The German Hanna Reitsch was one of the best test-pilots ever. She attended the 1936 Berlin
Olympics and participated in the Air Sports discipline; she broke multiple endurance and
altitude records and has flown nearly every German aircraft during her career. She flew
bombers, fighters, and even the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet-rocket plane. She was one of
the first test pilots to fly the Focke-Achgelis Fa 61, world’s first operable helicopter.
There was a dark side to Hanna, though. She was a fanatical Nazi, loyal to Hitler and
very involved in Luftwaffe operations. In fact, she stood at the forefront of the notorious
German V-1 human-glider bomb project. This was a last-ditch attempt by the Germans to
turn the tide of the war, by utilising suicide pilots against Allied troops. She survived
the war and wrote several books about her life, giving us a very candid look at the
life of the woman Hitler referred to as his favourite pilot.
-intro-
Early Life
Hanna Reitsch was born in March 1912 in Hirschberg, a middle-sized town in then-Germany, current-day
Poland. Already from early on, she was very interested in aviation. Yet after finishing
school, she began studying medicine at the University of Kiel. During her studies, she
was allowed to follow an air-gliding course in the nearby city of Grunau. Initially, the
instructors over there didn’t think much of Hanna; they considered her untalented.
The fact she was the only woman there didn’t help. Yet she acquired her certificate regardless,
and her love for aviation only grew after this experience. In 1932 she dropped out of
university to pursue a career in aviation altogether. In her autobiography Fliegen,
Mein Leben, she remembered that every flying bird and every sailing cloud caused a yearning
in her that could not be stilled. After she earned her certificate, she began
sport flying and flight-instructing nearby Berlin. By 1933 she wasn’t just a very adept
glider pilot, but her recognition among famous German pilots and an international audience
grew as well. She even broke an endurance record, albeit off the record. One year later
she left to Latin America to join an expedition that researched air currents and thermal conditions.
During this expedition, she was the first woman in the world to earn the Silver C Badge.
Earning the Silver C Badge shows that a glider pilot has at one point reached an altitude
of at least 1,000 m, flew uninterrupted for at least five hours and has flown cross-country
for a straight-line distance of at least 50 km. The International Gliding Commission awarded
the badge, with the first one awarded just two years prior. It goes to show Hannah was
very pioneering for her time. When Hanna returned from this expedition,
she received an invite from the German Institute for Gliding Research. As an aviator over here,
she broke several distance- and altitude records. She became the first woman to cross the Alps
in a glider aeroplane, and she was a prolific airbrake tester for gliders.
In spring 1937 she performed a demonstration using dive brakes to engineers and developers
of several large aircraft factories. Due to her impressive record in the aviation-scene,
so to say, Luftwaffe Generaloberst Ernst Udet awarded her the honorary title of Flugkapitän.
She was the first woman ever to receive such a title. A special Luftwaffe badge was made
for her inlaid with brilliants. She rose to fame within Nazi Germany and was seen as a
welcome propaganda subject by the Nazi party. Not surprisingly, she soon entered into service
of the Luftwaffe, the Wehrmacht’s aerial warfare branch. Her job was to test-pilot
military planes such as the infamous dive-bomber Stuka and the bomber Dornier Do 17Z. At the
Berlin Motor Show of 1938, she became one of the first test-pilots to fly the Focke-Achgelis
Fw 61, the first functional helicopter ever built. This test flight earned her the Military
Flying Medal. Oh, and pretty interesting, she test-flew the transport and troop-carrying
glider the DFS-230. This glider was to be used to capture the Belgian fortress Eben-Emael,
a spectacular operation during the outbreak of the war I’ve created a video of.
World War 2
As the Second World War broke out, Hanna was deeply involved in test-piloting Luftwaffe
aircraft. During some test missions, she flew planes that could easily be described as hazardous,
and as such there have been multiple instances where Hanna put her life on the line to test-pilot
certain planes. Adolf Hitler awarded her the Iron Cross Second Class in March 1941 precisely
because of this. She became the first woman ever to receive an Iron Cross.
Yet not too long after disaster struck. During a mission where Hanna was test-flying a Messerschmitt
Me 163 Komet, the undercarriage broke off during take-off. As such, she had to land
the plane without any undercarriage. The landing was a disaster, and Hanna fractured her skull
in six different places. The Luftwaffe worried this accident ended her career permanently.
She spent five months in the hospital recovering. The accident directly led to her being awarded
the Iron Cross First Class; she was one of three women ever to receive the medal.
The injuries she sustained were rather severe, but they didn’t end her career. Now, a little
bit of context is necessary for this next part. Towards the end of the Second World
War, a faction of the Luftwaffe planned to modify V-1 flying bombs to nothing less than
manned bombs. So… a bit like a Japanese kamikaze squadron, except we’re talking
about the German Luftwaffe and the European war theatre here.
Hanna was closely involved in developing these plans. In fact, she was the one to present
the idea of Operation Selbstoffer to Hitler. Although Hitler didn’t feel the operation
could be worth it, as the Luftwaffe’s losses kept increasing, he was swayed. Hanna’s
role in the process was to find volunteers, a task she eagerly carried out. General Günther
Korten stood at the head of the operation, training approximately 60 volunteers that
signed up as pilots for the glider-bombs. Although according to some sources these men
were selected for their skill, and there were actually hundreds of willing pilots ready
to give their life. Hanna laid the basis for the KG 200 Gruppe
V, also known as the Leonidas Squadron, named after the Spartan King that together with
his 300 soldiers fought an overwhelmingly large Persian army at Thermopylae. The volunteers
had to sign a declaration stating they were voluntarily signing up as a pilot for a human
glider-bomb. Yet by this point the group wasn’t yet sure about using the V-1. Instead of it,
the first experimental aeroplane tested for this mission was the parasite Messerschmitt
Me 328. Initial testing soon proved the plane wasn’t well-suited for a precise kamikaze
mission, due to the pulsejet engine rendering it uncontrollable. By April 1944 there still
wasn’t an aircraft ideal for the mission… until Otto Skorzeny turned up.
Skorzeny was one of Hitler’s favourite commandos. He was responsible for the rescue of Benito
Mussolini and many other spectacular secret operations performed during the Second World
War. According to Hanna’s autobiography, one day in April, Skorzeny called her. He
seemed interested in their development of special weapons and informed her the navy
was building a suicide-torpedo model as well. He told her he got the idea during a visit
to the V-1 development centre at Peenemünde: it was possible to fit a pilot in the V-1.
Yet due to logistical and bureaucratic difficulties, Hanna and Skorzeny could build a prototype,
but only using the V-1s already built. This limited the freedom to experiment with different
designs. But fortunately for them, Skorzeny was well-connected. He contacted his old friend
Ferdinand Porsche, who had a Volkswagen factory filled with non-modified V-1s at the ready.
He allowed Skorzeny to grab a dozen, and as such, the group began experimenting with a
manned V-1 glider. During the test runs, several pilots became
critically injured due to faulty ejection systems. The entire project was nearly abandoned
altogether. But Hanna proposed one last test run, with her as a pilot. She flew the V-1
and had great control of the glider. Thanks to her performance, the project continued.
In total, 175 Fieseler 103R Reichenbergs, the crewed version of the V-1 flying bomb,
were built. Yet the human bomb was never used. Due to its development duration, the window
opportunity had been missed, and it wouldn’t take too long for Germany to lose the war.
The last days of the Second World War were incredibly chaotic. In the west, the Allied
powers were rapidly advancing into Germany and on the Eastern front, well, the Soviets
penetrated deep into Germany. The Battle of Berlin was the final stand of most fanatical
Nazis. The city was a death trap. Yet Hanna initially was located in Pommerania, northern
Germany, when she received orders to fly Luftwaffe General Robert von Greim into Berlin. Greim,
who doubled as her lover, flew to Berlin, an incredibly dangerous mission as the Allies
controlled large parts of the sky. In Berlin, Hitler promoted von Greim to the
Luftwaffe commander-in-chief, since Hermann Göring had been dismissed for treason by
this point. Subsequently, Greim was ordered by Hitler to fly to Austria and arrest Heinrich
Himmler, also on the charge of treason. Together with Hanna, the couple flew to Austria. Before
any of their plans could be carried out, they were arrested by American troops, however.
Greim took his own life that same month while imprisoned. Yet Hanna survived.
After the war ended, Hanna was held as a prisoner of war for fifteen months. Intelligence officers
extensively interrogated her about her stay in the Führerbunker and the final days of
Hitler. The Americans released her in 1946, and she subsequently became a flight instructor.
Yet gliding was forbidden in Germany. This was because a lacuna in the Treaty of Versailles
after the First World War prohibited aviation within German borders, but made an exception
for air gliding. Preceding the outbreak of the Second World War, Hitler abused this by
having military pilots train with air gliders. The allies weren’t going to make this mistake
twice, and as such Hanna couldn’t practice air gliding those initial years.
Air Gliding was finally legalised again in 1952 and Hanna made use of that to participate
in the world championship in Madrid, where she was the only woman participating. In 1955
she became German champion. She also spent these years writing many books about her life.
She received much criticism because of her refusal to condemn the Nazi regime. She assumed
Austrian citizenship in 1974 to do away with the accusations of still harbouring warm feelings
for the Nazis. She passed away in August 1979 at the age of 67 in her residence in Frankfurt
am Main. Hanna Reitsch entered history as one of Germany’s most famous pilots, yet
with a dark side to her character regarding her political convictions. It certainly makes
for an interesting story, though. Thank you for watching this video. If there’s
a topic or event you’d like to know more about, let me know your thoughts in a comment.
I would also like to thank all my Patrons and channel members for their generous support.
If you enjoy House of History and want to support my work consider checking me on Patreon
or becoming a channel member. For just 1$ a month you will gain access to the exclusive
Patreon series. Don’t forget to subscribe. See you next time!