Thunder Over the Reich: Flying the Luftwaffe’s He162 Jet Fighter

Posted to the Arctic front in 1943, Wollenweber flew Me110s on escort missions and ground attack, shooting down several Soviet aircraft in the process, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. As the fortunes of the war turned against the Third Reich, Wollenweber volunteered for defence duties and soon found himself training to fly the lethal Me163 Komet rocket fighter, before being transferred to the innovative 'wonder weapon'--the He 162 Jet Fighter.

The He 162 'Volksjäger' (People's Fighter) was meant to be capable of being flown by members of the Hitler Youth with only rudimentary flying experience, but instead turned out to be an unforgiving machine in untrained hands and while Wollenberger himself became one of the most experienced He 162 pilots, he witnessed the brutal human toll it exacted on the unwary or unlucky. And as one of the few pilots to have flown the He 162 in combat, he finally settles the vexed question of whether the He 162 ever shot down an Allied aircraft.

Wollenweber describes in his own words the shocking truth of the last desperate days of the Third Reich, and does not shy away from describing the horrors he witnessed and naming the corrupt and incompetent individuals he came across. This is a vividly told story and an important inside account not just of the revolutionary He 162, but also the changing fortunes of the Luftwaffe - from happy hunting on the Russian front to its final disintegration over a destroyed homeland.