A Hard To Get Book!
Why is this book, "HE 1000" so hard to get! It's annoying to find rediculous fictionalized love stories, pornography, absurd athletic sports hero biographies and the like mass produced and readily accessable and a story like this almost impossible to get. Why is that? Maybe because the basic tenant of history per se is the maxim:"those that do not learn the course of history and it's consequences are doomed to repeat it's actions". Pardon the cliche, but it's true:history repeats itself. It's like the definition of the word insanity. Insanity is: "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". So how does one learn about history to prevent this? Obviously, it must be available! After an exhaustive and expensive search, I finally found this book! One would think that this book would give you insight into the insanity of Adolf Hitler's "Third Reich" and the conflagration that it caused worldwide. Heinel's book delivered that and more! The reason I gave it only four stars is only because of how technical Heinkel elaborated on the inner intricacies of avionics that only a technician in that field would understand. Regardless, this book is the hard to get, self penned (and translated from German) story of Ernst Heinkel, (born January 24th, 1888 died January 30th, 1958) who was a German aircraft designer and manufacturer. He does not describe his childhood, but starts the book by explaning that his "true life" began on Aug. 5, 1908 when he witnessed at age 20 the "Zeppelin LZ4" mysteriously explode before his eyes. Despite Ernst Heinkel's (SUPPOSED) opposition to Nazism and the tenants of National Socialism he vividly described how his firm formed a vital part of the Luftwaffe prior to, and for the duration of W.W. II. Some of the main aircraft Heinkel built for the Nazi war effort were the HE70 and HE111, the ladder becoming the mainstay bomber of the Luftwaffe. Heinkel also describes his work with the HE162, a single engined, jet powered fighter aircraft, the fastest and first generation of Axis and Allied jets. He also described the testing and implementation of the HE176, the world's first aircraft to be propelled solely by rocket power. In addition, Heinkel described his "Flaming Coffin" the troubled long-range bomber that was the only heavy bomber built in large numbers by Germany during W.W. II. The derogatory term was so coined by aircrews because of it's tendency to catch fire during battle. Then there was the HE178, which was the world's first aircraft to fly under "turbojet power". Heinkel also came out with the "He277" which Heinkel described as a four-engine derivative of the Heinkel He177. Heinkel's final Luftwaffe creation was the HE280, the first "turbojet-powered" fighter aircraft in the world. It is fascinating to read how Heinkel described a combination of technical and political factors that led to it being passed over in favor of the "Messerschmitt ME 262". Heinkel mourned that only nine HE280's were built and none ever reached operational status. It is interesting to read Heinkel's impressions of Adolf Hitler, Ernst Udet (particularly his suicide). Charles Lindberg, and his link with Nazism, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess and Heinkel's personal fight against anti-semtism. In fact, the reader will be surprised to read that Heinkel, with his large protruding nose, was accused of being Jewish! This actually led to the Gestapo investigating Heinkel's geneology. The big question is, of course, would Heinkel have taken this position in a book if Germany was victorious? Clearly, Heinkel blamed Germany's loss in W.W. II to incompetency in the Nazi hierarchy, as well as Hitler's ill-fated decision to fight a two front, east-west war. Before Stalingrad: Barbarossa, Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941 (Battles & Campaigns) Heinkel also describes his association with Wernher Von Braun, one of the pioneers of investigating rocket propulsion for aircraft, turbojet propulsion, and the world's first I.C.B.M. (Inter Continental Ballistic Bissle) and the research at Peenemunde.The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missle Era This is a book that is sadly impossible to find, and it is a vital document that gives an incredible account of how the Luftwaffe tried to function under a dictatorship gone mad. Dissected for the reader are stories of personal jealousies, battles for priorities, civilian greed and bitter political rivalries mixed with an insane anti semetic campaign that left six million Jews and thirteen million Soviets and uncountable civilians dead all over the world. This is a book that must be reprinted and disseminated by anyone trying to understand the cataclysm of World War Two. Reissue this book!