Footsteps of the Hunter by Adolf Dickfeld

Hardcover 16x23 cm, 206 pages. A great Luftwaffe memoir. If you liked Herman Buchner's 'Stormbird' or Norbert Hannig's 'Luftwaffe Fighter Ace' you will enjoy these recollections from Adolf Dickfeld. Oberst Dickfeld was a very successful fighter pilot with JG 52, JG 2 and JG 11 (in 1072 combat missions he claimed over 150 victories, being credited with 136). His 'no punches pulled' narrative begins when he is a young reservist being trained to fly fighters before the war against Poland in 1939 and then takes the reader to France, the Battle of Britain, Barbarossa, Tunisia and the final Defense of the Reich. It is a wild ride in anyone's language. A specialist in the Bf 109 on the Eastern Front he converted to the Fw 190 in 1943 scoring further victories (he also flew the He 162 in combat). His meetings with both Hitler and Goering are interesting. His description ends in post-war 1945 with a desperate escape from Soviet-occupied Germany, fleeing the murderous brutality of the 'heroic Red Army' and the NKVD.