THE LAST OF THE FEW: An Me.262 Pilot Remembers

by Hans Busch

The story of one of the elite of the Luftwaffe, one of the first men to pilot a jet propelled aircraft, this is the autobiography of Hans Busch. Hans starts off with his service in the Flying Hitler Youth, his Officer Cadet days of training on many aircraft up until his transfer to KG51 for Me.262 training in the last desperate months of the war trying to defend the Fatherland against the Terror Bombers of the Allies who were mercilessly attacking anything that moved in what was then left of the Reich. Hans recalls the many interesting events in his life, his meetings Hitler, Hans Baur (Hitlers personal pilot) and Luftwaffe Ace General Galland amongs others. He describes his later life in his adopted homeland of the U.S. where his if in demand to speak to youth groups and young pilots about his life.

Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author - a naturalized U.S. citizen - wrote this book as a legacy to his family. He relates his experiences of growing up in Germany from his birth in 1924 to his joining the Luftwaffe for flight training after graduating from high school in 1942.

Busch's descriptions of the various phases of training he underwent at a variety of airbases in Germany (one of his training classes even received a pep talk from Hitler himself in 1943) are quite revealing in terms of conveying the effects (on soldiers and civilians alike) of the Allied bombing campaign on the Reich in the latter stages of the war. Upon completion of training, the author was assigned to a bomber unit in which he learned to fly the Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter.

After the war, Busch struggled for a time to find work and a career in postwar Germany. Thanks to the help of a relative living in California, Busch and his wife (whom he married in the late 1940s), were able to emigrate to the U.S. in the early 1950s.