Luftwaffe war diary confirms that suicide crews took part,
escorted into battle by their less-exalted comrades from JG and
the first squadron of KG(J). Astonished Allied radio monitors
heard patriotic marches flooding the fighter-control wavelength
and a female choir singing the German national anthem, while
anonymous voices exhorted these pilots to die now for
the Führer and for Germany. Seventy of them did.
Such was the heroism of which Göring’s young airmen
were capable even on the threshold of national defeat. But there
were also acts of a different hue. On March , Messerschmitt
ferry-pilot Henry Fay picked up a brand new Me jet to fly
to Neuburg Airbase on the Danube. He deserted to the Ameri-
cans and handed the top-secret plane over in return for a
promise of immediate release to his mother. Fay also revealed to
the Americans where the Me and its fuel were manufac-
tured, and described its most vulnerable points. “Aim for the
engines,” he recommended, “as they catch fire easily.”
At : .. on April , , the final Soviet push across the
Oder began. Sixty more suicide pilots crash-bombed their planes
onto the Oder bridges in a desperate attempt to save Berlin.
But the decay of defeat had already reached the highest
levels in the capital. Learning that even Speer had disobeyed or-
ders to destroy bridges within Berlin, Hitler challenged him to
say whether he still believed in victory.
“I cannot say that I do,” the minister replied. But he agreed
without enthusiasm that he still wished that the war could be
won.
“I thank you for saying the best you could,” replied Hitler.
“But I can say only this” and Göring, watching, saw the per-
spiration standing out on his brow “We must hold on until
the last hour! No matter how much Donner and Blitzen! I know