WWII: Werner Mölders was also a respected man during the Spanish Civil War.

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Rall: Absolutely, he was a great character and fighter leader, and he was a very strong Catholic. In those days he had his own rules and personality. He was a great man, creating new tactics, leading his men into combat, and being concerned for them and caring for them in the air as well as on the ground. This was, I think, the real Werner Mölders. Despite his young age, he was known as “Daddy Mölders.” It was because of his experience and leadership that he was given the nickname.

WWII: What are your personal feelings about Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring? Is it true that most of the pilots did not like him?

Rall: You could not like him. He was perhaps a capable man before the war. He was a great organizer, helping to build the air force after the First World War. Also, he was a great fighter pilot in World War I. As you also know, he was injured in 1923, and he had a very difficult injury. He had to take morphine for the pain and became addicted. It might have changed his character. At the time I became acquainted with him, I was cold to him. He was a big fat man, a very pompous man, and not only I but my comrades felt that he was out of touch with reality. He was certainly not respected as an air force leader. Actually he did not lead the air force at all; it was somebody else, but not Göring. Hermann Göring would make silly statements to Hitler. Hitler said, “You are the leader of the air force,” and he (Göring) made a long statement about the Battle of Britain, you know, that he would triumph over the Royal Air Force, which was wrong, as we had tremendous losses in our fighter fleet that we never recovered from during the war. He said, “We can support Stalingrad, the air force can do it,” which he was not able to do, which was a very wrong and costly statement.

WWII: It has been said that Hans-Ulrich Rudel, the great Stuka pilot, was something of a maniac. Did you know him?

Rall: Absolutely, he was a bit of a maniac. I flew with him as his fighter escort for his group several times. They were flying normal Ju-87 missions, and we escorted them. This was in Russia, of course. He was a great Stuka pilot, no doubt–after all, he shot up 519 tanks among other things, which is quite something. After the war I was a fellow prisoner with him in France, as guests of the Americans. Rudel and I were in the same camp, and later we were borrowed by the Royal Air Force. I was sent to the British Fighter Leaders School at Tangmere. This was for interrogation, which lasted three weeks. I was there with Rudel as well, and we slept in the same room. Living very close together you get acquainted, and you come to understand the thinking of such a man, but I had known him before that. Anyhow, I was really surprised at this egocentric man; he was the greatest in his own mind, that sort. It was a little disgusting to me.

WWII: What do you recall of your meetings with Adolf Hitler, such as the occasion when he awarded you the Oak Leaves and Swords to your Knight’s Cross?

Rall: The first time was in November 1942, when I was given the Oak Leaves. As you know, additional honors to the Knight’s Cross, from the Oak Leaves onward, were presented by Hitler personally. I was there with Steinhoff–at that time it was Hauptmann Steinhoff and Oberleutnant Rall–with some others, five of us in all. Certainly we were impressed with his headquarters in East Prussia, at the Wolfschanze (Wolf’s Lair) at Lotzen. We entered, he was standing there, and he handed over our decorations. We sat around the fireplace, and he asked each of us which units we came from, our battle experience and so on. All questions such as this, quite normal. Well, pretty soon he started his own monologue, knowing that we would go back to our unit and repeat what he had told us, and we would remark on what a great guy he was. Well, he started talking about the buildup of the anti-aircraft defense and new communications systems in Russia, the railway system and things like this. He talked about the width of the railroad tracks, how they needed to be made wider for standard German rail traffic and extended into the deeper regions. This was to be the expansion of the Third Reich in the Middle East–the building of villages and towns, all of these very essential things, which was a program he had in mind, no doubt. I asked him then, perhaps I was too courageous, but I interrupted him and asked, “Despite all of that, how long do you think this war will be? Because when we moved into Russia, the newspapers said that by the time the first snows came down we would be finished with the war in the East. Instead, we have suffered in the cold over there.” So Hitler then said to me, “Well, I cannot tell you. This might be an open area. We have our settlements here, and when the enemy comes from the depths of the Asian steppe, then we will defend this area. Just like in the days of Genghis Khan.”

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