Stormbird: Flying Through Fire As a Luftwaffe Ground-Attack Pilot and Me 262 Ace

Bomber pilots who become fighter aces are rare-Hermann Buchner was one. A Luftwaffe NCO pilot and Knight's Cross holder, the author gives a riveting account of his training with the pre-war Austrian airforce, instructing with the Luftwaffe, then the terrifying ground attack operations on the Eastern Front trying to stop the Russian mincing machine. Sometimes taking off from his home airfield while under Soviet shellfire, he paints a picture of a man surviving against incredible odds, who became one of the elite with JG7, and learned that the important thing with the Me 262 was to land near a convenient foxhole . . .

Hermann Buchner was born in Salzburg and joined the Austrian air force in 1937. Following the annexation of his home country by Nazi Germany, he joined the Luftwaffe. He served as an instructor and as a fighter-bomber pilot with the SchG 1 and SG 2, during the course of which he shot down 46 Russian aircraft and destroyed 47 armored vehicles, mostly in the Crimea. Awarded the Knight's Cross for over 600 operational missions, Buchner transferred to JG 7 as an Me 262 pilot. He then fought against the RAF and USAAF on home-defense duties, thereby adding another 12 kills. He is one of the highest-scoring living jet-fighter aces.