Major Wilhelm Batz. Vom Fluglehrer zum Schwerterträger by Franz Kurowski - Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum

yogybär · #1 26th June 2009, 16:02

As it is so cheap, I bought this book.

I find the details about the dogfights as they are described very interesting, but somehow I feel abit uncomfortable about them. Batz was already dead for >20 years, when the book came out...

Does anyone know from where the author has all these details?

Nokose · #2 26th June 2009, 19:51

Joerg,
I suspect he obtains a lot of his information from material and interviews that was written during the war. I have his book on "Luftwaffe Aces" and some of them sound like they were written in that time period.

FalkeEins · #3 27th June 2009, 11:25

..where do you suppose he got the two pages of dialogue between Heinz Baer & Hermann Goering during the account of the ace's career in that book ?

yogybär · #4 21st July 2009, 11:19

Sorry for coming back so late... and thanks for your answer.

What kind of material would that have been, being written during the war?

Jim P. · #5 24th July 2009, 01:54

I too have Kurowski's 'Luftwaffe Aces' and actually am reading it now. The section on Batz was very interesting as to descriptions of many of Batz's combats, but there generally isn't any chronological point of reference - which is typical of Kurowski's work. This should be discernible when cross referenced with claims, no doubt, but for some of the other guys in that book - good luck.

Nokose · #6 24th July 2009, 22:31

I've seen photographs of the "Experts" being interviewed by newapaper or magizine reporters during the war. I "assume" that much of his material comes from these articles that have survived. Their probably is material from Bf110 pilots in them somewhere. During the news reels you often see them in the cockpits during the first part of the war.

FalkeEins · #7 25th July 2009, 10:24

.. passages from Kurowski's Marseille book (for example) were extracted from Fritz Dettmann's 'Mein Freund Marseille' (1944) - Dettmann was a PK reporter. It would be nice to know what some of his other sources were though...there appears to be large chunks of 'invented' dialogue in this particular book ('Luftwaffe Aces') for my taste..

yogybär · #8 5th August 2009, 11:04

CC, thanks.. I feel similar.