Description
GERMANY – BOOK – ERNST UDET: MEIN FLIEGERLEIBEN
This is Ernst Udet’s German-language autobiography.(-1941). Born in 1896, he became WW I’s lead surviving German Ace, with sixty-two confirmed victories. Only Manfred von Richthofen, who was shot down in April 1918, was more victorious. Udet was one of the young German flyers that the Red Baron selected to join him in JG 1, where he was assigned to Jasta 11. He held squadron command under von Richthofen and Hermann Göring.
After the war, Udet flew in a variety of situations as a stunt pilot and in air races. He appeared in major USA air shows and races. [I have seen amazing videos of him picking up a handkerchief from the ground with a wingtip, as well as a video of him landing his plane “dead stick” (motor not running) after performing complicated aerial routines]! Udet’s life was only perfect, however, when he was at the controls of an airplane. Outside of it his life was a mess, filled with women, heavy drinking, and the Luftwaffe’s cutthroat politics. His inability to deal with the pressure of it all led him to commit suicide in 1941.
This book was published in 1935, two years after he joined the Nazi Party. 1935 was also the year that the Luftwaffe was founded. The hardback book is one-hundred-eighty-four pages long, with chapters devoted to his WW I and postwar flying/life. One chapter is devoted to Manfred von Richthofen.
It is a first-edition that comes complete with its dust-jacket. It is in very good condition, and is profusely illustrated with many photos that I have NOT previously seen.
