Walther Dahl

Walther Dahl (born March 27, 1916 in Lug (Palatinate) near Bergzabern, † November 25, 1985 in Heidelberg ) was a German Air Force officer (most recently a colonel ) and fighter pilot in World War II .

Life

Walther Dahl initially served as an infantryman in the 119 Infantry Regiment in Stuttgart. In 1938 he switched to the Air Force . After his fighter pilot training, he began as a wingman at Fighter Wing 3rd 1941 he was adjutant of group II. Group. Then he took over the 4th season as a squadron commander. In July 1943 he became commander of the III. Group. After 67 victories in the air, he was awarded the Knight's Cross in March 1944 . His high shooting figures in the west led in May 1944 to the fact that he was a Commodore of the Jagdgeschwader z. b. V, the later Jagdgeschwader 300.

Dahl was also known as Rammdahl because from June 27, 1944 as Kdr. (Kommodore) he commanded the III./JG3 Udet , which was also known as the Rammjäger Squadron . As a last resort to attack the Allied bomber squadrons , after all of the ammunition had been used up, the ramming method was allowed in the final phase of the war. In contrast to the " Kamikaze " pilots of the Japanese who flew attacks on American targets with the sacrifice of their lives, the Allied bombers attacking Germany were supposed to be hit by the fighter planes at aerodynamically relevant parts and crashed. The loss of one's own aircraft was consciously accepted, but the pilot should, if possible, jump with the parachute after the attack.

On January 26, 1945 Dahl was appointed inspector of the day hunters by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring . By the end of the war he had won 128 aerial victories, including 36 four-engine bombers. He scored 84 kills in the east. Dahl became a prisoner of war at the end of the Second World War .

In the 1961 federal election , Dahl ran unsuccessfully for the right-wing extremist German Reich Party (DRP), of which he was a member. The book Rammjäger was also published in 1961 . The last contest , based on "original documents" edited by Dahl's wife Regina, who was a reporter for the National-Zeitung . The publication was reprinted several times, most recently in 2000 by the Pour le Mérite publishing house of the right-wing extremist publisher Dietmar Munier . Dahl was named as the author.

Reich Association of Soldiers

In May 1961, Dahl founded the Reich Association of Soldiers (RdS), which, in contrast to other soldiers' associations, should belong to the "National Opposition". Waldemar Schütz , Adolf von Thadden and Erich Kern took part in the founding meeting; Hans-Ulrich Rudel became honorary president . The youth work of the RdS was supposed to be carried out by the Federation of Patriotic Youth , which was banned as a right-wing extremist organization in the same year. In 1963, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia estimated the number of members of the RdS at 300 to 400 people. The RdS joined the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten in 1968 ; numerous members had previously converted to the NPD .

Dahl later appeared repeatedly as a guest speaker at events organized by the right-wing extremist German People's Union (DVU).

reception

The right-wing National-Zeitung portrayed Dahl in February 1999 in its series "Great German Soldiers - Immortal Heroes". Dahl was recognized for his "determination" and "selflessness", his "courage to death" was "legendary". In the series, only soldiers loyal to the Nazi regime were honored, sometimes using the linguistic formulas of the Wehrmacht and Nazi propaganda. The political scientist Fabian Virchow classifies the series in “the imagination of the extreme right of the men who are oriented towards the deed and who shape the course of events / history in the interest of the 'national' or ' folkish ' collective”. The characterizations referred “at the same time to a conceptualization of masculinity , the profile of which - very unified - would be marked by characteristics such as 'hardness', 'willingness to sacrifice', 'courage to death', 'bravery', 'tenacity', 'cutting' or 'standing qualities' ".

Awards

• Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st class
• German cross in gold on December 2, 1942 after 42 victories in the air
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with oak leaves
  • Knight's Cross on March 11, 1944 after 67 victories in the air
  • Oak leaves on February 1, 1945 (724th award) after 92 aerial victories

See also

• Air War in World War II
• List of German fighter pilots in World War II

Works

• Rammers. The last contingent. Pour le Mérite , Selent 2000, ISBN 3-932381-01-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Frederik (Ed.): NPD. Danger from the right? Political Archive Publishing House, Munich-Inning 1966, p. 161.
2. ↑ Manfred Jenke : The national right. Parties, politicians, publicists. Colloquium, Berlin 1967, p. 128.
3. ↑ Frederik, NPD. Danger from the right? , Pp. 145, 147.
4. ↑ Extremism reports from the Interior Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia to the state parliament or state authorities 1963 ( Memento of February 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , p. 19 (PDF, 178 kB).
5. ↑ Extremism reports from the Interior Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia to the state parliament or state authorities in 1969 ( Memento from February 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , p. 7 (PDF, 202 kB)
6. ↑ ^{a b} National-Zeitung 9/1999 (February 26, 1999), p. 10. Quoted in: Fabian Virchow: Against civilism. International relations and the military in the political conceptions of the extreme right. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-15007-9 , p. 395.
7. ↑ Virchow, civilism . P. 347.
8. ↑ Virchow, civilism . P. 394.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 264.