[JG14_Josf]

Jan,

Thanks for the reply.

Myths are tough to stop when they get going. I think it is like a snow ball going down hill.

This is what does get me:

Nazi military men followed orders like robots.

I think that the above is a particularly disturbing myth for many reasons. I won’t bother you too much, I hope, with this diatribe. You can read or stop reading at will.

It seems to me, that, one of the reasons why the German people became efficient in war was the recognition of a need to allow individual decision making during combat operations. My observations appear to be supported by what I read concerning how ‘orderly’ the Luftwaffe was set-up. ‘Getting away with murder’ is a curious phrase.

Anyway your response to my curiosity concerning Heinz Baer’s (spelling?) anti-authoritarian nature leaves me curious. I think that Johannes Steinhoff had problems with Hans-Joachim Marseille and when I read a few comments suggesting that Heinz Baer was similarly, ahhh, anarchistic, or, self-motivated, whatever, it reinforced, the additional comments of information (right or wrong) reinforced my perception concerning the authoritarian nature of the German military.

You are probably familiar with Christer Bergstrom’s work, such as, Graf and Grislawski, A Pair of Aces, I am guessing, and if so it may be our mutual observation that Bergstrom appears to address the issue of ‘the robot Nazi soldier theory’ in such a way as to dispel such a Myth.

The exceptions might, curiously, span from one Gordon Gollob on one side of the spectrum to Marseille on the other. Perhaps I am stepping over the bounds of good conduct. A good Nazi in the Luftwaffe appears to have been the exception, or at least, that is my own ‘theory’.

I can offer quotes.

As long as I am being bold I’d like to offer help in getting the English version of the book out and that offer is an open invitation to copy text or whatever help you can use.

I think you have chosen a very good and timely subject to write about.

Your book isn’t going to be a simple documentation of facts – is it?

Where is the passion?

P.S. Speaking of Johannes Steinhoff – did you know that he helped author a book titled “Voices from the Third Reich – An Oral History”?