An interesting book to get to know firsthand what it feels like to board a fighter in full combat.

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Miniaturas JM

The story of the last few months is tight but there is a space of humanity towards comrades and even enemies (the story of the Soviet Colonel is very touching). The book is thus one of the most compelling memoirs and it is thanks to Greenhill Books that this text, published in Germany for the first time in 1956, returns to bookstores. A beautiful book that cannot miss on the shelves of aviation and WWII history enthusiasts.

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On The Old Barbed Wire

These memoirs are by a young man serving his country in a desperate war where his combat was directly with the young British, Commonwealth and American air crews bombing Germany. The insights provided cover the air war and specifically the operation of night fighters from the first Allied raids, through the development of radar, command and control and tactics as the author rose to command a night fighter squadron – Very Highly Recommended.

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Firetrench

Great easy to read and gripping autobiographical account of an Me-110 night-fighter pilot's WWII experiences. A Luftwaffe equivalent in many ways - albeit on the nocturnal side of the equation - of Geoff Wellum's First Light, in its simple but compelling nature. Vivid, exciting, occasionally moving. A very enjoyable read.

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A Question of Scale

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The View From The Turret

As featured on Scale Modelling Now

Scale Modelling Now

This book was first published 10 years after the war ended, so everything was still fresh in the author’s memory. This makes it so much more valuable than books researched decades later, often just having to rely on written documents and photos.
It also provides a very interesting and clear insight into the life of these German pilots at the time.

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WW2 Traces

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Since the Americans flew day missions in World War II, the German nightfighters aren’t well known. The British bore the brunt of their attacks. Even in old war movies, I recall the British bombers being caught in searchlights and shot down by flak, not fighters. Therefore, this memoir was enlightening.
Of interesting note: when the author landed his damaged plane in Switzerland, his family was arrested and jailed by the Gestapo
He frequently mentions the German anger over the Allies bombing their cities. They conveniently forget their tactics when they started the war―bombing Warsaw, Rotterdam, and other cities, slaughtering men, women, and children.
This book is well worth the time to read.

NetGalley, Terri Wangard

I highly recommend Duel under the Stars by Wilhem Johnen... I believe that we need to hear both sides of the story and this book is just incredible. As James Holland put it, ‘A fine account not of a Nazi automaton but of a young pilot whose fears, anxieties, triumphs and pain are as every bit as human as of those he was fighting against.’

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Armorama

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Reading this book broght back memories of my uncles and father talking about the Second World War which they all served in. I have always heard the Allied side of the war so looked forward to reading what the Axis pilots were all about. I was amazed and saddened by this book. It is so well written it was hard to put down and I felt compassion for the German crews which surprised me. They were men fighting to protect their families and country from attack. The author never sounds arrogant or hateful, he sounds like an honorable soldier. This makes it even more astounding to read. Especially since my generation was anything but sympathetic to the Germans. I never thought of the enemy as humans just like us. But they are.
The details in this book are so descriptive you feel like you are getting ready to take off and meet the bombers on their way to Berlin. All in all an excellent and important story that needs to be told.

NetGalley, Patrick Carmen

....Johnen’s long out-of-print memoir « Duel under the stars - a factual report from a German night fighter pilot » is recently republished by Pen and Sword imprint Greenhill. In simple, uncomplicated language which does much to preserve the ‘immediacy’ of an account first published in English in 1957 - Johnen describes his initial training, the creation of the German fighter force established to counter Bomber Command’s night offensive, his posting to NJG 1 and the first victories as the lumbering four-engine bombers are stalked through the night skies by growing numbers of ‘panther-like’ fighters bristling with cannon and stag-antler radar antennae guided by an all-embracing system of radar defence. Johnen was one of those night-time ‘stalkers’ and his book features some remarkable descriptions of night-fighting and of life on an operational air-base in war-time Germany..

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The Armourer, May 2018

...well-written and easily-read.

NZ Crown Mines

This re-issue of the war memoirs of a German pilot rests well with several other more recent translations of ‘Landser’ memoirs that place the subjects not as inhuman ‘Nazis’ but as recognisable people fighting for their country. At a certain point politics is subsumed by the need for national survival and this account adds to that understanding of why the Germans continued to fight for so long even though the outcome was increasingly certain. Written in a style that captures the imagination, describes emotion as well as actions, and delivers a very good read.

Michael McCarthy. Battlefield Guide

Michael McCarthy