Customer Reviews

The Sky My Kingdom: Memoirs of the Famous German War II Test-Pilot (Greenhill Military Paperbacks)

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Autobiography of Hanna Reitsch, exceptional glider and military test pilot during the Third Reich. Though the text is sketchy - Hanna even neglects to tell us when she was born, there are fine passages which give the reader a intimate idea of what it is like to fly. Hanna also provides some insight into why Hitler rose to power, interesting comments on Himmler, and rational for her advocation of suicide missions - the Morganthau Plan being one incentive. She left much out but it remains fine reading. B/W photos.

The Third Reich is often portrayed as a place where women were confined to essentially producing and rearing children. What is often forgotten is how popular Hitler and the National Socialists were with the women of Germany. It is true that most women chose to become mothers and homemakers and that was because that choice was extolled and rewarded to an extent rarely seen in any society before or since. However, any independent-minded and confident woman could, and often did, become successful in their own right in their chosen field. Leni Riefenstahl is probably the most famous but Hanna Reitsch was almost as well known through her exploits. Unlike in today's feminist, politically-correct environment where many women are given unfair advantage over their male competitors in virtually all fields Hanna Reitsch was a genuinely skilled pilot every bit the equal of her male comrades. She completed many firsts for aviation, for example, flying a helicopter, and faced real, life-threatening dangers in the amazing experiments carried out by the Luftwaffe during those desperate times. That she had great physical courage was proved over many times. Flying into a shattered Berlin in April 1945 would have tested the bravest pilot to the limit. Yes, there are gaps in the story of her life. It is a fairly short work after all. She probably did not want to think too much of what had been lost (for example, her family committed suicide at the war's end) and she was under suspicion by the conquerors because of her refusal to condem Hitler or National Socialism.
The book is a useful addition to our knowledge of the period and to the developmnet of aviation.