Book Title: Enemy In The Dark: The Story of A Luftwaffe Night-Fighter Pilot
Author: Peter Spoden (translated by Peter Hinchcliffe OBE)
ISBN: 10: 1499647107
Category: Biography
Format: Paperback
Summary: Peter Spoden's wartime memoirs give a look inside the world of the Nachtjaeger pilots opposing the RAF Bomber Command offensive, and inside the career of a particular pilot. Illustrated with photographs and enlivened with personal anecdotes.
Spoden does not conclude his training until late 1942; so, while he receives quite thorough and professional training (rather than the rushed crash-courses which sent so many men unprepared into air combat late in the war) he arrives after the "glory days" of easy victories and reliably superior machines. He chronicles the technological rivalry which was so important to the war at night, and the stress, humor and contradictions of daily life in a squadron, while occasionally referencing the "big picture", including the horrors of firebombing cities, and what he later comes to realize was the "criminality" (his word) of his own regime.
An incident featured at the time in a Nazi propaganda magazine, was Spoden's bailout from his badly-damaged Me-110 in August, 1943. In abandoning the aircraft he was caught on the rudder, freeing himself with great difficulty and then passing out after managing to deploy his parachute. "Signal" magazine titled the article "The Rider on the Rudder", and it (with a few other documents) is reproduced in the book.
Spoden writes with respect for his enemies, genuine affection for his comrades and an informed horror of war. Technical details are not wanting, but the human stories are the real reason for his book.
A poignant reunion between Spoden and a crewman from a Lancaster he'd shot down, give perspective on the parallel nature of their service on opposite sides and of their personal losses. Spoden concludes the war as an Oberleutnant in control of an ersatz ground force made up of Luftwaffe personnel - which leads to a critical decision (at least, for himself and a few dozen others) which is the real culmination of his military career.
Very much a recommended read, for students of the night air war, for those who are interested in what motivates fighting men, and for anyone suffering under the delusion that all Luftwaffe fliers were devils - OR that they were angels.
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