Hitler at My Side Hans Bauer

Description

 

Lieutenant General Hans Baur, Adolf Hitler’s chief personal pilot, tells his story in a gripping first person account of his experiences and observations during the eleven years he spent with Adolf Hitler when he was Fuhrer of the German Third Reich. Written in a non-political style that commands the reader’s attention from cover to cover, it is a must read for those who seek to know what really went on in Hitler’s Headquarters and inner circle; for Hans Baur was there. This is a first person account with many interesting details by one of the very few members of “inner circle” to survive the final days in Hitler’s Berlin Bunker.

This is one of the most important  WWII memoirs. These personal account tidbits by Hitler’s pilot are priceless, with some details found in no other account by an eyewitness. Listed on the inside flap among (later General) Baur’s many achievements is that he was a “Post World War I Combatant Against Communism,” noble work indeed for which millions who appreciate freedom should be grateful.

For a man to survive his described travails and torture during 10 years(!) of Soviet captivity as a POW, after having a leg amputated with a pocket knife(!), demonstrates an exceptional strength of character that is admirable and exemplary. Of the very last days of WWII, at the Fuhrer Bunker in Berlin, General Baur writes “ I could have flown away, but I must say that the decision to stay was not difficult to reach. It seemed unfair to me to disappear at that final, terrible time.” Baur was a man of faithfulness to duty, and devotion to it. Hitler had been his best man and there is a photo showing this wedding scene.

He gives one of the few, very rare, eyewitness accounts of the man who was known as “Hitler’s double.” His Russian interrogators also grilled him about this subject. He records in full the very moving and eloquent last letter of 28 April 1945 written by Mrs. Goebbels to her one surviving child, a son from a previous marriage.

He records the very sober and intelligent explanation given to him by Hitler at their last meeting, of why a further escape to “the mountains or to [Admiral] Dönitz in Flensburg” would be futile. But Baur reports an interesting twist that I have seen mentioned nowhere else. It seems the Fuhrer knew about a certain special weapon and said that “Our intelligence has learned that Russia” had it and would use it on the Berlin Bunker. It would be a superb piece of modern history research if some researcher can determine whether or not those Soviet units at the front in the Battle of Berlin actually had this special weapon with them.

Aviation buffs and pilots will be fascinated and entertained by not only the aircraft, technical descriptions, and strange modifications that were tried, but also the “custom” set of instruments that Hitler had installed for his own benefit OUTSIDE of the pilot’s cabin! The direct quote that Baur records from a conversation with Goering in the last months of the war, concerning the Reichmarshall’s assessment of his own ability and track record as an aviation leader, is simply astounding. I’ve not seen that remark anywhere else either. [pg. 178] It is odd, as Baur notes (like no one else?) to observe the comparison of times, instances, and frequency in which Goering could have taken a flight, but deliberately preferred to take his fancy custom railcar. “For a long time, we had all been saying that Goering should have been minister of railroads rather than air transportation.”

The photos are of course fantastic. Highly, highly recommended.

 

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