Anyone know anything about Hana Reich?

Exactly! Quite a lady! Was she married? I cannot think on a man controlling that woman... hehehe.

 

I'm pretty certain she wasn't - but I think it's obvious from her writings that she had an 'eye' for Ritter von Greim !

[ 18 July 2002, 05:33 AM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ]

 

I thought she was married, to another test pilot, but I am probally wrong.

 

It's a bit of a mystery, RedBaron - there's no mention of a husband anywhere in her autobiography & I can't find any anywhere else.
I think she may have been a little too, shall we say, focussed to consider marriage !
As I mentioned, she writes very admiringly of von Greim, who committed suicide in a Salzburg hospital on 25th may, 1945.

 

That was quite a woman! I just read her memoirs. She was crazy about flying, although her parents wanted her to become a doctor.She was not into politics but would do anything to get to fly and make better aeroplanes.

On that me 163 the wooden plate the plane took off was stuck, and instead of bailing out she tried to land to save the plane but it crashed and she did not die, which was a miracle!
That wooden plate on which Me 163 took off was dropped in the height of some 60-80 meters as at lower heights it could have bounced back and damage the Me 163...

She also flew the manned V-1, and almost crashed that one too. I don´t know how but she claims that as the plane was going down by itself she managed to turn it around at the last moment
( flying upside down ) and get it back to control at a very low height, and back to normal position before landing...Well, I think many very tough men pilots would have kicked the bucket I think...

She was very upset as the manned V-1´s were for volunteers only, and as Mr Goebbels came by to greet the men, He thought they were all criminals etc ordered to do the job and also spoke to them in that manner...

I think it was Hanna´s plane that last took off Berlin in late April 1945 with that Arado. The Fieseler was damaged as AA hit the plane on arrival. Hanna´s version of why she returned was that she knew Berlin like her own pockets, she knew late 1944 that the city would become bombed to kingdom come and at the time learnt to land in the city streets from every possible corner. That´s why she was there. Of course she was a friend to many politicians as well as a close friend to Mrs Goebbels. The book does give a possibility of taking Hitler away but then again Hitler had never himself even considered the possibility. Hanna says Hitler was a broken man as she left him and the Red Army was very close by then.Hitler´s eyes were empty and stared into the distance.The only moments Hitler got angered was when he heard that Himmler and Goering betrayed him.

Hanna was quite spontaneus and did not fear even Hitler.In 1944 as Hitler was talking about the me 262 and its situation as a bomber/later on as fighter Hanna stood up and said " You´re talking of the fetus of the fetus of the just born baby!!!" and got even Hitler wanting for some fresh air....

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/reitsch.html



[ 14. November 2002, 04:43 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

And she was also very pretty!

 

Nice picture with her wearing her EK2 Ribbon and her EK1.

 

Too bad for the men flying was her main interest, hahaa...

February 1938 Hanna with FW-61

 

I've posted some on her on thirdreichforum.com, I'll add it to this discussion later.

regards

 

Here are some good links, I also advice you to check up Beate Uhse- Koestlin who was also a test pilot, she is also famous for something else which I'm to shy to tell about...

http://www.hh.dlr.de/frauen/frauen2.html

http://www.ctie.monash.edu/hargrave/uhse.html

http://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/sum/76/sum76-3.html

http://www.ndepublishing.com/reviews_hist.html

http://www.ctie.monash.edu/hargrave/reitsch.html

A link to a list of books about german women in uniform:
http://members.home.nl/hoevenberg.bosman/GERMANY.htm

best regards/ daniel

 

Thanx Charlie,

Great sites! Must brush up my German lessons though...Eins ,Zwei,Drei und so weiter...

Ha-haa: The female view into the war:
"Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress from 1929 until their suicide together in 1945, tended to judge events of world importance by whether or not they left Hitler enough time to spend with her."

 

Hana Reich. There was a BBC documentary with much accompanying archive material, including a personal interview with Hana Reich. I am guessing this was in the late 70's or 1980's. I have searched through the BBC's website, but can find to reference to this documentary. It must be somewhere. She was indeed an exceptional and very brave pilot.

 

Crazy as well to fly the V1 bomb design to make it a fighter plane...

 

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