A line-up of Me 262 jets at Lager Lechfeld in the summer of 1944. By the time Norbert and Ossi Unterlerchner arrived in April 1945 all organized jet training had effectively ceased.

On 13 April we arrived at our destination: III/EJG 2 Lager Lechfeld, the training Gruppe engaged in converting pilots onto the Me 262 jet fighter. We reported to the Kommandeur, Oberstleutnant Heinz Bär, holder of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. He was one of the foremost personalities of the Luftwaffe’s fighter arm and already had 204 piston-engined victories to his credit. To this figure he was to add a further 16 kills, claimed while flying the Me 262 jet, before the war ended.

 

When we made our presence known Bär was standing in the middle of a group of several other Knight’s Cross wearers outside the mess. His words of greeting were unconventional to say the least: “Well, you pair of heroes, still want to win the war? Go inside and get yourselves a decent meal and then we’ll see.”

 

This was another world for us. Here the reality of the situation was out in the open and freely discussed; the end of the war regarded as inevitable. But neither Ossi nor I were prepared to give up quite yet. If everything really was going down the pan we wanted to fly this new bird, the Me 262, at least once before it happened. But how to go about it?

 

After breakfast next morning we set out to find the classrooms and instructors so that we could begin our training. No joy. There were no lessons; no more practical instruction. The course had been wound up. People were making preparations to retreat southwards into the Alps. But having come this far, Ossi and I were still determined to get our hands on an Me 262.

 

We found an engineering officer standing outside one of the hangars and asked him whether he would be willing to explain the cockpit layout to us. He was delighted to discover that somebody was still showing an interest in his charges and proudly ushered us into the hangar behind him. After two solid hours we knew all that a pilot needed to know to be able to fly one of these revolutionary birds. We thanked the engineer warmly and now cast our eyes covetously across to the other side of the field where Me 262s were still taking off and landing. Flagging down a passing vehicle, we got the driver to give us a lift across to the take-off area.

 

There we spotted an NCO flying instructor. Ossi poked me in the ribs. I approached the Feldwebel, ready with a big fat lie: “We have just been given orders to begin conversion here. Is that still possible?” I asked innocently.

 

“Jawohl, Herr Leutnant. Two machines will be coming in again any minute. They’ll still have enough juice for a familiarization flight. You can take those.”

 

No sooner said than done. The moment the first aircraft landed and the pilot climbed out I was up in the cockpit adjusting the parachute harness. Smiling at the unsuspecting instructor, I closed the canopy and taxied out to the start line. It was my first experience of a machine with a nosewheel undercarriage. I was astounded at the excellent forward visibility this afforded the pilot on the ground.

 

Getting the all-clear for take-off, I eased the throttle slowly forward as the engineering officer had just demonstrated and was at once pressed back into my seat by the force of the enormous acceleration. The airspeed indicator started to tick off the speed: 100 – 200 – 300 km/h. Stick gently back, the nose came up and the Me 262 began to climb. Undercarriage and flaps retracted; still climbing – 400 – 500 km/h. I was gaining height as rapidly as I was gathering speed: 1,000 metres – 2,000 – 3,000. At 7,000 metres I eased the bird on to an even keel, reduced power to 80% . . . and was still doing 720 km/h! I stared in fascination at the instruments, not believing what they were telling me.

 

Then I glanced down out of the cockpit – a brilliant white landscape stuffed full of mountains! I had been flying southwards along the line of the Lech where everything had been brown with not a trace of snow to be seen. Now I was high over the Alps and heading straight for Switzerland. Time to turn this thing around. I retraced my route at the same incredible speed and soon saw the field far below me. Throttle back towards idle and into a steep turn to reduce speed. Slowly lose height, get the speed below 400 km/h and lower undercarriage – that had an additional braking effect – compensate for nose-up trim, hold her, sidle into the landing pattern. Shallow, careful approach; speed sinking, 300 – 280 – 240. Cross the airfield boundary at 200 km/h and set her down very gently for a long landing run. Then taxi in. For a brief second I had a mental picture of Walter Heck driving his Me 109 back to dispersal at Siverskaya. In the Me 262 it really was like driving a car, just a trifle louder. I was waved in, shut down my engines and climbed out. Thus ended my conversion course from the Fw 190A-8 on to the Me 262 at Lager Lechfeld.

 

When Ossi and I reported to the Kommandeur that we were converted, Bär simply shook his head. But on the strength of it we were transferred to Munich-Riem to join JV 44. This was the special jet unit commanded by Generalleutnant Galland who, as the story went, had thrown his medals and decorations at Göring’s feet in order to get back on ops. But we quickly decided that Munich-Riem was not the place for us. It was awash with high-ranking Experten, every one of whom seemed to be sporting the Knight’s Cross. When it came to flying a mission we wouldn’t get a look in.

 

We therefore requested and received permission to be posted to the replacement Gruppe attached to Major Weißenberger’s JG 7. This was a motley collection of some 200 pilots who, like ourselves, had been selected for jet training but had not had the opportunity to become operational. On 17 April the Gruppe was transferred to the satellite landing ground at Untermeitlingen, east of Munich. We arrived at about midday and were quartered in barracks behind which were deep slit trenches. During the course of the afternoon a wide variety of aircraft of all types, and from a miscellany of units, flew in and were dispersed in the open around the edge of the field.