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Understanding 9/11I Was Hitler S Pilot The Memoirs Of Hans Baur
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I Was Hitler S Pilot The Memoirs Of Hans Baur
Memoires
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Reviewer:
gallowglass
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February 17, 2021 (edited)
Subject: View from the cockpit
Subject: View from the cockpit
The run-up to Germany’s 1932 elections was a good moment for an airline pilot to be recommended to Adolf Hitler, who had been quicker than others to
...
see the advantage of whistle-stop campaigning by air. Sure enough, when he duly became Führer, he named Hans Baur as his personal air-chauffeur, in which trusted position he remained till the last days of the Reich.
The two of them would spend many hours alone together in that little cabin, batting around above war-torn Europe, where insights might be exchanged, and Baur was one of the few who might claim to have been a close friend.
He’s not much of an author, and the book shows signs of hasty writing, but his view of the great conflict is not unworthy of study. Hitler was under no illusions about the risk of plots on his life, and the convenience to his enemies of an unexplained air-crash. So his confidence in Baur led him to depend on the man to an extraordinary degree.
We get a close-up view of many leading players who become repeat-guests on board, especially Mussolini, Boris III of Bulgaria and Goering, whose gargantuan appetite for food and drink contrasts so sharply with Hitler’s own abstemious diet. He notes with irony Hitler’s opposition to blood-sports, and his tender feeling for animals (all except homo sapiens, that is). Also his hypnotic effect on women, and his reason for staying single - that Germany alone can be his bride.
For some reason, there is a gap in the chronology, covering most of 1936-7, so we get no mention of the Berlin Olympics, which was the occasion for a big air-show where Hess is supposed to have got chummy with the Duke of Hamilton (who repeatedly denied it), and also nothing on the controversial visit of Edward and Wallis. There is a puzzling reference to the invasion of Poland, with Hitler reassuring Ribbentrop that the British would never follow up on their commitment to intervene, when it was actually the other way round - Hitler nervous about provoking Britain, and Ribbentrop using his (dubious) credibility about foreign affairs to reassure him that they’d got nothing to worry about.
Baur stays loyal to the end, keeping a plane within reach of the führerbunker to evacuate his master, but to no avail. (The only thing that relieves Hitler’s gloom in the last days is a pointless exercise in re-planning bombed Munich.) Baur confirms Eva Braun’s pride and excitement about her 24 hours as Frau Hitler. Inevitably the Russians capture Baur, having to amputate his wounded leg, and the stories of his ten years behind bars are as depressing as you expect - for example, letters and food parcels from home being opened and destroyed in front of him. But at least he survived to enjoy a long retirement when he did finally get home, living on to ninety-five.
The two of them would spend many hours alone together in that little cabin, batting around above war-torn Europe, where insights might be exchanged, and Baur was one of the few who might claim to have been a close friend.
He’s not much of an author, and the book shows signs of hasty writing, but his view of the great conflict is not unworthy of study. Hitler was under no illusions about the risk of plots on his life, and the convenience to his enemies of an unexplained air-crash. So his confidence in Baur led him to depend on the man to an extraordinary degree.
We get a close-up view of many leading players who become repeat-guests on board, especially Mussolini, Boris III of Bulgaria and Goering, whose gargantuan appetite for food and drink contrasts so sharply with Hitler’s own abstemious diet. He notes with irony Hitler’s opposition to blood-sports, and his tender feeling for animals (all except homo sapiens, that is). Also his hypnotic effect on women, and his reason for staying single - that Germany alone can be his bride.
For some reason, there is a gap in the chronology, covering most of 1936-7, so we get no mention of the Berlin Olympics, which was the occasion for a big air-show where Hess is supposed to have got chummy with the Duke of Hamilton (who repeatedly denied it), and also nothing on the controversial visit of Edward and Wallis. There is a puzzling reference to the invasion of Poland, with Hitler reassuring Ribbentrop that the British would never follow up on their commitment to intervene, when it was actually the other way round - Hitler nervous about provoking Britain, and Ribbentrop using his (dubious) credibility about foreign affairs to reassure him that they’d got nothing to worry about.
Baur stays loyal to the end, keeping a plane within reach of the führerbunker to evacuate his master, but to no avail. (The only thing that relieves Hitler’s gloom in the last days is a pointless exercise in re-planning bombed Munich.) Baur confirms Eva Braun’s pride and excitement about her 24 hours as Frau Hitler. Inevitably the Russians capture Baur, having to amputate his wounded leg, and the stories of his ten years behind bars are as depressing as you expect - for example, letters and food parcels from home being opened and destroyed in front of him. But at least he survived to enjoy a long retirement when he did finally get home, living on to ninety-five.
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