WWII: Did the British pilots and officers fight well?

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in World War II magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Rall: Outstanding. They were a well trained and highly motivated force, with good equipment and good morale.

WWII: A mirror image of your Luftwaffe at that time?

Rall: Oh, yes, and I was in a wing which at that time was not very experienced, as it was a newly formed wing. We learned our lessons over the British Channel, and we had tremendous losses against the Royal Air Force. I had the highest respect for them.

WWII: Were most of your losses during fighter missions or bomber escort missions?

Rall: We had unfortunately been assigned to escort Junkers Ju-87B Stukas (dive bombers), very slow-flying aircraft. We had to fly close escort (in Messerschmitt Bf-109Es), which was wrong. We had to stick with them, giving up all of our superiority and speed. So we escorted them over the Channel where the Spitfires and Hurricanes waited upstairs for us, and we had tremendous losses. I lost my group commander. The adjutant and all three squadron commanders were killed in a time span of about two weeks. I, as a young lieutenant, had to take over my 8th Staffel (squadron) as commander at the age of 22. I did this for three years.

WWII: I suppose that all of this combat experience trained you and prepared you for when you were later transferred to Russia?

Rall: Yes, that is correct.

WWII: In what other areas did you serve during the war?

Rall: Well, we were withdrawn to Germany, where we trained new pilots, and then went to Romania. We were to protect the oil fields and the bridges over the Danube River down to Bulgaria. We were stationed near Bucharest, the capital of Romania. This was for only a short time, from December 1940 to March 1941. When we moved into Bulgaria, Greece was beginning. I also had operations over Crete in May 1941. I came back with the group from Romania when Crete was finished, and we were given a new airplane, the Messerschmitt Bf-109F, which was a much better aircraft. It had round wingtips and a new Daimler Benz engine, the 603. At that point–June 1941–the war with Russia was just beginning. From then until 1944 I was in the southern part of Russia, moving down to the Caucasus and on to Dnepropetrovsk, Stalingrad, all of the important names. This was a very fast-moving war, contrary to the northern part of the Russian Front, which was more stationary. In the spring I came back to Germany to the Home Defense (Reichs Verteidigung), flying against the Eighth Air Force, as you know, against all the North American P-51 Mustang, Lockheed P-38 Lightning and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters.

WWII: Describe the crash in which you injured your back.

Rall: This was November 28, 1941. I was flying between Taganrog and Rostov. In those days it was very cold. We had temperatures of minus 40 degrees Centigrade. I flew an afternoon mission, what we would today call a fighter sweep, when my wingman and I ran into Russians. It had just started getting dark, and I had a dogfight with a Russian, shooting him down in flames. In this very late light, I was blinded a little bit. I didn’t pay attention, and a Russian came in behind me. He shot my engine dead and it was over Russian territory, so certainly I moved and turned trying to reach the German lines– not a solid line, but I saw some German tanks. I was flying westward, and I tried to make a belly landing, but I saw where I was going to touch down, in what they call a baikal. This was a little canyon just across my flight direction, and I touched the ground at too high a speed. The aircraft hit and jumped up again. I bounced over a little canyon and pushed my stick forward. I bellied in and crashed on the other side. That was the last I knew, as I saw this wall coming against me, and in the big bang I was knocked out. The rest of the story I learned from my wingman, as he was circling over me and watching what happened. When the battle and crash were over, my wings came off, my engine came off, and thank God these things came off so I didn’t catch fire. I was hanging in the wreckage and nearby was a German tank. The crew jumped out and cut me out of the cockpit. I was unconscious and I didn’t know how I got out. Later that night I ended up in a burned-out school in Taganrog. This was a kind of aid station for the ambulance, and there was no medical treatment there.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to