Johannes Steinhoff


Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff was a Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II, German general, and NATO official. He was one of very few Luftwaffe pilots who survived to fly operationally through the whole of the war period 1939–45. He was also one of the highest-scoring pilots with 176 victories, and one of the first to fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter in combat as a member of the Jagdverband 44 squadron led by Adolf Galland. Steinhoff was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, and later received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and several foreign awards including the American Legion of Merit and the French Legion of Honour. He played a role in the so-called Fighter Pilots Conspiracy when several senior air force officers confronted Hermann Göring late in the war.
As a member of Jagdverband-44 Steinhoff was permanently disfigured after receiving major burns across most of his body after crashing his Me-262 after a failed takeoff. His flight leader's left wheel had blown out causing him to turn and make a sharp left turn, careening into Steinhoff and causing him to run off the runway and have the fuel tanks located in front, under and behind him rupture. On that fateful day, Steinhoff and the men he was going up with that day were armed with an experimental under wing rocket which along with the cannon ammunition Steinhoff was carrying, made an escape all the more difficult due to the amount ordnance exploding around him. According to ace fighter pilot and member of JV-44 Franz Stigler, "In a matter of seconds, Steinhoff had turned into a human torch." Steinhoff was left with horrible scarring for the rest of his life and his chances of survival were slim, but he pulled through in the end; retiring as a four star general in the new German Air Force at age 59.
Steinhoff joined the West German government's Rearmament Office as a consultant on military aviation in 1952 and became one of the principal officials tasked with building the German Air Force during the Cold War. He became the German Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee in 1960, served as Acting Commander Allied Air Forces Central Europe in NATO 1965–1966, as Inspector of the Air Force 1966–1970 and as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee 1971–1974. In retirement, Steinhoff became a widely read author of books on German military aviation during the Second World War and the experiences of the German people at that time.
He was the father-in-law of economics professor and former American Republican politician Michael Bird.

Early years

Johannes Steinhoff was born on 15 September 1913 in Bottendorf, Thuringia, the son of an agricultural mill-worker and his traditional housewife. He had two brothers, Bernd and Wolf, and two sisters, Greta and Charlotte. His sister Charlotte was married to Ludwig Hahn. Hahn was the chief of the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst in occupied Warsaw and participated in the destruction and evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Steinhoff graduated from the :de:Klosterschule Roßleben|Klosterschule Roßleben convent school after having "studied the classics and languages such as French, English, Latin and Greek," and from 1932–1934 he read philology at the University of Jena, where he was a member of the :de:Landsmannschaft Saxo-Suevia|Landsmannschaft Suevia academic fencing society and male fraternity. Forced to abandon his university studies for lack of funds, Steinhoff enlisted in the Kriegsmarine, where he served for one year alongside his friend Dietrich Hrabak as a naval flying cadet before transferring to the newly reformed Luftwaffe in 1936. There, after completing his training as a fighter pilot, Steinhoff was posted to Jagdgeschwader 26.
Steinhoff married his wife Ursula on 29 April 1939. They had a son named Wolf and a daughter named Ursula. Ursula married economics professor and Colorado State Senator Michael Bird.

World War II

Steinhoff's first combat experience was in 1939 when he fought RAF Vickers Wellington bombers that were attacking coastal industry in the Wilhelmshaven region. In February 1940, he was transferred to 4./JG 52 where he served during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain.
In June 1941 JG 52 was on the Eastern Front for offensive operations against the Soviet Union, becoming one of the highest scoring units in the Luftwaffe. Steinhoff claimed 28 Soviet aircraft shot down in the first month and by August, Steinhoff had attained 35 victories and been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. In February 1942, as a Hauptmann, he was appointed to command II./JG 52 and claimed his 100th victory on 31 August. He was the 18th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark. Steinhoff remained with JG 52 until March 1943, when he took over Jagdgeschwader 77 as Geschwaderkommodore operating over the Mediterranean.
On 28 July 1944, Steinhoff received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. He ended the war as a jet pilot, first being posted to Kommando Nowotny in October 1944 and then, with the rank of Oberst, as Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 7 in December. JG 7 was equipped with the Me 262 jet fighter and Steinhoff was allowed to hand-pick several Staffelkapitäne, including Heinz Bär and Gerhard Barkhorn. After the heavy losses suffered during Operation Bodenplatte, Steinhoff and other fighter leaders fell into disfavour following the so-called 'Fighter Pilots Revolt' against what was perceived as the incompetence of Luftwaffe high command and Hermann Göring in particular. Along with several others, Steinhoff was relieved of his command for challenging Göring's leadership.
After a brief period spent in internal exile, Steinhoff transferred to the Jet Experten unit Jagdverband 44 being formed by his close friend and confidant Adolf Galland in early 1945. Steinhoff initially acted as a de facto recruiting officer, persuading a number of veteran Luftwaffe aces to join the unit, some coming out of the Fighter Pilots' Rest Home at Bad Wiessee to do so. Steinhoff scored six confirmed kills with the unit. Steinhoff survived nearly 1,000 combat missions, only to see his flying career come to an end on the ground. On 18 April 1945, Steinhoff's Me 262 suffered a tyre blow-out and crashed on take-off from München-Riem airfield. Steinhoff suffered severe burns which left him visibly scarred despite years of reconstructive surgery. His eyelids were rebuilt by a British surgeon after the war.
His wartime record was 176 aircraft claimed destroyed, of which 152 were on the Eastern Front, 12 on the Western Front and 12 in the Mediterranean. He also flew 993 operational sorties. Steinhoff was shot down 12 times but had to bail out only once. Explaining his preference to remain with his damaged aircraft, Steinhoff admitted: "I only bailed out once. I never trusted the parachutes. I always landed my damaged planes, hoping not to get bounced on the way down when I lost power."

Cold War

Steinhoff recognised the situation of postwar Germany, and was invited by West Germany's new interim government to rebuild the Luftwaffe within NATO, eventually rising to the rank of full general. Steinhoff served as Chief of Staff and acting Commander Allied Air Forces Central Europe, Inspector of the Air Force and later as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee.
After retiring from his NATO command in 1974, Steinhoff became a widely read author of books on German military aviation during the war and the experiences of the German people at that time. He wrote The Final Hours, which detailed a late-war plot against Hermann Göring, and also published a vivid account of his time in Italy: Messerschmitts over Sicily: Diary of a Luftwaffe Fighter Commander. Steinhoff also became a watercolorist, and chairman of Germany's Dornier Aviation.
Steinhoff received numerous honours for his work on the structure of the post war German Air Force and the integration of the German Federal Armed Forces into NATO, including: The Order of Merit with Star, the American Legion of Merit and the French Légion d'honneur.
at Le Bourget.One of Steinhoff's contributions was dealing with the high accident rate the air force was having with its F-104 Starfighters. Upon researching the issue, Steinhoff, who had always been a good teacher, deduced that the problem was not the aircraft but poor training for pilots on that particular aircraft. He addressed the problem with an intensive training regime and the accident rate dropped dramatically.

Bitburg cemetery controversy

In May 1985 Steinhoff met Ronald Reagan, the then President of the United States, during a visit to the WWII Kolmeshöhe Military Cemetery near Bitburg. The event was planned to be an act of reconciliation on the 40th anniversary of V-E Day. Reagan and then West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl were to pay their respects at the German military cemetery. However, the US President faced national and political pressure to cancel the visit from American Jewish groups and World War II American veterans after it was discovered that 22 Waffen-SS men were buried among the 2,000 military graves.
The presence of Nazi soldiers led to the Bitburg controversy because the entire SS had been adjudged to be a criminal organisation at the Nuremberg trials. Although not originally part of the itinerary, Reagan and Kohl made a visit to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp before visiting Bitburg.
Reagan stayed only eight minutes at Kolmeshöhe Military Cemetery. He was joined by Steinhoff, Kohl, and 90-year-old US Army General Matthew Ridgway who had commanded the 82nd Airborne in World War II. After Reagan placed a wreath at the cemetery memorial, they all stood to attention while a short trumpet salute was played. At the end, Steinhoff suddenly turned and, in an unscripted act, shook hands firmly with a pleased Ridgway in an act of genuine reconciliation. A very surprised Kohl later thanked Steinhoff for his actions, who later said that it just seemed to be the right thing to do.

Death

On February 21, 1994, Steinhoff died in a Bonn hospital from complications arising from a heart attack he suffered the previous December. He was 80, and had lived in nearby Bad Godesberg.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 168 aerial victory claims, plus nine further unconfirmed claims. This figure of confirmed claims includes 149 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and 19 on the Western Front, including three four-engined bombers and six victories with the Me 262 jet fighter.
Victory claims were logged to a map-reference, for example "PQ 95371". The Luftwaffe grid map covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about. These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size.

Awards and honors

In 1990, the former Royal Air Force Gatow in Berlin Gatow, was named General Steinhoff Kaserne on being taken over by the German Federal Armed Forces. And on September 18, 1997, the Jagdgeschwader 73 of the German Air Force was named "Steinhoff" in honor of the general. Steinhoff is one of only a handful of pilots honored in this way, along with Manfred von Richthofen and Max Immelmann.

Citations