Ellie Midwood - Of Knights and Dogfights

The episode with the SS and the Staffel’s Senegalese crew chief, Henry, even though dramatized, is also based on true fact. After his Corps took one Senegalese soldier prisoner, Marseille virtually “adopted” him and the two became the closest of friends, which also caused the disapproval of Berlin and the Office of Race.

Johann’s capture and further incarceration in the Soviet Gulag and the treatment he had to endure is based on Erich Hartmann’s incarceration and his recollections of the Soviet POW camps and the NKVD commissars.

Flying techniques and dogfights described in the novel are also based on both fighter aces’ service records. If you would like to continue with further reading or have any questions concerning the authenticity of certain events, feel free to contact the author◦– I’m always more than happy to provide my readers with useful links or further reading material.

Erich Alfred Hartmann (19 April, 1922◦– 20 September, 1993), nicknamed “Bubi” (“The Kid”) by his German comrades and the “Black Devil” by his Soviet adversaries, was a German fighter pilot during World War II and the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. He flew 1,404 combat missions and participated in aerial combat on 825 separate occasions. He was credited with shooting down 352 Allied aircraft◦– 345 Soviet and 7 American◦– while serving with the Luftwaffe. During the course of his career, Hartmann was forced to crash-land his fighter fourteen times due to damage received from flying parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down, or from mechanical failure. He was never shot down or forced to land due to enemy fire.

Hartmann scored his 352nd and last aerial victory at midday on May 8 th1945, just hours before the war ended. Along with the remainder of JG 52, he surrendered to United States Army forces and was turned over to the Red Army. In an attempt to pressure him into service with the Soviet-friendly East German Volksarmee, he was tried on fabricated charges of war crimes and convicted; his conviction was posthumously voided by a Russian court as a malicious prosecution. He was sentenced to 25 years of hard labor and spent 10 years in various Soviet prison camps and gulags until he was released in 1955.

In 1956, Hartmann joined the newly established West German Air Force in the Bundeswehr and became the first Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 71 “Richthofen”. In his later years, after his military career had ended, he became a civilian flight instructor. He died on 20 September 1993 aged 71.

Hans-Joachim Walter Rudolf Siegfried Marseille (13 December 1919◦– 30 September 1942) was a German fighter pilot during World War II. A flying ace, he is noted for his aerial battles during the North African Campaign. All but seven of his 158 claimed victories were against the British Desert Air Force over North Africa. No other pilot claimed as many Western Allied aircraft as Marseille.

Marseille joined the Luftwaffe in 1938. At the age of 20, he participated in the Battle of Britain, without notable success. As a result of poor discipline, he was transferred to another unit (JG 27), which relocated to North Africa in April 1941.

He reached the zenith of his career on September 1 st,1942, when during the course of three combat sorties he claimed seventeen Allied aircraft. For this, he received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds. A month later, Marseille was killed in a flying accident after his aircraft suffered engine failure.

Ellie Midwood is an award-winning, best-selling historical fiction writer. She’s a health-obsessed yoga enthusiast, a neat freak, an adventurer, Nazi Germany history expert, polyglot, philosopher, a proud Jew, and a doggie mama.

Ellie lives in New York with her fiancé and their Chihuahua named Shark Bait.

Readers’ Favorite◦– winner in the Historical fiction category (2016)◦– “The Girl from Berlin: Standartenführer’s Wife”

Readers’ Favorite◦– winner in the Historical fiction category (2016)◦– “The Austrian” (honorable mention)

New Apple◦– 2016 Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing◦– “The Austrian” (official selection)

Readers’ Favorite◦– winner in the Historical fiction category (2017)◦– “Emilia”

Readers’ Favorite◦– winner in the Historical fiction category (2018)◦– “A Motherland’s Daughter, A Fatherland’s Son”

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Of Knights and Dogfights. Copyright © 2018 by Ellie Midwood.

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Cover designed by Melody Simmons

Cover photo by: G.GaritanRuffneck88 [CC BY-SA 4.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Hans Joachim Marseille photo by: By Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-2006-0122 / Hoffmann, Heinrich / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de