Duel Under the Stars

The Memoir of a Luftwaffe Night Pilot in World War II

By: Wilhelm Johnen, James Holland - Foreword

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Wilhelm Johnen flew his first operational mission in July 1941, having completed his blind-flying training. In his first couple of years he brought down two enemy planes. The tally went up rapidly once the air war was escalated in spring 1943, when Air Marshal Arthur Harris of the RAF Bomber Command began the campaign dubbed the Battle of the Ruhr.

During this phrase of the war Johnen's successes were achieved against a 710-strong force of bombers. Johnen's further successes during Harris's subsequent Berlin offensive led to his promotion as Staffelkapitan (squadron leader) of Nachtjagdgeschwader and a move to Mainz. During a sortie from there, his Bf 110 was hit by return fire and he was forced to land in Switzerland.

He and his crew were interned by the authorities. The Germans were deeply worried about leaving a sophisticatedly equipped night fighter and its important air crew in the hands of a foreign government, even if it was a neutral one. After negotiations involving Göring, the prisoners were released.

Johnen's unit moved to Hungary and by October 1944, his score was standing at 33 aerial kills. His final one came in March the following year, once Johnen had moved back to Germany.

©1956 Richard Bärenfeld Verlag, Düsseldorf and Wilhelm Johnen; copyright 2009 by Verlagshaus Würzburg GmbH & Co. KG; translation copyright 2018 by Greenhill Books; foreword copyright 2018 by James Holland (P)2018 Tantor

What an insight into the operations of the 'ememy'

...there is a bit lost in translation but for the most part...a great reproduction in english

The best pilots in history

Another incredible and chivalrous account from a brave Luftwaffe pilot of the night fighter wing.

Great Insight

This was a very good surprise of a listen. When I thought of World War 2 aerial. it was more of daylight combat. This certainly opened my eyes to night combat and the challenge that the night fighter pilots must have faced.

One of the things that I did not like is that the book used feets, yards and MPH instead of meters, kilometers or KMH which you would thing would have been used being a German pilot. Another thing I didn't like was that the memoir starts early in the war and ends in 1945. There was no information of his life before or after his war time service which was a bit disappointing.

One of my favorite parts of the books was when his plane got damaged and had to bail out. He deployed his parachute but was hanging in the trees. He didn't know how far down he was so he dropped his knife to hear a sound but didn't. Morning came and he realized that he was 3 feet off the ground which his fellow comrade had a good laugh about.

Overall, this was a great memoir.

Beautiful story.

This is a tier one audiobook. The narrator and the historical aspects are beautiful. Give this one a chance.

Too British to make the German story as believable

A lot of British English terms I wonder if Germans used, ie Tommy gun, petrol, old boy etc