Up ahead, they could see many contrails of the British fighters circling. He said they would take off and head over the English Channel. Günther told me a story about the Battle of Britain. You really get to know each other after a week of that kind of nonsense. No matter how tired we were at the end of each day, Günther would pull out a bottle of German fire water and we would solve all the problems of the world until the bottle was empty. One time at the week-long air show in Oshkosh, Günther, Kurt and I were given a house to stay in on the airfield. So it happened, I did write the foreword and then his editor published my book in the German language with a foreword by Günther Rall. Zee German pilot had a choice, he either got an Iron Cross or a Vooden cross!” When his memoir, My Log Book in German language was finished, his editor, Kurt Braatz said, “We need to get an English or American pilot to write a foreword for the English version of the book.” Braatz told me Günther immediately said, “Bud Anderson”. When we took off we were always in a target rich environment. He says, “You know before WWII, our Luftwaffe went to Spain to help Franco in their civil war and upon return we had to fight on two fronts. He told his wife, “We have lost the war.” One of Günther’s best stories is the one he tells when someone asks “Why did the German pilots have so many victories?” He speaks very good English, as he was once the Head of the modern Luftwaffe in NATO but for this story he uses a German accent.
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The second time he met Hitler was much different! He was withdrawn, reticent, confused and seemed to have no idea what was going on or what to do about anything. He told his wife we have nothing to worry about. He had a grasp of the war, of what was going on and his plan to win.
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After the first visit, he came home and told his wife what a charismatic person he was. It was common practice for German military personnel, who have been awarded the higher orders of the Knight’s Cross, to have an audience with the Fuhrer. Günther told me about the two times he had met Hitler. He was a warrior fighting for his country, just like I was. Günther and I spent the afternoon fishing, and after that I felt that we knew each other very well. The place was very large with a grass runway and a large lake. We met several times at symposiums and a visit to his home in Bavaria, and once while we were the guests of a local business man after a program at Maxwell AFB, AL. I do not know when I first meet General Günther Rall, history’s third ranking Ace with 275 victories. Much later, General Galland kindly mailed an autographed copy of his book to me.
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#Ww ii fighter pilot movie
While we were waiting for General Galland and his beautiful wife to arrive, I told Joe that I felt like I was smack in the middle of the movie The Blue Max. Later on, Astronaut Joe Engle and I were scheduled to lay a wreath on an unknown pilot’s grave. We could not have been more conspicuous, everyone with a camera came over to take a picture and all the rest came to see what was going on. So, it was decided that when things calmed down, we would do it discreetly beside an ME-109 in the corner of the auditorium. I said no way was I going up in front of this crowd and do anything.
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My US sponsor said that we were going on stage to present General Adolf Galland with an autographed copy of my book. It was a lively, intimidating affair with many shouts of, “ Horrido, Horrido,” over the PA. Later, after I retired, I met several pilots in symposiums in the US and one memorable one during a German Fighter Pilots reunion in Germany. He was badly disfigured from a plane crash and I gave him lots of points for pressing on with an aviation career. He was Johannes Steinhoff, who was visiting Edwards AFB regarding the Modern Luftwaffe F-104 program. I met the first one while I was still in the Air Force on active duty. I really did not care to meet a German pilot after the war. US/German Pilot Gathering, Santa Monica Air Museum,, Front Row (L-R) Ray Toliver, Walter Schuck, David Price, Hans-Ekkehard Bob, Günther Rall, Bud Anderson, Oscar Boesch, Back Row Kurt Schulze, Ernst Scheutele, 357th FG Ace Pete Peterson, Rudolph Gloeckner and Lute Eldridgeīud Anderson on reconciling with German Pilots