Gottfried Dulias

[Ruy Horta]

Okay, I hope this is it

[bobc10x]

This particular thread about my good friend Gottfried Dulias was just brought to my attention. After reading the many disturbing messages that have questioned the authenticity of his formal service to his country is a complete outrage! After suppressing the countless horrors the he endured in the Russian Gulags for nearly 60 years, he has finally come to grips with the past and has made a very sincere attempt to enlighten that many generations since the war’s end of the atrocities that were committed against him and his comrades! All of which were as harsh and in many ways were more extreme than the Nazi concentrations camps and inconceivably these atrocities continued on for many years after the end of WW II. More importantly the captures that supervised the Russian Gulags were never ever punished for their actions and the countless lives that were exterminated long after the end of the war! Gottfried was a captive in the Russian Gulags until January of 1948! It was not until he had become too ill to work and too stubborn to die before he was finally released. At his time of release he had been reduced to a mere walking skeleton of only 32 Kilograms (70.5 pounds) at 6’-2” tall!
The following is personal reply directly from Gottfried about the many personal negative posts that have been written about him:

My dear friend Bob.
I thank you very much for your E-mail with the negative report. What really amazes me, is the vast quagmire of bickering and unproven accusations and name-callings and the use of lack of proof against my story as evidence of guilt, is so un- American and unbelievable, that this is happening here in the good old USA, where Freedom of speech is one of our sacred rights as citizens.
And being convicted in public ( here by inter-net) as an imposter, charlatan, liar and what not etc, is so hurting, that words for this injustice I cannot think of in my shocked and appalled mind.

I had no idea, that such a vast army of accusers and doubting Thomas's about my book and the truth about it exists. I feel like a lonely mouse that is chased by an army of cats and have no way to stave them off.
I knew of only one doubting Thomas, that Mr. Chorney told me about with a hint, that more of his kind are possibly after me for the validity of my writings and found it beyond my dignity to have to defend myself in that 'small' matter. Mr Mike Chorney, by the way, is only one of the very few in that Forum Thread, who warned against unproven convictions in this matter. I didn't even know about the existence of that Forum and now I am overwhelmed by such a barrage of vultures trying to put me down and eat me alive for telling the truth as I remembered it after all these more than sixty years!
What do they want me to do, admitting that I am a liar and imposter against my better conscience ?
In my book in the Foreword on page XIII and in the Introduction on page XXIII I state clearly, that due to the suffering of brainwashing while in the Gulags of Russia and the starvation I had to go through I wound up as almost a zombie who had lost a lot of his short term memory, in that I am unable to recall exact names, dates and locations and tell my war experiences only in flashbacks of the many episodes as I have remembered them after so many years.
Pictures of the happenings came up in my mind but names and places and location-names escaped
all my efforts to recall them, even names of my best friends and fellow pilots, including the names of my two faithful mechanics who did such a good job in keeping my Gustav 109 in the best of shape.The Russians did a thorough job in washing a lot of my memory away forever.
Even now, while reading my book for the sixth time, some shreds of more memories are flaring up here and there but still no names of former comrades and dialogs, as well as location names,etc come up. Only vivid pictures of that, what I lived through.
It especially hurts me, that I am even accused of making up the story of my life in the Gulags of Russia, but for that I have proof in the form of the official Russian post cards we POWs were allowed to write home with attached answer cards in late 1946. Those cards I have and I also had the official Russian discharge from prison document. Unfortunately it 'disappeared' from my display while lecturing a fairly big audience in Boalsburg, PA two years ago. So, now I have only the correspondence cards and the things I made while in the prison hospital, among them the booklets of the diary on Russian cigaret paper and the school-book pages I got from a Russian boy, that I made more booklets from. There is some Russian printing on the cover page to "prove", to my false accusers and bickerers, that they are genuine Russian.

So what am I going to do, against this vast army of vultures, for I have no other proof to proclaim my innocence. Here I am standing alone, as God is my witness and with the knowledge, that I did my best that I am capable of, to have told my life's story upon request of so many people to make it known to the general public, what POWs had to endure in Russia, and that is something nobody else has ever written about to the best of my knowledge.
I was against writing this book, it was too hard to bring up those dreadful and painful memories until I was finally "persuaded", to put it mildly, by so many people and my co-author and Lady friend Dianna Popp to get over my reluctance of causing more of the nightmares I was suffering, just thinking about those three painful years.
But it turned out to be the best therapy, no more nightmares, now I can fearlessly talk and think about my terrible time in the Russian Gulags and am no more negatively effected.
My military experiences were not so important for me to write about,it was anyway only a short part of my life, while there are hundreds of thousands such stories on the market. But the truth of life in the Russian Gulags was and is my main concern and effort to bring it out for the world to know. That's why the title of my book: "Another Bowl Of Kapusta" is pertaining to the"Main Event", the center of my biography.
I really should fight these 'Know it Alls" and so called "historians", but I would take up a war that I probably cannot win, there always will be those doubtful Thomas's and Know it Alls around, that are eager to show to the people in the world, that they are doing them a favor by their "corrective bickering" and 'search for the Truth'. No matter what harm they are causing with their unproven accusations.
Not one of them ever had the courage to contact me personally and tell it to my face, that I am an imposter and liar, only from the safety of a forum they are spreading their poisonous opinions behind my back and I was never aware of it until now.

How can I, as soon to be a 82 year old lone "defendant" take up this fight? I am too tired for that and would put an unnecessary load on my shoulders, knowing I told the God's honest truth.
And for that I am punished?
So, I will not let it bather me and get sick over it, end of story !

If you, my friend Bob, want to take it upon yourself to send this, my statement, to those doubting Thomas's. I give you my wholehearted permission herewith.
It is a well known fact, that in the turmoil of the last few Month of WWII and the thorough, incessant bombings by allied planes not only towns and factories suffered great destructions, but the trains and railroad tracks, which were the main way of transporting war material and records to and from the fronts. Trucks as well as planes of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe were also destroyed that way, and those that survived, often could not function for lack of gasoline. The whole system of communication and transport was in a total disarray.
So, it is no wonder, that a lot of documents and important papers got lost and destroyed, evidently mine among them.
Even Mr Prien's three volume book about JG 53 Pik As is not absolutely complete, and hat he never heard of me, was evidently caused by those above mentioned destructions of records near the end of the war. So, I fell through the cracks and now being punished for it through no fault of my own. I rest my case and plead innocent, Justice will prevail !
Horrido !, and cheers,
Gottfried, the triumphant survivor.

[Kutscha]

I find it strange that he can remember the very traumatic times in the gulags in some detail but he has a hard time remembering the 'nice' times while in the LW? Convenient or what?

Any truth he's been refused a table inside the main hangar to sell his book at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's WW2 Weekend?

[Jim P.]

Bobby buddy, did you actually READ what was said in the thread?? No documentation of victories, his loss, no recollection of guy from his comrades. The historian of the LW Fighter Pilot Association (Mr. Ring) and the author (Mr Prien) of an extensive history of the unit this guy claims to have flown with have never heard of him, not to mention that the few details he does provide are inconsistent with the unit's history. Sorry, the ball is Mr. Dulias court to provide something more than believe me because I say so.

[David Ransome]

Hi,

I'm also interested in the aspects of brainwashing alluded to, particularly as to how the effects present themselves. For my PhD and ongoing work I looked at interrogation techniques ,including 'brainwashing', and what I have read above does not seem to conform to what I have seen or heard of to date. I would accept that the above is only a brief insight into the Dulias story however so would be interested to hear more, particularly if a course of hypnotherapy was ever undertaken.

Certainly, on the face of it, I would have to concur with the majority - based on all the evidence available.

David

[John Manrho]

Well, the solution is simple.....if Bob is such a "dear friend" then I presume that Mr. Dulias has no problem with it that Mr. Bob will take action and asks for copies of the personel file of Mr. Dulias in Berlin...... scans of those documents could clarify things....

JM

[bobc10x]

Hello All,

After several message exchanges between myself and Gottfried and I've decided to post my final reply.

Please understand that Gottfried is now 82 years of age. In talking with him about trying to establish various dates of the many occurrences that took place more than 60 years ago I finally came to the reality that at the mere age of 43, I can’t even remember that date that I graduated high school and I’ve forgotten the majority of the names of my teachers and the majority of the names of my classmates, with the exception being my closest friends and favorite teachers. Now given my age is nearly half that of Gottfried’s I find it to be completely understandable that he can’t put specific dates on the events that took place so many years ago.

There was some mention made about how they couldn’t understand why Gottfried’s recollection about his time in captivity was so clear, but his time as an active pilot was so vague. This comes with a very good explanation. During Gottfried’s time with his squad he made no attempt to generate a daily dairy were he would have recorded many of the dates that so many have requested. However, shortly after his capture as a P.O.W. in the Russian Gulag, he carved a small wooded box and generated a concealed false bottom were he hide a daily dairy that he assembled used Russian cigarette papers. In extremely tiny tiny print he recorded many of the daily happenings of his horrifying experience. To this day he still has this carved wooden box and the very tiny dairy, which was referenced in great detail when he was writing his book.

During the fleeting months of the war countless records were lost due to bombing and strafing not to mention the records that were personal destroyed my of the German personal due to the collapsing front lines on both war fronts. I find it too be rather appalling that with the tens of thousands of Luftwaffe pilots that flew during the war that only a few several hundred were fortunate enough to have made it to an historical list. With the rationalization that is being used here one would be falsely lead to believe that the whole war was flown and fought by only the very select few pilots that were fortunate enough to make it to an ace list, and we all know that is not true!

For what it’s worth, over the last 10 years I’ve spent countless hours talking with and assisting Gottfried at numerous autograph and book signing sessions. His complete understanding of the plane he flew and the passion that he exudes when he is discussing the time he spent in the cockpit in of his precious Gustav is without any doubt completely true and genuine!

The following are two letters that I’ve received from Gottfried, he has encouraged me to include them here as a final reply from himself on this matter. I hope that after you read his second letter and you see that now the U.S. Air Force has completed a thorough background investigation on Herr Dulias that they have concluded that he is who he says he is, will that he has received a personal invitation to attend this year’s “Gathering Of Eagles” as a featured guest!

Sincerely, Bob C

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Hello, Bob.

You are absolutely right, the date of my crash landing is my best guess. I had to write a date of my crash landing in my book and to the best of my blurry recollections, I came up with that date.
I know for sure, that it was in the beginning of March 1945 and the exact date I was unable to recall, but I really thought, that it must have been the 4th of March for some reason or another. I don't remember even the day I was writing that part of my book in late 2004.

As you said, you can't remember your school teachers names or classmates, so how come, that those armchair historians expect me to remember exact pertinent facts and dates as well as locations from an 82 year old who wouldn't be able to remember those things even without having been brainwashed?

I was reading the replies after you posted my letter to you in the Forum and that one guy criticized me for having better recollections of my prisoner of war times, than of my time as a fighter pilot.
Well as I mentioned in my book, while being in the prison-hospital stays, I was writing a dairy in the form of letters to my family on Russian cigarette paper booklets I made. That I used of course as an aid to write my story. Some of those I wrote verbatim in my book, just look it up and you will find it on page 186.

These Know it Alls are picking on everything I wrote and are so eager to point out any imagined inaccuracies in my book, and therefore call me a liar, it's pathetic!

Well, as you said, let it go and rest, it's no use and surely impossible to try to satisfy all those doubting Thomas's and Know it Alls. They would have to consider all those circumstances of those bygone times, that I lived through long before most of them were born, and they completely ignore those facts and don't give a hoot, what damage they are causing me by making those accusations and demands for exact reporting.

From my short time as Fighter pilot I had no diary to fall back on as aid for the accuracy of my writing and have only my very limited memory to go on. But those armchair historians are constantly insistent that I have to be able to tell dates, locations and names for them to believe my story and for that they condemn me to be an imposter and liar or charlatan. They are not logically thinking and have no consideration whatsoever what they are doing to me in the form of damage foremost to my reputation and also to the creditability of my book, not to mention even a curtailment of me being invited as speaker or lecturer at events, like the WW II weekend in Reading.

They really owe me an apology!!!

Horrido !
Your friend Gottfried.

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Hello, Bob.

The US Air Force, has invited me to be honored as an Eagle at the “Gathering Of Eagles” among 14 heroes of the American Air Force and one Briton at this year's graduation ceremonies of their cadet class.

After writing humbly to the Air Force, thanking them for the invitation, I mentioned that I do not measure up to the Hero standard of the other 15 other invitees. Shortly after that I received a letter from the U.S. Air Force stating, that I am worthy to be an Eagle! After a careful investigation and consideration, their board made the decision to invite me as an honoree.

During their invitation two U.S. Air Force majors came to my house to interview me and told me that there are some dissidents who are making derogative accusations about me. They completed a thorough investigation and dismissed them as armchair historians who ought to know better.

The majors didn't tell me where the board got their information from, but they acknowledged, a lot of records got lost due to the bombing and strafing in the last few months of WW II in Europe. But, evidently they had enough info about me to make their considered decision.

The fact, that the USAF made a thorough investigation about me and found me worthy, this alone is proof, that those false accusations by the doubting Thomas's are just that: false.
The USAF could not risk an embarrassment of that magnitude and made sure, that it wouldn't happen.

With this being said I feel that I’m deserved an apology from those who sought to damage my honest reputation. I flew and did my duty, served and nearly died for my country and after all that I find myself still being persecuted by some doubters because my name didn’t find it’s way onto any historic list.

That's all I can tell you.
Cheers and HORRIDO !,
Gottfried

[Ruy Horta]

Problem isn't that a few facts are off, the problem is that somehow Herr Dulias can't produce any strong piece of evidence.

As for the US Air Force, it should not be impossible to confirm and perhaps even obtain a copy their findings.

IMHO this continued discussion just reaffirms the likely fact that Herr Dulias is not exactly what he claims to be.

[Franek Grabowski]

I suppose that everyone will be happy and gladly apologize Mr Dullias, if only he can provide any document supporting or allowing to recreate his story.

[David Ransome]

Quite so!

It's interesting to note that Bob posted the same message regarding his good friend on at least one other forum -ww2aircraft.net - where the same opinions had been voiced.

David