at duxford flying legends,i would love to met him and get his autograph 😊😊😊
R.I.P. Mr. Rall you were one of the greatest combat warriors in history and one of the few outstanding human being's this world has ever had.
Thank you so much for sharing this. This is a real gem
Wow what a man!!! What a competitor to my America!!! A very impressive man
This is your best interview...IMO..What an amazing man and pilot....I never got a chance to meet him but i do have a hand signed photo of Gunther.
I still get goosebumps in 2021 listening to General Rall.
What I regret is that most of these interviews with former Luftwaffe pilots are in English. From the historical and documentary pont of view it would be much more genuine, more natural if they spoke their own German language. It can all be translated. And what is more: their English is not all too good. They could epress themselves much better in German. An English speaker may see this differently but I being Swiss would like to listen to them speaking in German. Would an American or English speaking pilot be forced to give an interview in German ? Most probably not. Is it perhaps also a kind of humiliation ? An enemy is totally defeated and subjugated if you force him to speak the language of the victor - but of course never equally good, which is part of the humiliation. Or is it perhaps just German kindness ? If they had insisted on speaking in their own language, perhaps it would have been considered as German arrogance.
@@renatovonschumacher3511 Ich stimme zu
@@0xrobot760 Vielen Dank. Schön, dass ich nicht allein bin mit dieser Beobachtung. Da keiner der Herren mehr lebt, lässt sich leider nichts mehr machen. Wirklich sehr schade. Ich wundere mich, dass sie nicht darauf bestanden haben Deutsch zu sprechen. Gewiss eine Folge der Anpassung nach Niederlage, Demütigung und Gehirnwäsche.
@@renatovonschumacher3511 Jawohl!
@@renatovonschumacher3511 you're wrong, there's many interviews with german aces and there speaking in german with English over them ,another thing if these guys helped the USA after the war it would make sense for them too speak in English with them don't you think......check out the video about the fw 190 lots of german aces on there
A truly remarkable man!!! And a fantastic pilot as well!!!
@@fuentesramen stfu
@@fuentesramen You know nothing, that's for sure.
These interviews are so useful and informative. Wartime really shows what it was like
Always good to hear what the "other" side were going through. Normal guys just like ours, with the same fears and ambitions! Never mind the politics of the time.. What men like Herr Rall went through is something I hope not one of us has to live through!
...A Great Patriot of Deutschland and the Luftwaffe....
Günther Rall (10 March 1918 - 4 October 2009) was a German lieutenant-general, the third most successful fighter ace in history and later head of the West German Luftwaffe during the Cold War.
He achieved a total of 275 victories during World War II: 272 on the Eastern Front, of which 241 were against Soviet fighters. He flew a total of 621 combat missions, was shot down eight times[2] and was wounded three times. He fought 1940 in the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, 1941 in the Balkan Campaign and over Crete. By the end of the war, he reached the rank of Major and was the commander of JG 300 when the war ended. He claimed all of his victories in the Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Greatest Generation! Thank you for your service! He fought the good fight. Stood up for what was right. Sadly lost the war. Rest in Peace Rall.
I wonder why he had no success against the British and Allied forces and all his kills or most were against the Soviets?
HERO Günther Rall R.I.P
He reminds me of my grandfather when he told me stories of the war
gott bless our fathers, and their fathers, and their line that came before for making us the strong men in mind and heart that we are today and spare our children any mistakes we may make.
Came here after watching a great 2 part documentary on Hans Marseille. I wish he would’ve survived the war to give an interview like this. I thought it was cool that Rall mentioned him in this interview.
One thing that always strikes me about Rall, both in this clip and on other pics is the lovely sprarkle in his eye
and a smile potentionally always on its way out :) I suspect him to be in unusually high spirits at all times.
One could wonder if this was one of the reasons why he managed to survive the war where so many of his colleagues
were downed and lost as time passed by
I agree. He was practical and got good at bailing-out.
You would have to keep in High Spirits in his combat experiences just to keep from going insane with fear.
I agree too. In all his pictures in WW II, he wore a smile on his face, which I never seen in other aces.
Six months in a cast with a broken back...and still finished the war with 275. Amazing. Had the thrill of meeting him and Steinhoff at a signing. Have his and Steinhoff's signatures in Steinhoff's The Final Hours. Later at another symposium with Walter Schuck. Spent my early 20s running to anywhere WWII pilots were appearing in the early 90s.
did a book report on him when i was like 17 in high school...the more i read the more respect i had...he was still alive the...should have wrote him
Amazing man-9 months out of the war and he was still 3rd highest scoring ace-just think if he wasn't out for that time-he might have been the highest scoring ever
A Great Man, indeed... Very understandable for us non-English native language.
Lucky man, indeed! When I hear the stories from these veterans, I'm always astonished that they survived.
I had a chance to meet Günther Rall in the early 2000's in Finland.
Sadly, I was too hungover to go - and it was the last chance, he died some time later.
War places honourable men on opposing sides; each serving their nation.
I bet 70-80% of those battlefield gamers have no idea who these great pilots are.
Rudy R War thunder pilot here, i'm just really interested in these stories, from japan to America!
Rudy R Well Battlefield hasn't made a WW2 game in a long time also the flying in any battlefield game is not realistic at all. There are plenty of games like Battleground Europe, IL-2, Warbirds etc. that are more like the real thing than Battlefield.
I do I’ve met him.
So?
Fascinating video. Thanks uploader.
if they make a movie about his life, it would be full of pure action and excitement.
Wish he was still around, he would be one helluva an instructor.
Damn right!
+gehlen52 My father was taught how to fly by Erich Hartmann, who became a civil flight instructer after leaving the military. Has a signed picture where they are shaking hands after my father won his wings. Not that it's any of my credit, by I'm really proud of it. Family heirloom right there. :)
+Hans-Christian Bauer -Hello. I read about your dad way back just before joining the US Army during Vietnam. You have much to be proud of. A great pilot and the leading ACE of all time.
+Hans-Christian Bauer Hello again Hans. Excuse me! Your dad was trained my Eric Hartmann. Still something to be proud of as your dad was trained by the best. Gunter Raul was of course a very brave and skilled pilot as were so many others.
Gene Garren
I missed your first comment, but yes, my dad was not Erich Hartmann himself. :)
He just gained his private pilot license under Mr. Hartmann's tutelage.
Anyway, thank you for the setiment.
What a great man........
schon eigenartig, daß die meisten Interviews dt. piloten in englischer Sprache vorhanden sind - das Interesse war bei den ehemaligen Gegnern wohl um einiges höher einzuschätzen....
In Deutschland darfst du ja quasi heute noch nicht mal um die Kriegstoten trauern... und wehe, wer die Bombardierung ganzer Städte kritisiert... das kann ja nur ein Nazi sein... ;)
is leider wirklich so...
wenn jemand wie rall mal im fernsehen befragt werden würde, würde heute keiner nach seinen erfahrungen fragen
oder wann und wie er abgeschossen wurde
da würde man so schnell wie möglich auf kriegsverbrechen umschwenken, nach dem holocaust fragen und die gesinnung nachforschen
bloß keine bühne bieten für damalige soldaten. man will ja das bild des bösen deutschen bewahren -.-
Abensberg
Vielleicht kennst du die US-Sendungen (mit Animationen) über den 2. WK auch... normalerweise reden da die Amis... und stellen sich als ganz grosse Helden dar... und manchmal wird ganz klar übertrieben...
Diese Folgen (z.B. "greatest tank battles") werden dann auch auf Deutsch übersetzt und z.B. auf N24 gezeigt.
Aber was wird nicht gezeigt? Bei aller Fairness... die Amerikaner haben auch Folgen produziert, da ist z.B. das Afrikakorps Mittelpunkt. Nur gibt's diese NIE IN DEUTSCHER ÜBERSETZUNG.
Sonst gäbe es plötzlich ja eine Sendung, in der nicht alle Deutschen nur blöd aussehen würden... und das ginge ja echt nicht... sowas darf man im deutschen TV nie zeigen...
@@Vickzq Ja unglaublich!
My father, us air force, worked for general barkhorn in the mid seventies in ramstein west Germany. I still have two signed 8x10s of him. Being the son of a German mother and a father whose mother was German, I still find that period of world history fascinating. People facing each other in battle still is a waste, regardless of the country's ideals. The USA had no other choice.
He was still very energetic and fidgety in his 90s. The key to his success?
Not other pilots couldn't drive from Bf109 to F104... Gunther always was a pilot, a trainer...
Eric Hartman did and Eric Hartman is the top scoring ace of all time. Hartman spent 10 years in Siberia as a
POW at the end of the war. Came back after being held by the Communists and joined the new Luftwaffe. Hartman flew all the jets Rahl flew and trained in the U. S. Hartman knew the F104 was a mistake and did not mince any words about it. Hartman flew the F-4 Phantom too.
Hartman was no ass kisser or a politician either. Hartman felt the F104 was a dangerous jet. Their was a reason the USAF dumped the 104 after just two years in the active duty.
Read the book the Blonde Knight of The Skies about Eric Hartman; this book was not written by Hartman, it was written by two U.S. Air Force officers.
Hartman shot down 352 aircraft and destroyed 70 on the ground. He was never shot down by an enemy aircraft. Hartman says his greatest achievement was not downing 352 enemy aircraft, it eas never losing a wingman. Hartman is quite humble and chose to stay with his groundcrews at the end of the war. He could have flown off to the west and surrendered to the Americans, but he stayed with his mechanics, orderlies, squadron staff and they were captured by the encircling Soviets who raped all the women they saw and brutally held him captive for 10 years until 1955. He later became a Colonel and Jet Fighter group commander in the post WWII Luftwaffe.
I met this courtly gentleman at a conference. ❤
Incredible man who I wish I had been able to meet.
Quite an amazing man who fought bravely for his country.
I hate it when people call the Luftwaffe evil. Most of them weren't hard core nazis. They were normal people, experienced pilots who did their job.
Кирилл Николаев That's not fair to say that. The allies committed atrocities too. To call all the Germans war criminals because the actions of a group is not fair
Кирилл Николаев Well it's true the Germans treated prisoners badly after the Russians did it first to them.
CT - 7598 LOOOOOL.... did when? where? what? there wasn't any german prisoners in russia until 22nd of june 1941.
Кирилл Николаев yeah 2 bad the us fought in the wrong side...should have fought the Soviets with Germany.
deez nuts you re welcome to try lol.
It should be a movie.
War is a terrible happening but sometimes necessary. It is sad when anyone has to fight with people like Gunther, He is the kind of man with whom to have a drink in a bar. Lucky, Brave and very interesting
He is very right in his very last comment. No arm had more losses than fighter wings but submariners. It puts the glorification of fighters and their pilots in a different aspect.
The Germans had an incredibly gifted pool of talent to form up their Luftwaffe from. The idea of making these men fly until they were killed remains a mystery to me. It kind of explains the huge disparity in skill between pilots at the beginning of the war and the ones at the end. Apart from the few remaining Experten, most pilots were sent in combat after as short as 8 hours of flight training in a 109. It was pure madness...
Chuck Owl Yeah that is what the war of attrition did to the luftwaffe over time ' at the start of the war the germans had the best fighter pilots but they could only fly so many missions until their luck ran out in contrast to the allied side which had a unlimited supply of replacements so their best pilots were rotated home after 40 missions .
Chuck Owl Yeah that is what the war of attrition did to the luftwaffe over time ' at the start of the war the germans had the best fighter pilots but they could only fly so many missions until their luck ran out in contrast to the allied side which had a unlimited supply of replacements so their best pilots were rotated home after 40 missions .
Tomas Colquhoun Many Luftwaffe pilots were true gentlemen indeed. Many RAF and USAF pilots befriended their former foes after the war. It's not a mystery why so many of the remaining Luftwaffe pilots became consultants for the U.S. in the 50's and 60's.
The pleasure is all mine, good sir.
Courageous men were sent into an unjustified war and death , their survival is a miracle.
Bert-Hasso Kemnitz the restrictions on trade on the German populace forced by the French and British governments at the time caused alot of disenfranchised civilians who were sold a lie
Male "privilege"
War was justified.
Europe is on the verge of extinction and yet here are still people claiming the war was unjustified. Human stupidity is truly unbelievable. It doesn't have boundaries.
God bless Günther Rall 🙏 RIP
Incredible story
What a life this guy lead! Amazing
I really like this guy..remember he is not an enemy any longer and he has gained the respec tof MANY flyers Allied flyers at that! The other thing is many of these guys were just serving their country..and if you ask them, many of them didnt like Hitler at ALL!!
I was seated next to him at a conference. The US veterans there were queueing around the building to shake his hand.
Great anecdote at the end of the RAF Tangmere personnel addressing him (and the Stuka-ace Hans Rudel) as ‘Gentleman’ and enquiring if they’d had lunch. So British.
thank you
75 vs 1800. those guys had balls
My father fought against the German Army in the French Alps and he said they were outnumbered 100 to 1. He commanded a rifle company and took 250 soldiers to the battle and only 10 soldiers walked out after ten days. He was wounded and I spoke to many of those soldiers and it rained bullets, mortars and artillery shells like rain. I was told that ground forces suffered under terrible conditions and thank these veterans for their service. My father spoke to many German Aces including Erich Hartmann when he worked for different Aerospace Companies.
Mensch: wish he was on our side - Gunther could've made a living talking about his experiences over a pint of pils.
Gloria a los heroes ll g.m.no se olvidan de ti alemania.
Der Respekt!
Germany had the greatest planes the world had ever seen thank God they didn't have the 262 until later in war.glad Gunther lived.
all I know is if I had been a fighter pilot or bomber crew man in ww2 I would not have wanted to run into this guy
AK47 Eason were lucky German didn't have a few hundred pilots as good as this guy in the BOB
What a great & brave & chivalrous gentleman. When he would kill you, he only did it because he had no choice. Behfelde ist behfelde.
These pilots remind me a lot of formula 1 drivers of the time. Athletes in a sport of kings
Generalleutnant Günther Rall war ein fantastischer Pilot! Sein Gespür für die Englisch Sprache war ausgezeichnet. Er ist gut gesprochen. Ich hoffe, dass er Christus als Herrn wusste
That great man and warrior lifes on in Walhalla among his ancestors from beginn on, where he belongs to!
thanks for the appreciation of the german language, but it takes a little more than google translate to write some straight german sentences ;).
if i may correct you: "Er beherrschte die englische Sprache und konnte sie ebenso gut sprechen. Ich hoffe, dass er ein gläubiger Christ war."
Such a stud
Amazing the head start the German pilots had with all that training. Not to take away any of their skill at all, just saying their early battles must of seemed like fighting amateurs in many respects.
Gunther was a man caught up in the times. Our history tells us they were NAZI's and to be despised. The victors write the history. He got very good at bailing-out which tells me he wasn't going to die needlessly for anyone.
ive met this man in the early 1990s. He was giving a speech with other WW 2 pilots .He said he really wasnt into German politics and spent most of the war sleeping in a tent in the mud or in a hospital.He even talked about meeting Hitler a few times .he was shot down 10 or more times. I saw his hand and he didnt have a thumb and had alot of scars on him He said he was floating down in a parachute and a British plane was shooting at him and blew his thumb off
Das ist sehr interessant.
Fantastic!
Rudy, yes. That's because playing the sim games is not the real thing. It's the fun and the challenge without the constant fear of death. We don't need to know history to spend an hour flying about the screen shooting at things. For the real pilots of the time one error would cost them their life. Thank God the gamers can play without this issue even entering their minds.
great hero!!!
It's a shame that so many brave good men were wasted in the war. Just few of them had surwiwed tell the story.
What are the most interesting and informative 3 minutes of this video
Gunther is before a pilot, not a nazist...
People always argue about what fighter plane is better..Spitfire Mustang ME109 FW190… none of that matters. It’s the man in the cockpit that matters
Great Guy !
Respect. 💯💯💯
Wonder what might have happened if some of the "experten" were allowed to fly F86`s in Korea.
What 109 did he fly... was it the g10...
He flew them all.
Flew the E-F-G types not sure about the Kurfürst though
Bf109 G-4 he als flew the k-4 and tried out several others like fw-190d-9 and some allied planes like the spitfire and the p-38 and i think the p-47 as well cause i recall him sayin somewhere that it was a grand plane but not when it came to climbing cause it was heavy as fuck
sry for that lads, he actually talks about that now the allied planes.. i weren‘t at that point when i wrote the post, sorry! cheers!
Nothing different, time, or country. I graduated Embry-Riddle A.U. Joined the USAF with dreams to fly fighters. Very competitive, end up flying rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong, yeah, “Top Gun” quote, but same analogy.
No pudistes poner alguna traduccion.??? De que vale si no se entiende un pomo de lo que habla.!!!! Haga el trabajo bien y completo o no lo haga.!!
Do your job finally and learn English. Gruß aus Deutschland
Spitfires and Hurricanes, "Dead Good Planes", what a very British way to say it lol.
Ghunter rall se ganó la confianza de los aliados lk hoy es la OTAN al tratar con una enorme gentileza y perdonarle la vida a su adversarios al final de la 2 gerra ello lo catapunto alexito como prominente empresario y extraordinario soldado heroe canadiense me hubiera encantado conocerlo personalmente o a sus familiares murio en el 2009 soldados extrordinario ..
Paraphrasing here:
Be careful with old people of a profession in which they usually die young.
This man forgot more about war than most of us will (hopefully) ever learn.
In a way I envy him for his experiences.But still I am grateful that won't have to (if all goes according to plan) live through them myself.
He once partook in dumping mission on the SS,
Lol, I share a birtday with the guy :)
Exiting an Bf 109G-6 Buele ("warts"). That was an ugly ad-hoc flugzeug. They smoothed it out with the G-10.
dANKE!
wow, although he was the enemy of my Farthers generation, my god what a life he had
.....
He sounds like he got shot down as many times as the victories he has 🤔
Helde..
Ein alter ehrbarer Offizier sollte auch ein interview in deutsch bekommen. Das gehört sich nicht.
MsRomantiker I respectfully disagree.
+MsRomantiker haha. yea. I still dont understand why these people dont learn german. especially after they won the war. lol.
+ickekoep I studied Deutsch in High School because I wanted to spite my father, who fought in WW II. Ugliest language on the planet.
+Kinopanorama Widescreen Preservation Association Incorporated. Well if I had studied english in high school, alone from my vocabulary it had to be the ugliest language on the planet.
You dont even understand the meaning of the original comment and randomly reply to my comment with an insult based on your personal observation at your age of 16. Thank you for your input.
+MsRomantiker Es sind viele an seiner Geschichte interessiert. Oberst Rall spricht ein recht akteptables Englisch, und ein Interview in dieser Sprache macht seine Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen der ganzen Welt zugaenglich.
The British pilots and spitfires wereon another level to the germans thats why the won the b.o.b and were outnumbered by the m109 and luftwaffe
+Paul Mcdonough As much as I like the RAF, I don't think that's true. The German pilots of this time had fought in Spain, Poland and France...many of them were great pilots that just had more combat time than their british counterparts. The British RAF had a smaller percentage of combat veterans and a big part of their pilots were recruits fresh out of flight school. IMHO, German High Command did a number of tactical blunders that forced the Luftwaffe to fight on the terms of the British. Bombing London instead of the airfields, for instance, was a fatal mistake. Forcing German fighters to fly with the bombers instead of clearing air corridors in front of them was also a mistake. Extending the range of the fighters' missions to the point that they only had 5-10 minutes of fuel when they engaged british fighters was yet another mistake. No matter how good your pilots are, if you send them in missios where the odds are against them... they have much greater odds of being shot down, just like the B-17 and B-24 crews were during the daylight bombing campaigns of 42-43.
+Chuck Owl Honestly, the switch from bombing the airfields to london wasn't nearly as fatal as one would think. Read Stephen Bungay's Most Dangerous Enemy, it s a really enlightening look at the battle.
The reason we won was because of he german high command stupidity, and are radars.
***** you are wrong ha ha:)
back then my football team was better then yours
Legenda of battle aviation...