Hanna Reitsch. Flying for the Fatherland

A biography of Hanna Reitsch, associate of Hitler and flying heroine of Nazi Germany. Equally fanatical pilot and patriot, she flew such revolutionary aircraft as the Gigant, the Me 163 and the manned version of the V1. As the second war ended she was the last to fly in and out of Berlin and was in the bunker until only a few hours before Hitler's death. Suspecting her of having flown Hitler to safety, the American authorities imprisoned her. Although she could not escape the post-war stigma of having associated with the Nazis, she became a close friend of Nehru and Mrs Gandhi and was received at the White House by President Kennedy. In the 1960s she set up a gliding school in Ghana at the personal invitation of President Nkrumah. She continued to make and break gliding records until just before her death in 1979 at the age of 67, but despite her accomplishments in the air, the German press continued to attack her politically. Drawing on interviews with people who knew the pilot at all stages of her life, including her American interrogator and her wartime colleagues, the author examines why Hanna Reitsch remained for many a symbol of Nazi Germany. Judy Lomax has also written "Women of the Air" and "Walking in the Clouds - Impressions of Nepal".