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On the evening of Saturday, May 18th 1940 a young Luftwaffe
fighter pilot was part of a force tasked to find, and safely
escort back to its base, a German Heinkel reconnaissance aircraft
over French territory. The young man’s name was Günther
Rall, who would later become the third-highest ranking fighter
Ace in the history of aerial warfare, with a total score of 275
confirmed victories.
Rall and his fellow pilots took off from their airfield
on this fateful late afternoon, and quickly found the recce plane
which was desperately trying to get back behind the lines, with
a whole pack of French US-built Curtiss Hawk fighter aircraft
in hot pursuit. Rall’s unit immediately engaged, and a short
but ferocious battle between the Germans and the French flared
up. Rall soon got a chance to align his sight on one of the French
fighters, which later turned out to be flown by the exiled Czech
pilot Otto Hanzlicek. The rounds fired from Rall’s Messerschmitt
Me109E almost immediately sent the Curtiss down in flames.
So intensely focused on his first gunfight was this young fighter
pilot, that he had failed to notice Hanzlicek’s wingman
who had moved in from behind and was firing at him. Now it was
Rall’s turn to take the punches. His 109 was hit several
times and spun out of control, Rall had to use all of his exceptional
skills as an aviator to recover from the stall.
As quickly as the fight had erupted, it was over. Günther
Rall found himself alone in the skies over France with an aircraft
that was just barely flyable, but he managed to survive and land
at a German airfield that night.
Thus began the career of one of the world’s most exceptional
military aviators. His long and hard service career, first for
his native Germany, and later for NATO, could well have ended
with his very first enemy encounter. But Günther Rall, showing
the world a first glimpse of his outstanding qualities as a fighter
and a leader prevailed, and turned a near tragedy into triumph.
Each print in the edition is signed by Günther Rall. |