What we expect from a(n auto)biography (from: Guenther Rall's reminiscences in English!)

[Jukka Juutinen]

Kevin, based on the Finnish edition: there is a decent amount of WW Two coverage, but from my POV disappointingly large portion is devoted to vacuum cleaning period (=jets). OK memoirs, but way below Lipfert and Meimberg, for instance.

[Kurt Braatz]

Jukka – I’m not sure what you expect. An introduction to fighter tactics? Those aces I am close to are unable to talk about tactics. Their engagements were a matter of mere intuition. And the most succesful of them hate to glorify what they did. I once sat together with Guenther Rall in his beautiful garden after having worked with him on his biography the whole day. We didn’t say a thing. Suddenly, he whispered into the silence: “I saw the faces of most of the pilots I had to kill when entering a dogfight”, and tears rolled down his face.

There’s always a story behind the tales you so obviously love to read.

[Ruy Horta]

Jukka,

Rall's career was more than just WW2, if you can't handle that it is your problem, not the book's.

[Kurt Braatz]

My all-time favourite on fighter tactics 1914-1980: Shaw, Robert L.: Fighter Combat. Tactics and Manoeuvering. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press 1985, ISBN 0-87021-059-9. Shaw is an USN veteran, aeronautical engineer and former test director for the US Navy's Air Combat Manoeuvering Range (ACMR). 4,000 PIC-hrs in fighters. Leaves no stone unturned. Gorgeous reading!

Kurt

[Jukka Juutinen]

Originally Posted by Ruy Horta

Jukka,

Rall's career was more than just WW2, if you can't handle that it is your problem, not the book's.

How many victories did he score after 1945? Like it or not, most people buy a book by/on Günther Rall because he is a 275 victory ace, not because he was a Nato officer. And the content should reflect this, especially given the ratio of WW2/Nato victories (275/0).

I was simply looking for a book that would have followed Lipfert´s style by concentrating on combat and life on the frontline.

[Ruy Horta]

I don't know about most, but I bought an AUTObiography from Günther Rall, I got what I expected. This includes his time as a NATO general.

Now there are several options open to anyone with an interest in Günther Rall.

1. Read what this man wants to leave behind as his legacy
2. Read what interests you about this man's biography and skip the rest
3. Judge the book as not fitting your taste and skipping it all together.

Point 3 is legitimate, if you can find books that suit your taste, as in Lipfert's (wartime) autobiography. However if it is Rall you are interested in than you'll have a problem.

I won't lie about it, I enjoy biographies. Having read many, I have learned to read and enjoy or learn from the complete story. It may not be the thruth, but it is the subjective thruth of the person who wrote his story, hence it gives a valuable insight into said person.

I'll cut these posts from the original thread, let the original presentation stand as it is without the weight of this discussion.

[Jim Oxley]

An old man will see events and the world quite differently compared to his youth. It's simply a reflection of his advancing age, maturity, distance from the events described. And to a large degree, as he is writing his legacy, just how he wants to be remembered.

Rall in his advancing years is a much more refined and humble human being than he was is his youth. Then he was quite probably a proud, arrogant, confident youth fighting for a just cause. He would have gloried in his victory's, enjoyed his peer's adulation, and partaken in the rewards offered him - as was the acceptable general behaviour of those tumultous times.

Now, with hindsight, he knows that the cause he fought for was shameful. He was duped and mislead as most of his generation. What were considered as great achievements then he perhaps now sees in a less favourable light. So naturally he will downplay his combat victories, spend more time reflecting on the men he knew and lost, the betrayal of the times. And detail at length his rebirth in the his post war career, which was both successful and uncontroversial.

All old men do it.

[Jukka Juutinen]

Was he duped and was he mislead? Do we have authentic correspondence/documents by Rall or on Rall from e.g. 1938 on his political views?