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Despite his lowly rank and a service career that apparently had taken him no further east than Langendiebach, Lang professed inside knowledge of the war against the Soviets: In Russia we had smoke-projectors that had a ghastly effect. However, Russia threatened to use gas if we didn’t stop using them at once, and so we didn’t go on with them. Having served exclusively in France since June 1942, he nevertheless had firm views about the failings of his Luftwaffe comrades defending the Reich: I can assure you that if our airmen were not given parachutes, there wouldn’t be as much baling out, especially among the Fw 190s that defend Germany. With them it has become quite a custom to bale out on every sortie, as soon as they have the slightest trouble. He also felt he knew how heavy bombers should be tackled: When those four-engined machines don’t come over in such masses and you can go at them singly, they’re very easy to bring down, starting systematically with the rear-gunner. The approach flight is not so dangerous; it’s only dangerous when they fire at you after you’ve passed them. On one occasion 70 four-engined bombers attacked Munich and not a single one was allowed to get back. 70 isn’t a great number, we can […] cope with those if we’ve got a few fighters. Bt when they come over in hundreds, there’s nothing we can do. He also had opinions on how best to govern occupied territory: We were too lenient in France, we ought to have been much stricter. We did too much boasting: “Wherever the German soldier sets foot, there he remains and no power on earth can drive him out!” instead of taking more action. The rabble in France are all Bolsheviks. There’ll be no more democracy in France, Bolshevism will set in at once. The people with whom we lived (in France) were dreading the day we moved out, because the Partisans had already got their eyes on them on account of their pro-German attitude. Conviction The Jews [among his Maquis captors] asked me why Hitler persecuted the Jews, and they tried to convert me to the reverse of National Socialism. But I told them right away that I had always been a Nazi and would remain one, even though a prisoner. I said that I was first and foremost a German and they were not, and so they just couldn’t understand what my feelings on the subject were. It infuriates the British to find us young fellows such steadfast Nazis. We’ve been brought up to it and we think that way, and there’s nothing they can do about it. For me it’s not a case of ‘That Hitler’ but of ‘My Führer.’ |
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UFFZ. WALTER LANG (PART TWO) |
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