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Re: "only the best pilots..."?
Galgos,
Here are the passages from Duel under the Stars by Oblt Wilhelm Johnen ( RK, 34 kills ):
Pg.108 ( Chapter XI – In Defence of Berlin )
On the night of 27th January the met reported a cloud ceiling of 150 ft with solid cloud up to 13,000 feet. From 3,000 feet there was danger of icing. A fine snow fell, covering with a coat of ice the machines with started cold. There could be no lagging at the start and we had to be in the air within a minute or else the engine would probably fail….The OC, Hauptmann Bär….detailed the crews. Only ten out of 30 pilots would take off if there were an alert….
I was ( Wilhelm Johnen ) all set to take off but it was a point of honour that the OC should take off first….The OC took off. The engines roared and a dense rain of sparks swirled the slipstream behind him. He had hardly left the runway when I gave my machine full throttle and streaked after him…..Just as I was about to retract my landing flaps a terrible explosion shook my machine and a scarlet flame pierced the night….For a second I thought that my machine had crashed but nothing could have happened for the altimeter showed 90 feet and I was in level flight. Then the truth struck me in a flash. Hauptmann Bär had crashed.
Pg.117: After bad icing, Leutnant Peter Spoden baled out with his crew and landed successfully ( same mission ).
Pg. 116 says that Lt. Kamprath also baled out due to bad weather ( icing ) on the same mission of 27th January 1944.
BACK TO pg. 89
It was difficult to have complete confidence in these instruments and to refrain from looking outside to get one´s bearing from the cloud banks on the ground. Many a young pilot had done this, stalled his aircraft and crashed into the ground from a low height.
From what I do have read, ALL young pilots fresh from Fighter or Night-Fighter schools had a period of acclimatization in their own unit, which means: a lot of flights to make them FIT for fighting. Johnen recorded this period on the early part of his book too.
That´s the main problem by the end of 1944-early 45: lack of time to train, lack of fuel, lack of machines, lack of security for training flights ( just remember how many of those training machines were caught napping by 418 RCAF Squadron or other INTRUDERS ). Well, I did not have time now to check the book of Schnaufer or that of Drewes, but I will have a careful look for you later.
Cheers and hope that will help you
Adriano
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