Afterburner Book Reviews THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER The True Story of Hitler’s Valkyries By C Mulley

Macmillan, Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR, UK. 2017. 486pp. Illustrated. £20. ISBN 978-1-4472-7420-9.

A great deal has been written about and by the women pilots who flew in Britain and the United States of America as ferry pilots in WW2. Much less was known about the female aviators who flew for Germany – excepting the renowned glider pilot Hanna Reitsch. That was until the publication of Clare Mulley’s well-researched book. Although four women flew for Hitler during the war – Hanna, Melitta Schiller (also known by her married name Melitta Schenk Grafin von Stauffenberg), Beate Uhse and Liesel Bach (four more than flew for France), only two feature in the book. This surprised me, so I wrote to author Clare Mulley to find out why. In reply, she wrote: “My book is not intended as a gliders and tested pioneering flight equipment such Above: A Focke Achgelis history of all the women who flew for Nazi Germany as wing shields designed to slice through the steel Fa61 helicopter flown inside but as a more particular study of the lives of Melitta cables of Britain’s barrage balloons. the Berlin Deutschland-Halle by Hanna Reitsch in February von Stauffenberg and Hanna Reitsch, the only two The importance of both women’s contribution to 1938. RAeS (NAL). women to serve as test pilots for the regime. the German war effort resulted in each being given “The lives of these two women provided an the honorary title Flugcapitän or Flight Captain, the excellent opportunity to look at the themes of first women to receive this distinction. As heroines coercion, consent and resistance, as well as issues of the war, the Nazis were keen to exploit them as around gender, race and technology in the Third propaganda tools, something that Hanna happily Reich. The perspectives, decisions and actions of embraced, while Melitta did all she could to avoid each makes a perfect foil for considering the other. the spotlight. They are at once deeply alike – brilliant pilots, great As the war moved in the Allies’ favour, Hanna patriots etc – but also at the same time opposites proposed the German equivalent of the Japanese – fighting for and against the regime. The seeming Kamikaze attacks and battled to persuade everyone parallels and contradictions run deep.” – up to and including Hitler himself – to support Her response provides an excellent summary of her ‘Operation Suicide’ plan. To prove her point, she the author’s rationale and aims. The dangerous work undertook a number of test flights, even though these two remarkable women undertook as test there had been deaths and crashes involving other pilots certainly deserves the recognition accorded to test pilots. She even volunteered herself to be a them in Clare Mulley’s book, whereas Beate Uhse suicide pilot. and Liesel Bach flew as ferry pilots. The importance There were other surprises for me in this book. of Hanna and Melitta’s work was clearly underlined Some parts were as exciting as a good thriller – when both women were presented with the Iron such as the attempted assassination of Hitler in Cross, in Hanna’s case, the Iron Cross First Class, ‘Operation Valkyrie’. It was Melitta’s brother-in-law one of only two women to receive this. Claus von Stauffenberg who carried in his briefcase The details of their test flights is bound to the bomb that was intended to kill Hitler and other absorb anyone with an interest in aviation and high-ranking Nazis. At one point, Melitta herself the history of WW2. Melitta’s relentless steep test was supposed to pilot the aircraft that would fly the dives – in the Junkers Ju87 Stuka – speak volumes conspirators to safety after the assassination. about her bravery and determination. By 1944 she Following the abortive attempt, Hitler decreed had made 2,200 nose dives and other test flights that anyone associated with the plotters should be to evaluate the impact of wind, speed, height, angle arrested and liquidated, resulting in all of Melitta’s and distance in the development of dive-sights and family – although not Melitta – being detained and other innovations. then continually moved from one concentration Meanwhile, Hanna test-flew a range of prototype camp to another.

48 AEROSPACE / JULY 2018 The episodes during which Melitta tries to loyalty and courage left in the world.” Hanna was to hide her part-Jewish background and secure her remain loyal to Hitler and a Holocaust denier to the family’s safety and her lengthy search to rescue her end of her life in 1979. husband Alexander are nail-biting. Her tragedy was Hanna and Greim did not stay to witness that, as she flew close to where her husband was the deaths of Hitler and his closest companions being held in 1945, her aircraft was shot down by in the bunker, although both received a cyanide American fighter pilot Thomas A Norboune who, capsule from the Fuhrer. After the war, Hanna was according to the book, mistook Melitta’s unarmed interrogated and, as a prominent figure in the Third aircraft for a Focke-Wulf Fw190 fighter. Shortly Reich, was given her own denazification hearing. afterwards, she died of her injuries. However, The large section at the back of the book lists another version of her death came from a witness the extensive sources Clare Mulley has used to craft who saw one or two Bf109s thundering over, which her book and attests to the thoroughness of her shot at the slow-flying machine. Yet again, mystery research. An important source was the legendary surrounds the death of a woman pilot. Some parts Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, who knew Hanna After Hitler had retreated to his bunker in 1945, were as Reitsch in the 1930s and remained in touch with Hanna and flying ace Robert Ritter von Greim exciting as a her intermittently after the war. His verdict on her flew to Berlin, where Hitler planned to ask Greim good thriller was that, at best, she was ‘spare with the truth’. to take over control of the Luftwaffe. Arriving in a It is also clear from this book that neither hail of bullets, with Greim seriously injured, Hanna – such as the women had much time for the other. After the miraculously managed to land the aircraft “with attempted war, Hanna did her utmost to sully her rival’s hardly a drop of petrol left in the tank.” assassination reputation and belittle her achievements. For such a The story of her stay in Hitler’s bunker marks of Hitler in courageous and talented pilot, it was not her finest another remarkable chapter in this fascinating book. hour. According to Hanna’s own account, on her arrival, ‘Operation Hitler told her: “Brave woman! So there is still some Valkyrie’ Clare Walker

HAWKER HURRICANE The Multirole Fighter By P Birtles

Fonthill Media Limited, Millview House, Toadsmoor Road, Stroud GL5 2TB, UK. 2017. 442pp. Illustrated. £40. ISBN 978-1-78155-587-3.

Philip Birtles outlines the struggle to gain acceptance of Sydney Camm’s single-engine monoplane in the face of preference for the proven biplane, helped by the timely appearance of the Rolls-Royce Merlin Above: Hawker Hurricane handed over to Soviet pilots and supplemented by engine, design to accommodate eight wing-mounted IID, KZ193, armed with two further deliveries. In the Mediterranean, Hurricanes 40mm anti-tank guns. machine-guns and the various trials undertaken by RAeS (NAL). provided the main aerial defence of Malta until civilian and Service test pilots following the initial the threat of invasion had been nullified. In North flight on 6 November 1935. In January 1938, the Africa they were the spearhead of the RAF; Mk Hurricane entered RAF service. Without it, Fighter IIC Hurribombers with four 20mm cannon and two Command would have seriously lacked single-engine 250lb or 500lb bombs, the Mark IID ‘tank buster’ fighters to combat the Luftwaffe. carrying two 40mm cannon especially effective. The Hurricane’s role as an interceptor fighter Further east, they operated at Singapore, in Burma, during the battles of France and Britain, its the defence of India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). After progression from fabric-covered to metal stressed the War, refurbished and modified Hurricanes were skin construction, upgrading of the Merlin engine flown by several overseas air forces. and adaptation to carry enhanced armament in This comprehensive account of the world-wide a variety of different roles are covered in detail. impact of the Hawker Hurricane is supplemented Hurricanes operated at sea from converted by appendices identifying the locations of preserved merchant ships and aircraft carriers doing sterling Hurricanes, specifications of the various land and work in the Atlantic and in support of the Arctic sea types, where they were built and the RAF units convoys. A detachment was stationed in the which flew them. northern Soviet Union near Murmansk and, once the RAF operations were complete, the aircraft were John Sweetman

Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com JULY 2018 49 Afterburner Book Reviews REINVENTING THE PROPELLER

Aeronautical Speciality and the Triumph of the Modern Airplane By J R Kinney

Cambridge University Press, University Printing House, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS, UK. 2017. 368pp. Illustrated. £90. ISBN 978-110- 714286-2.

Propellers were perhaps the most under- appreciated components of aircraft, yet it is arguable that they were one of the key technologies that set the pace of aeronautical development until the introduction of turbojet propulsion. The Wright brothers’ flights in 1903 were as dependent on their development of efficient propellers as on their other innovations in aerodynamics, control, airframe structures and the engine. Left: A Hamilton Standard variable pitch propeller on a Bristol Mercury VIS.2 installation fitted to Bristol Bulldog IVA, K4292, 1934. This book tells the story of the development Right: A 16ft 6in diameter de Havilland hollow-steel-bladed propeller under development on a of propellers from the fixed-pitch wooden units Bristol Centaurus-powered Airspeed Ambassador. RAeS (NAL). of WW1 to the constant-speed, variable-pitch metal units of WW2. It is written from an American viewpoint but covers developments in Britain and By 1940, variable pitch propellers were Germany in some detail. This is fair, because the combined with governors to create constant speed United States led the development of propellers units. The initial Spitfires and Hurricanes were fitted between the two World Wars. The author is a curator with fixed pitch wooden propellers, which made at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. take-off lengthy. In 1939 an RAF engineer officer, By 1909 specialised propeller manufacturers on his own initiative, asked de Havilland (DH) to had appeared in France (for example Lucien supply a two-pitch propeller, which reduced the Chauviére, who made the propeller for Blériot’s take-off run from 420 to 320 yards and became cross-Channel aircraft) and, in 1909, manufacturers standard. There is a further account of how, in were founded in New York City and Baltimore. From June 1940, an engineer officer from a Spitfire December 1917, developments in USA were driven squadron at Hornchurch telephoned de Havilland to a large degree by individuals at the propeller to ask if they could convert a Spitfire to constant unit of the Engineering Division of the US Army at speed “without a lot of paperwork and fuss.” Four McCook Field, Dayton. As well as testing propellers days later a DH team converted a demonstrator to on a whirl rig, the chief engineer of the unit Frank A two-bladed propeller on produce an aircraft that matched the performance Caldwell guided technical developments, as well as a Lesseps monoplane fitted of the Messerschmitt Bf109. On 22 June, the Air with an Anzani engine. the methods for evaluating propellers. RAeS (NAL). Ministry instructed DH to convert all Spitfires, and It was recognised early on that the propeller the programme started on 25 June. By 2 August pitch needed for take-off differed from that required all Fighter Command’s Spitfires, approximately 300 for flight. The first step to match these requirements aircraft, were converted. was a propeller for which the pitch could be set on The book provides an excellent and detailed the ground before flight, trialled as early as 1909 account of the development of propellers from and used extensively in the 1920s (including by the start of powered flight to the 1960s, when Lindbergh). This was followed by two-position turbojet propulsion became dominant. In places the variable pitch propellers from the 1920s and fully authors’ style may grate a little; there are frequent variable pitch propellers from the 1930s. These references to ‘the Aeronautical Revolution’ and ‘the helped to make the Douglas DC-3 and Boeing 247 Air Age’. Despite this, it is a book well worth reading, airliners the efficient machines they were. British perhaps skipping some of the details, as it covers a designers were reluctant to accept the weight, cost neglected topic. Whether it is worth buying for £90 and complexity of variable pitch propellers, though is for the reader to decide but it is certainly worth de Havilland Propellers started manufacturing borrowing. Hamilton Standard units under licence and Rolls- Royce and Bristol formed Rotol Airscrews Ltd to C G B (Kit) Mitchell develop a British design. CEng FRAeS

50 AEROSPACE / JULY 2018