Колин Хитон представляет. Military History: When and where were you born? Falck: I was born in Berlin on August 19, 1910. My family came from Danzig, which is now Gdansk in Poland. My mother was from Bremen, and my father was from Prussia, a pastor. My sister Ilsa was born there on February 7, 1898. My sister Irmgard was born on July 19, 1904. They both married officers and had children. MH: How about your education? Falck: From 1917 to 1931 I was educated in the Realgymnasium [equivalent to high school in the United States] at Berlin-Teptow and I passed the Abitur [final graduation examinations]. I became a member of a flying group, some of us students who under the watchful eye and control of a teacher built and flew models of gliders. Since we were living in Berlin, I visited all of the airshows in the area, including airports where I admired and studied the different types of aircraft. MH: How did you become a pilot? Falck: That is quite a long story. From April 1,1931, to March 1932, I was at the German Commercial Flight School in Schleisseim, near Munich, where I finished training. I then went on to infantry school at the training regiment in Dresden for two courses. This was due to the fact that the Versailles Treaty limited Germany to a 100,000-man army; the navy was allowed only 15,000 men, and the air force was totally banned. This military force was called the Reichswehr, and each year the army took about 225 volunteers as cadets to be educated as officers. MH: How difficult was it to get accepted? Falck: Thousands applied each year, and it was considered great luck if you were accepted. My unit, the 2nd Rifle Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, Hirschberg/Silesia, decided to take me as one of the five men accepted each year. Since the German government decided to establish its own air arm, the Ministry of Defense selected 30 young men from the regiments each year to receive the education necessary to become pilots. This would go on in secret for one year, and the camouflage was excellent. I was so lucky to be one of the 30 who were sent to the German Commercial Pilot's School at Schleissheim, where we were officially trained as airliner pilots. After the one-year training period, 20 were sent back to their regiments, while 10 were selected to spend about half a year in Lipetzk, Russia. The trip took 24 hours by train, with our destination being just south of Moscow, where we were to be trained as fighter pilots. At that time there existed a top-secret arrangement between the Reichswehr and the Red Army, and Germany was allowed to operate that school away from the eyes of the Western governments. There was also a camp farther to the north for making and training with chemical weapons, and another training camp close to the Ural Mountains for tanks. So this is how I spent the summer of 1932, from April to September in Russia. It was a wonderful time for me and for the "Black Air Force." On October 1, 1932, I rejoined my regiment, yet no one but the regimental commanding officer knew that I was now a qualified fighter pilot. I soon went to the academy for future officers in Dresden until September 1934. During the time when the normal cadets trained at a camp proving ground, I was sent with the other pilots for refresher training at Schleisseim. On October 1, 1934, I was promoted to Leumant [second lieutenant] and simultaneously eliminated, or "retired," from the army. I then joined the German Air Transport Association and earned the title of Kettenfuhrer [flight leader]. That organization was the camouflage for the future Luftwaffe, and I later became the chief instructor. In March 1935, Hitler terminated all the restrictions placed on Germany, and we were officially designated the Fighter Pilots School. Then we were again officially readmitted into the German armed forces, in this case the Luftwaffe. I was reinstated as a Leumant. MH: Where did you go after that? Falck: In April 1936 I was assigned to Jagdgeschwader [Fighter Wing] 2 "Richthofen," and I was assigned to 5th Staffel [Squadron, or 5/JG.2], located at Juterbog-Dahme. My primary job there was to train the young new pilots who came to us from the fighter school. In 1937 1 was promoted to Oberleutnant [first lieutenant]. When the squadron leader was given a command at the academy, I became the commanding officer of that squadron at the age of 27. Later that year I became the adjutant to the group commander and was stationed at Doberitz, not far from Berlin. In 1938, a third group of JG.2 was stationed at Furstenwalde to the east, and it was there that I became a squadron leader, holding the position but not the rank. Later in 1938, we were given a new name and refitted as 2nd Staffel of Zerstorergeschwader [Destroyer Wing] 76 [2/ZG.76], a heavy fighter squadron, equipped with the new Messerschmitt Me-110C-1. We received our new planes, and from that point on we no longer operated in single-engine fighters. Now we had a rear gunner, two engines and greater range. It was with this unit that I flew my first missions of World War II. MH: How did the Me-110 fly in comparison to the Junkers Ju-88 or the Me-109? Falck: The 109 was a pure fighter, so you really cannot compare the two. The Ju-88 was a tricky and dangerous aircraft to fly, even for an experienced pilot. Anyone who could fly a Ju-88 could usually fly anything else we had--an opinion seconded by my colleague Hans-Joachim "Hajo" Herrmann, who flew 240 missions in it. The Ju-88 had greater range and could carry heavier armament, but a stall could be fatal, and that was not hard to have. Many pilots, such as Hans-Joachim Jabs and Heinz Wolfgang Schauffer, actually preferred the 110. MH: How was the Me-110's cockpit design? Falck: The cockpit was very friendly, as was the case in most German aircraft. It was a simple design, with two rpm gauges (one for each engine) and the standard compass, fuel, altimeter, turn-back indicator, and plenty of room for me, since I'm not a large person. MH: What about survivability? Did the crew have a good chance of getting out in case of an emergency? Falck: Not really. The pilot would normally have to get out first if the gunner and radioman were to have a chance of moving through the cockpit. If the pilot was at high altitude, then this was possible, but if he was hit during a ground-attack mission, this was not such a good thing. However, you could have one damaged engine and make it home, as long as the trim, wing and rudder surfaces were intact. It could take a lot of damage and still fly, but being liquid-cooled, the engines were vulnerable. The greatest danger was a fire, with the way the fuel lines ran through the nacelles to the throttle. MH: What was your first combat? Falck: On September 1, 1939, we invaded Poland, and I flew early morning operations to Krakow in the south. On that mission, we escorted a bomber group, which made a mid on an enemy airfield. No Polish aircraft were to be seen. During the next few days, I scored my first three victories, obsolete Polish aircraft. MH: Didn't you almost shoot down a German Junkers Ju-87B on the first day? Falck: Well, I was flying with my Schwarm [flight] when we saw a lone aircraft. We always flew in formation, and lone aircraft at low altitudes were usually enemy planes. I signaled to the men that I would bounce this "enemy." I dropped the nose and hit left rudder to close in from behind. As I pulled up I saw the target getting bigger and bigger. I was about 200 meters away when I touched the trigger. Only a couple of shots passed, and then I realized that it was one of ours. At that angle the distinctive wing shape of the Stuka was not that clear. Only after I passed did I radio to my men to escort the already damaged aircraft back. Come to think of it, the pilot of that Stuka was Kurt Kuhlmey, a future Knight's Cross winner himself in the dive bomber. That would have been a tragedy, don't you think? MH: Where were you assigned next, after Poland was overrun? Falck: After the Polish campaign was finished, we were transferred to the Western Front to protect Germany against possible French air raids, but we never had any. On December 17, 1939, we flew to northern Germany to our new air base at Jever, close to the North Sea and west of Wilhelmshaven. I was involved in a December 18 air battle, now referred to as the Battle of the German Bight, where the Royal Air Force [RAF] tried to bomb German ships in Wilhelmshaven Harbor with 24 Vickers Wellington bombers.
MH: What was your participation in that aerial engagement? Falck: I shot down two and claimed a probable, but when we added up the total of claims, it was something like 14 planes destroyed. We did not have cameras at the time, so we had to rely heavily on our comrades for accuracy, since planes crashing into the sea do not leave much to look for later. Fortunately, there were some naval personnel who were catching part of this. Later, we decided that only 12 had actually been shot down. It was not until long after the war that I discovered that others from the formation were written off when they returned to their base, and that another had crashed after being damaged. MH: Where did you go after that? Falck: In January 1940, I was promoted to Hauptmann [captain] and made commanding officer of 1/ZG.1. While with that wing, I participated in the campaigns against Denmark and Norway, which commenced on April 9, 1940. On that same day, I caught a Danish Fokker C.V reconnaissance biplane as it was taking off and shot it down for my seventh and last confirmed victory. There were a few more that were unconfirmed. My later operations started on May 10 with the invasions of Holland, Belgium and France, and also operations on the English Channel coast against the RAF. MH: Goring had had high hopes for the Me-110 and the Zerstorerwaffe as an elite arm of the Luftwaffe, but the heavy casualties the Me-110s suffered during the Battle of Britain shattered that image. How did Me-110 aces like yourself fare in the German press? Falck: Not very famous. Most of the 110 pilots who became high-scoring aces transferred to the 109 or became night fighters. There were of course exceptions, such as Hans Jabs, who I think scored 19 daytime victories in the 110. I cannot think of a single Knight's Cross winner who was a day fighter in the 110 during his entire career. The big problem was that after the Battle of Britain many of them were shot down, and Goring was forced to pull them back along with the Stukas. Part of this decision was mine, since I knew that the 110 was a better aircraft in the night fighting role. MH: How did you become the "Father of the Night Fighters"? Falck: I first began thinking about the night fighter idea after we relocated to Aalborg in northern Denmark. Every evening the RAF bombers flew over us on their way to bomb Germany and then again on their return trip. They would also bomb our airfield or machine-gun our aircraft during low-level attacks, and here we were, the fighter pilots, sitting in a trench! This was a very demoralizing situation for us. I thought, "If the RAF can fly at night, so could we." I discussed the possibility of flying the Me-110 at night with three other crews, and the results were positive. It was possible but would necessitate modifications to the aircraft. It also required making arrangements with the local anti-aircraft battery commander concerning search lights, and later with the only radar station, which was located not far from us. One night, or rather very early in the morning the RAF returned from a raid into Germany and, as usual, dropped a few bombs on our airfield. I ordered the flight to take off with four planes, hoping to meet them. Three of us saw an enemy bomber and we went in to attack, but it disappeared into the fog just over the sea. From that mission, however, we learned that it was possible, with a certain amount of organization, modified aircraft and special ammunition that would not blind us at night, to fight the bombers at night. My group commander asked me to write a report about the experience, including all of my proposals for such missions. I did the report, and I believe that this particular report was more or less the only one read by the higher authorities, including Goring and Hitler. MH: What was the result of this review? Falck: Well, the birthday of the Nachtjagdfliegerdienst [Night Fighter Service] was June 26, 1940, when I was made Kommodore of the new outfit. I was with my wing stationed on the northern Channel coast of France, west of Le Havre, just before the beginning of the Battle of Britain. All of a sudden, I received special orders to move to Dusseldorf in order to fly against the British bombers at night. The RAF was attacking the Ruhr district, Cologne, etc. I was very angry about the order because we had no experience, the crews did not possess the necessary knowledge to accomplish the task, and we did not have all of the necessary equipment--all of which I had expressly requested in my report. Two days later, I was summoned to Wassenaar in Holland to meet with Feldmarschall Goring, and during this meeting he ordered me to establish the first night fighter group, which became Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 [NJG.1]. On July 19, 1940, I was promoted to major, and I was the first Geschwaderkommodore of the new generation--and the youngest. Not long after that, I received another wing, which became NJG.2. Very soon thereafter I received crews that were fresh from destroyer school as well as a flood of volunteers and complete groups, which we converted to night fighting. Since I was "the Old Man" and the inventor of this idea, the men named me "Father of the Night Fighters," which has followed me ever since. MH: How long did you remain as commander of these groups? Falck: About three years. In 1943, I transferred to the general staff where I became 1A, which is chief of operations in the staff of Luftflotte [Air Fleet] Reich at Wansee, west of Berlin. We were responsible for the defense of Germany both night and day, and it was a job full of problems, I can tell you! In August, I asked my friend and superior Adolf Galland, who was general of fighters, to give me a command somewhere at the front--I could not take Hitler and Goring anymore. Galland understood. In September 1944, I became Jagdfliegerfuhrer [Flight Leader] Balkan, in charge of fighter defense over an area that included Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The radar systems in Greece to the Peloponnesus were within my "empire" as well. I was situated at Pancevo near Belgrade. This job was important, but it did not last long. In October 1944, all of the fighter units were withdrawn to the home defense of Germany proper, and during that short period, we had constant trouble with partisans and the Russians. As the war closed in on us, we retreated toward Vienna, and thus ended my command of the Balkans. MH: When did you get the Knight's Cross? Falck: Goring awarded me the Knight's Cross on October 1, 1940. MH: How were the night fighters chosen? Falck: In the beginning I visited the destroyer school. There I created a report on the standards for night fighters, and several pilots came forward. The best men came from the bomber units, including Major Hajo Herrmann, who developed free-hunting Wilde Sau ["wild sow"] tactics. Our night fighter force was impressive--working through Intelligence, radar and flak commands, we had our intercept monitors and search reporting service with radar for all of them. There was never at any time any mention of the high-frequency radar war--it was all too new. That was when I was transferred to the Luftwaffe Command Central in Berlin. MH: You knew men such as Prince Heinrich zu Sayn Wittgenstein, Helmut Lent, Hans-Joachim Jabs and Heinz Wolfgang Schnauffer. What was your opinion of them? Falck: Well, you've just mentioned the best pilots in the world when it came to night fighting. Prince Wittgenstein was a nobleman, but not a national socialist. He fought for Germany as had his family for 500 years, and he was quite successful and a tree gentleman, as were all of them. He was killed in the war, as was Helmut Lent, who won the Diamonds and had at least 110 victories (102 of which were at night). Hans Jabs is still a good friend of mine and finished the war with the Oak Leaves and 50 victories, and the best was Schnauffer with 121 kills, all at night. Schnauffer died in France in July 1950 in an automobile accident, a tragic way to go. He also held the Diamonds. All of them were under my command, and all were outstanding persons, full of idealism and first-rate hunters and great pilots. They were very distinguished people, strong-willed and very ambitious, but in a good sense. They were highly intelligent, with immediate responses to crises, untiring and happiest when they were on flight operations. Each in his own way was a unique character, but very reliable, and I was proud to have known them. MH: Describe a typical night fighter mission. Falck: The night fighter faced many dangers that the day fighter was fortunate not to have. We did not have to contend with escort fighters, as did the day fighter force later in the war, but we had to worry about our own flak, collision with our own planes as well as the enemy bombers, the flares dropped by the British planes to blind us (which would also illuminate your plane, allowing the gunners to shoot you down), the possibility of your on-board radar not working (which left you blind), and flying across the sky locating the black-painted aircraft. I think night fighting worked on the nerves more than fighting during the day--all of those unknowns would mentally wear you down.
MH: What were some of your most interesting combat missions? Falck: My most interesting and dangerous missions were, of course, against the RAE Later on, after a total of 90 combat missions, I was given the order by my boss that I was not to fly combat any longer, because I was needed for the planning and development of the defense organization. MH: How did the people and their attitudes change as the war dragged on? Falck: After World War I, inflation was outrageous and there was no work it was terrible. When the National Socialists came to power, suddenly there were jobs, industry increased, building of homes and cities was undertaken, and the armaments industry created millions of jobs and, of course, the resurgence of the military improved life as well. What we know today about the concentration camps and such was unknown to most of us, even those in high military positions. That does not excuse what happened, but it should be mentioned that it was not a well-known, collective operation. Those terrible events were undertaken by men who abused their power in the name of the German people and had nothing to do with the true soldiers, the professionals. MH: How did the war end for you? Falck: The war ended for me in Bavaria on May 2, 1945, when I became a prisoner of war of the U.S. Army. That time in the prison camp was more than terrible, but it was thankfully short. I again had great luck--the son of a Jewish banker from Berlin, whose father was a former army officer from World War I, was the commander of our camp and responsible for the discharges of prisoners of war. Yet in spite of the standing Allied order that all 'general staff officers were to be banished for life somewhere else, he duplicated all the necessary stamps and signatures and discharged me on June 7. Otherwise, I would have spent several years writing war history in a prison camp in England or the United States somewhere. We became close personal friends and visited each other sometimes in the United States and here in Tyrol. Unfortunately, he died in 1993. MH: How was life for you after the war? Falck: To begin with, bad! No one dared hire a war criminal, as all of us were labeled. I tried to become a night guard in a factory to make enough money to survive, but I did not get that job. Germans did not dare employ me, even with all of my certificates and qualifications, curriculum vitae, etc., but the British Army of the Rhine must have had certain information about me. They hired me as a civil officer in 1946 for a series of 47 stores not far from Bielefeld. I asked the major, "Do you know who I am?" He answered yes and said that he knew I had been a colonel in the Luftwaffe and had the Knight's Cross. He said that they were looking for people they could trust and were reliable. So I became the boss of 145 German labor employees. My boss was a captain, and we became good friends. In the evenings I attended a school for tradesmen and after some time I passed the examination. In 1948, I joined a German company that was a branch of the medical and pharmaceutical industry, and after some further education I became a businessman. After that I changed over to a large printing press company, which had started to produce playing cards. I started out as a lowly office employee, being promoted year after year until I finally became the manager of that company. MH: But at some point you got back in the aviation field? Falck: In 1961, a high-level employer with the North American Aircraft Company in Los Angeles asked me during a meeting of international fighter pilots to join his company as a consultant in Germany. That was my chance to return to my old world, and I did that for six years until McDonnell-Douglas asked me to join them in the same capacity. I was very busy in Bonn for the next 20 years, working for McDonnell-Douglas until I was 75 years old. Since my retirement in 1986, I have been living her. e in Tyrol, and I enjoy life in this beautiful countryside. This is the most beautiful part of Austria. MH: What do you think of the new technology of today's night fighting aircraft? Falck: Today there is no difference between night fighter and day fighter aircraft anymore. They see each other with radar and thermal imagery, and they can engage each other without a pilot seeing his target. You cannot compare the aerial warfare of today with the primitive methods we used in World War II. MH: What advice would you give the young people of today? Falck: Be grateful that we are living in relative peace, that you have a home and do not suffer from hunger. Take over the responsibility for your family and your country, be tolerant of everyone, stay honest and busy, and look forward to what you intend to do with your life. Always have a target and make sure that what you are fighting for is worthwhile. Life is short!
1.штабной самолет Фалька Bf 110C-1 G9 + AA 2. в августе-сентябре Фальк посетил Восточный фронт для ознакомления ситуации и оценки борьбы с ночными силами советских ВВС. Посетил в частности штаб JG54 на Сиверской. Фото с Траутлофтом.
Вольфганг Фальк (19.08.1910, Берлин – 13.03.2007) – немецкий полковник, «отец ночных истребителей» Люфтваффе. Одержал 8 побед при свете дня в примерно 90 миссиях. Награжден Рыцарским Крестом 1.10.1940. Он попал в плен к американцам 3.05.1945, освобожден 7 июня. Умер в 96 лет. Служил в : ZG 76 (Тяжелые истребители), ZG 1, NJG 1 (Ночные истребители).
