Above - Knight Cross holders - top guns of JG 52 - from left: Karl Gratz, Günther Rall, Friedrich Wachowiak. In text photos are: funny mission break of pilots of II./JG 52 - in foreground first from right is Günther Rall, and Ralls snap in front of his Bf 109.
Günther Rall was born on 10 March 1918, in Gaggenau, a small village in the Black Forest. His father was a merchant. When Günther was a 3 year old boy, his family moved to Stuttgart. Here he started his education, first in elementary school and high school (Gymnasium). After graduation of his final exam (Abitur), he became a cadet in an infantry regiment. Soon he decided to start a career as an air force officer. After promotion to Leutnant, he went to the air force and began flying in 1938 in Neubiberg, near Munich. In 1939 Rall finally graduated fighter training on a base east of Berlin and he was posted to JG 52. His first contact with the enemy was in May 1940, over France. On 12 May 1940, he scored first 2 kills. In the "Battle of Britan" his unit suffered heavy losses; in a period of two weeks they lost their group commander, the adjutant, and all three Staffel commanders were killed. Rall was promoted to Lieutenant and took command of 8th squadron of JG 52. He led his pilots for the next three years.
Funny mission
break of pilots of II./JG 52. In second row from left: Uffz.
Lotzmann (15), Uffz. Werner Hohenberg (33) and Lt. H Funcke (19).
In first row from right: Hptm. Gunther Rall, Lt. Hans Markoff
(15), Fw. Karl-Friedrich Schumacher (56) and. Oblt. Gerhard Luety
(38).
After the "BofB," II./JG 52 was moved for a short time to Germany for replacements, then was stationed near Bucharest, Romania from December 1940 - March 1941. Then they took part in the Greece campaign and operations over Crete in May 1941. Rall's unit was then outfitted with the new Messerschmitt Bf 109 Friedrich type and posted to the southern part of the Eastern Front, just as the German-Soviet conflict began. 8./JG52 operated over the Caucasus, and battled over Dniepropetrovsk and Stalingrad. On 28 November 1941, Günther Rall was badly injured. Let's hear his vivid account from an interview by Colin Heaton:
"I was flying between Taganrog and Rostov. In those days it was very cold. We had temperatures of minus 40 degrees Centigrade. I was flying an afternoon mission, what we would today call a fighter sweep, when my wingman and I ran into Russians. It had just started getting dark, and I had a dogfight with a Russian, shooting him down in flames. In this very late light, I was blinded a little bit. I didn't pay attention, and a Russian came in behind me. He shot my engine dead and it was over Russian territory, so naturally I tried to reach the German lines-- not a solid line, but I saw some German tanks. I was flying westward, and I tried to make a belly landing, but I saw where I was going to touch down, in what they call a baikal. This was a little canyon just across my flight direction, and I touched the ground at too high a speed.
The aircraft hit and jumped up again. I bounced over a
little canyon and pushed my stick forward. I bellied in and
crashed on the other side. That was the last thing I knew, as I
saw this wall coming toward me, and in the big bang I was knocked
out. The rest of the story I learned from my wingman, as he was
circling over me and watching what happened. When the battle and
crash were over, my wings came off, my engine came off, (thank
God these things did come off and I didn't catch fire). I was
hanging from the wreckage and nearby was a German tank. The crew
jumped out and cut me out of the cockpit. I was unconscious and I
didn't know how I got out. Later that night I ended up in a
burned-out school in Taganrog. This was a kind of aid station for
the ambulance, and there was no medical treatment there. ...
In the crash I broke my back in three places--the eighth and ninth thoracic vertebrae and the fifth lumbar vertebra. I was paralyzed for a long time on the right side and my right leg. I was evacuated in due time back to Romania. We were moving back in retreat, and there were no X-ray stations; it was just chaos. In Romania, I was X-rayed and the doctor told me, "Flying? You can forget it!" because my back was broken in three places. I got a full body cast, an extension cast, and when this was fixed after one week, I was transferred on a train, which took eight days to go through Romania and the Carpathian Mountains. We ended up in Vienna, and at night we came to the train station. The doctors came and everything that had happened to me had been written on my chest."
In August 1942, after nine months, Rall
returned to active combat duty. On 26 November 1942 Hitler
personally decorated him with the Oak Leaves, after his 100th
victory. From April 1943 to March 1944, Rall commanded III./JG
52. He scored his 200th victory on 29 August 1943, and on 12
September 1943 Führer awarded him the Swords. In October 1943
alone, he downed over 40 Soviet planes. In the spring (April) of
1944 Rall came back from Eastern Front in Germany to the Home
Defense (II./JG 11 - Reichsverteidigung) fighting, this time,
against the 8th Air Force. In one of those battles on 12 May
1944, flown in Bf 109 G-5 WNr.110089 (schwarz << + ) of Stab II./JG 11, Rall was shot down by a P-47 "Thunderbolt" of the 5th Fighter Group. One of enemy shells cut his left thumb off. During the war Rall was shot down eight times, and in three of those incidents he was wounded. Beginning in March 1945, he commanded units of JG 300, but by then the Luftwaffe was badly disorganized and German air power was very weak.
After the war, Rall was captured and interrogated by the British. In 1956 he joined the new Bundesluftwaffe at the rank of Major. He trained in the USA on F-84 "Thunderjets", then on F-104 "Starfighters". He retired at the end of 1975. Rall is ranked third on the list of top Luftwaffe aces, with a record of 275 kills in a total of 621 sorties.
Left profile of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2, flown by Günther Rall with tactical no. " 13 + ~ ", 8./JG 52, Eastern Front, 1942/1943.
1998.05.31, © WW II Ace Stories.