DUELS UNDER THE STARS - Memoirs of a Nachtjagd Pilot

LAST COPY BEFORE PERMANENT OUT OF STOCK

Credited with 34 victories between 1940 and 1945, Hauptmann Wilhelm Johnen was no ordinary ace: he belonged to the very exclusive circle of Nachtjagd aces, the German night-fighter arm. Tasked with defending German airspace against Allied — primarily British — nocturnal bombing raids, these pilots led extraordinary careers, defined above all by a mode of combat utterly different from that of their daytime counterparts.

Johnen began his career on the Bf 110, having to find his targets by eye alone (and with the help of Flak searchlights) until the introduction of the Lichtenstein radar series. These nocturnal sorties against Lancasters, Short Stirlings and Wellingtons proved to be a deadly game of hide-and-seek, with pilots exploiting moonlight, cloud cover and tight dives.

Johnen himself would unwittingly become embroiled in one of the greatest diplomatic incidents of the Second World War when he was forced to land in Switzerland aboard his Bf 110… fitted with the state-of-the-art radar the Allies were so desperate to get their hands on.

His breathless memoirs brilliantly recount the terrible saga of the German night-fighter force throughout the conflict and the story of the men on both sides who clashed beneath the glow of the moon.