17 year old Me163 pilot

Gentlemen,

Just received my copy of the 3rd SAD newsletter. It includes a brief story of Joachim Hoehne an Me163 pilot who lives near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was drafted at age 14 and assigned to a Flak battery for on-the-job-training. His father, a commander of a Luftwaffe bomber squadron had Joachim tranferred to flight training, and he qualified to fly the Me163 after making six successfull training flights. He was then only 17 years old, but never flew in combat.

He wrote an autobiography, "Glory Refused", the memoirs of a teenage rocket plane pilot of the Third Reich. It is 170 pages with Me163 photographs and large print, and costs US$20.00 plus postage.

It may be obtained by writing to Joe Hoehne, 32917 Clinton Allen Road, Denham Springs, LA 70706, USA. His telephone numbers is (225) 665-2435.

Norman Malayney

[VtwinVince]

He must be the son of the former member of Jasta Boelcke, Otto Hoehne. Sounds like a very interesting book.

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

Very interesting/curious since his history is almost identical to Joe Volmar´s one:
http://www.volmarjoe.com/book.htm

[Brian Bines]

The loss lists of 'Komet' by Jeffrey L. Ethel which seem to come from NVM's shows Uffz. Oswin Schuller wounded in Luftkampf on 11th. Feb. 1945. He was flying Me163B SC+VJ w.n.191111 white 22 of 1/400, and was born 5th. June 1927 which as Ethel noted made him 17 yrs. old at the time.

[Stig Jarlevik]

All

Was the unit crawling with 17 year old boys???

Cheers
Stig

[Edward L. Hsiao]

That was hightly strange to have 17 year olds fly into combat as well.

Edward L. Hsiao

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Edward L. Hsiao

That was hightly strange to have 17 year olds fly into combat as well.

Edward L. Hsiao

My Dad altered his birth certificate in an (unsuccessful) attempt to get into the army underage and I’m sure that similar things happened in all countries. Even so, you’d need to have got in very young to have gone through basic and flight training and still be in time to fly at 17.

[VtwinVince]

I'm sceptical that Hoehne did any 'sharp' starts in the Komet.

[Matti Salonen]

According to my information Oswin Schuller was born on 5 Jun 1923.

Matti

[John Manrho]

I do not believe a 17 year old would fly the Me 163......