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(More customer reviews)HANS-JOACHIM MARSEILLE: AN ILLUSTRATED TRIBUTE TO THE LUFTWAFFE'S "STAR OF AFRICA"
ROBERT TATE
SCHIFFER PUBLISHING, 2008
HARDCOVER, $49.95, 224 PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS, DIAGRAMS, APPENDICESHans-Joachim Marseille, a young German fighter pilot, was the most amazing, unique, and lethal ace of World War II. A non-conformist and brilliant innovator, he developed his own personal training program and combat tactics, and achieved amazing results, including 17 victories in one day; with an average lethality ratio of just 15 gun rounds per victory! Marseille was described by Adolf Galland, the most senior German ace, with these words: "He was the unrivaled virtuoso among the fighter pilots of World War II. His achievements were previously considered impossible."
Marseille, who later became one of the ten most highly decorated German pilots of World War II and was nicknamed "The Star Of Africa" by the German propaganda, ("Jochen" by his friends), had a very uncompromising and problematic start. At age 20, he graduated from the Luftwaffe's fighter pilot school just in time to participate in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. He initially served in Fighter Wing 52 under Johannes Steinhoff (176 victories). In his third combat sortie, he shot down a Spitfire and by the end of the Battle of Britain; he had seven victories while being shot down four times! Further, his behavior on the ground got him into trouble with his superiors. His charming personality coupled with his love of the night life sometimes caused him to be grounded the following morning. He also loved American jazz, which was politically incorrect in the German military. As a result, he was transfered to another unit as a punishment for "insubordination". His new unit, Fighter Wing 27, was deployed in April, 1941 to the hot deserts of North Africa; where he quickly achieved two more victories but was also shot down again and continued to be a discipline problem.
Lucky for him, his new wing commander, Eduard Neumann, recognized that there might be a hidden potential in the unusual young pilot and helped him get on the right track. With his problems on the ground finally over, Marseille began to deeply analyze his combat activity, and started to improve his abilities.
As a fighter pilot, with an intense physical and professional self-training program developed by himself, Marseille concentrated on these points:
*Vision
*G-Force
*Aerobatics
*Marksmanship
*Intelligence
*Tactics
Marseille's career is one of the most interesting and stellar of any Second World War aviator. In 388 combat missions (482 missions total), he destroyed 158 Allied aircraft in the European, Mediterranean, and North African Theaters of Operation. For the remaining skeptics, please take note of the following: in the North African Theater of Operations, some 1,300 victories were claimed by German pilots. Of those, 674 victories were claimed by only 15 pilots, and the top 55 scoring pilots accounted for 1,042 kills. This points out another basic difference between German and Allied combat philosophy. While the Allies tended to hunt in packs and compete vigorously for kills, the Germans, at least in North Africa, tended to let the best pilots "have at it" while the new pilots would tend to sit back and enjoy the show. This is one reason the loss of an asset like Marseille was so devastating to the Luftwaffe in North Africa. That kind of emotional destruction wouldn't likely accur in Allied squadrons.
Marseille's ingenious tactics were made successful because of his unique and masterful flying abilities. Other pilots tried to emulate Marseille, but failed to master their own aircraft and thus weren't as successful. It is interesting to note, that two of the most successful German pilots in North Africa also used Marseille's tactics to achieve many of their victories. Still many Allied military historians refuse to believe that Marseille was as successful and deadly as the Germans claim. Keep in mind that during the Marianas Turkey Shoot on June 19, 1944, U.S. naval aviator Commander David McCampbell shot down seven Japanese aircraft on a single sortie and another nine on 24 October 1944. Another, U.S. Army Air Corps Major William Shomo, was awarded the Medal of Honor for downing seven Japanese aircraft in a single sortie on 11 January 1945. Many pilots on both sides of the war were credited with multiple kills on single sorties but Marseille just happened to make a deadly habit of it.
The men of Marseille's squadron were so devastated by his death, that the entire I Gruppe ceased to function as a combat unit and were subsequently withdrawn from combat operations for a period of one month. Marseille was buried in the desert with full military honors in the military cemetery in Derna, Libya. To this day, a pyramid, newly dedicated in 1989 stands as both a testimony and honor to his achievements on the site of some of the most severe fighting in North Africa.
HANS-JOACHIM MARSEILLE: AN ILLUSTRATED TRIBUTE TO THE LUFTWAFFE'S "STAR OF AFRICA" is an outstanding tribute to one of Germany's most respected but least known military aviators. This long overdue account is both well-written and lavishly illustrated with many never before published photographs of both the man and his aircraft. Anyone that is interested in World War II aviation should purchase this book. You will not be disappointed.Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida
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