Hajo Herrmann was a former Heinkel 111 and Junkers 88 bomber pilot with III/KG 4 in the Polish campaign, the blitzkrieg in the west and during the Battle of Britain. He was shot down over Dunkirk, escaped to safety and flew many combat missions over England. Later, he flew over Malta and then joined the Luftwaffe General Staff before taking command of his brainchild, the ‘Wilde Sau’ Fw190 night-fighter group in defence of the Reich. At the war’s end he was captured by the Russians and spent ten years as a prisoner in the Soviet Union. On his return to Germany, he became a lawyer.

Hajo Herrmann will be featuring in my new book about the Battle of Britain, but you can find his interview now on the Air Foce section of the Oral History Archive on this site.

Last week and I spent a fascinating few days interviewing former Battle of Britain pilots in Germany and Austria.  As soon as they are all transcribed I shall post them up on the Oral History Archive, but I learnt much from them. 

When I first thought about doing a book about the Battle of Britain from both sides I felt certain that including the German perspective would lead to a very different overall view of the battle, and so far I have not been proved wrong.  Among the things of interest that emerged were the obvious problems of stress and battle fatigue that affected a number of the pilots, and also that the nuisance raids on their airfields by Blenheims of Bomber Command also got under their skin.  There was also a problem of aircraft shortages – one fighter pilot had to wait three weeks after joining his staffel before there was a Me 109 for him to fly. Read more…

On 19th May, Bantam Press are publishing The Odin Mission, the first of a series of Second World War adventure novels featuring Jack Tanner.  I’ve always loved the Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell and the Hornblower books by C.S. Forrester, and it suddenly struck me a little while ago that a similar hero could easily have a long and distinguished career running through the Second World War. Read more…

If I’m honest, it was the Battle of Britain that first sparked my interest in the Second World War.  An aerial battle for survival over England, in which enemy forces were regularly flying over the cities, towns and villages of Britain, and in which iconic fighter aircraft helped save the day, captured my imagination. Read more…

I have to admit I’m not the most diligent blogger but I’ve noticed there are some really good history sites out there, and specifically Second World War sites and blogs.  As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, The Second World War Experience Centre in Leeds is a fantastic archive and now the dynamic new directorship of Cathy Pugh will no doubt go from strength to strength.  They have a phenomenal amount of interviews, papers, diaries and memoirs of veterans and, needless to say, they also have a very good website. Read more…