America Über Alles

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The second round of anti-aircraft fire almost did for them.

The first burst had flown harmlessly wide of the left wing, but the second hit the lower side of the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch’s cockpit. The round of armour-piercing bullets cut through the machine’s flank, catching Robert Ritter von Greim’s right foot and leg, peppering him with hot shrapnel. He screamed out, involuntarily letting go of the joystick and frantically attempting to stamp out the burning metal that had struck through the boot leather and was torching his foot and calf.

Hanna Reitsch immediately recognised the danger.

Unstrapping herself from the jump seat, she leaned over von Greim and seized control of the plane.

Already the plane was making a desperate, right-sided lurch to the ground; within seconds it would be crashing on to the streets of Wilmersdorf below them.

Using all her strength, she pulled the Fieseler out of its sudden descent, parlaying to the north-east, and avoiding the smouldering ruins that ran to the edge of the Grunewald. She was little more than a kilometre from the Heerstrasse. Out of the forest, more ground fire came at them, bullets popping off the fuselage. Ahead she saw the line of the Heerstrasse and banked right to follow it, leaving the enemy fire behind.

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