surviving veteran fighter pilots
 

I am currently working on a personal project where I am compiling information about the Allied and Axis fighter forces during WW2. Part of this is for a novel I am working on, part of it is to help a couple of writing friends who are also working on their own novels but are too busy to do large amounts of research. I need to know if and/or where I can contact some veteran fighter pilots who served in the Luftwaffe during WW2. Since the passing of four quite well known fighter pilots in recent months, I have now realised that time is not a luxury I have, and with the number of veterans dwindling every day, I'm in a bit of a hurry to find these men and gather the information I need before they are all gone.

Here is a list I have been given of former Luftwaffe pilots who are, as far as I can tell, still alive, although I have received unconfirmed notification that three of them may be deceased:

Willi Reschke
Hans Stollnberger (apparently deceased but TBC)
Karl-Heinz Wilke (apparently deceased but TBC)
Peter Spoden
Heinz Roekker
Guenther Wegmann
Helmut Lennartz
Hugo Broch
Gerhard Krems
Horst Hermann (apparently deceased but TBC)
Armin Faber
Guenther Bierbauer
Karl-Heinz Becker
Kurt Dahlmann

I checked on Wikipedia and found that these men are either Knights Cross recipients, or have gained notability for some other reason such as being among the first to fly the ME262.

I would like to know how I can contact either these men listed above, or any other German fighter pilots lucky enough to have survived the war. Whether or not they are aces or highly decorated is not important, as long as they flew for the Luftwaffe.

Because my friends and I are writers, we will need plenty of detail about the daily lives of fighter pilots and all the various protocols and procedures they followed. Books like "I flew for the Fuhrer", "The Blond Knight of Germany" and "A Higher Call" have been very useful, but there are still many gaps in our collective knowledge, and nothing can compare to sitting down and interviewing (or at least writing to) the men who were actually there. It is also preferable that the men I contact have a good enough memory to be able to share their experiences.

Any leads at all would be appreciated.

Re: surviving veteran fighter pilots
 

Dahlmann was not a fighter pilot per se & I believe that Faber is no longer with us. I feel that with most being in their 90s & contacted many times before, you might not be lucky

Re: surviving veteran fighter pilots
 

What Chris said, I contacted many 'Alte Adler' decades ago for research purposes, and many back then were less than enthused to have to deal with correspondence.

Re: surviving veteran fighter pilots
 

Hi

I agree with Chris, though more so about their age, they are all in their nineties. Lennartz(none RK) died 24th February 1990. Becker(none RK) died 24th April 2006. Regarding Peter Spoden(none RK) he is a TOCH member.....your find him using private messages.

Kind Regards

Johannes

Re: surviving veteran fighter pilots
 

Peter has not visited in over a year or posted for over 2 years. I would suggest that his biography would give any answers rather than contacting him directly?

Re: surviving veteran fighter pilots
 

Do not take these three books as sacred texts (particulary the latest), they were critized one way or another, but for sure Heinz Knoke's book give a good glimpse of a fighter pilot's life in Defence of the Reich.

Re: surviving veteran fighter pilots
 

I think that von Kirchmayr is still living.

Regards

Johannes

Re: surviving veteran fighter pilots
 

I'm getting conflicting information about von Kirchmayr, some sources say he is still alive, but others say he passed away back in 1994.