After returning to the replacement group Ossi and I soon decided that this was no place to be either. Everybody seemed to be simply killing time waiting for the war to end. We wanted to return to the Courland or, if that proved impossible, to join some other operational unit. So when JG 7 called for volunteers for one of its combat Gruppen in Czechoslovakia we were first in line. The job entailed going back to Munich-Riem to collect a couple of Me 262s that were to be flown to JG 7’s main base at Prague-Ruzyn.

It was not quite so simple as it sounds. When we got to Munich we discovered that the jets had no radio equipment installed. This meant that there would be no contact with ground control – or between ourselves in the air – during the entire flight. Take-off was scheduled for the morning of 22 April. But during the night the heavens opened and Munich-Riem was a quagmire. Taking off from a waterlogged airfield would be critical. Then, in the morning, Thunderbolts appeared overhead. They did not come down to ground-strafe. Several of their number had fallen victim to Riem’s formidable flak defences in the preceding days and weeks, and the Amis had developed a certain respect for the place. But their presence meant that we could not show ourselves.

Finally, towards midday, the skies were clear. But there were still large patches of standing water on the field’s surface as I walked out to my machine. One of the ground crew asked: “Herr Leutnant, do you want to use take-off rockets? You’ll have no trouble getting off then.”

I had never heard of take-off rockets so he briefly explained what they were. The machine I was to fly was a fighter-bomber version of the Me 262. And instead of bombs a pair of rockets could be attached to the weapons pylons. Ignited by pressing the bomb-release switch, these rockets supplied additional thrust during take-off. Once they had burned out they were automatically jettisoned. It sounded a good idea to me, so I agreed. Ossi also opted to give them a go.

We settled into the cockpits and began to run through the start-up procedure. It was then that Ossi found that the starter motor of one of his turbines was unserviceable. He could not take off with me, so I taxied out on my own. Given the go ahead, I started to roll. When the needle of the ASI touched 100 km/hr I pressed the bomb-release. There was a tremendous jolt, I was pushed harder still into the back of my seat, and the windscreen was suddenly full of clear blue sky as I arrowed upwards even faster than before.

After a refuelling stop at Hörsching, near Linz in Austria, I took off again and set course almost due north for Prague. Upon landing at Ruzyn I reported to Oberleutnant Stehle, the Kommandeur of I/JG 7, who welcomed me to the Gruppe and assigned me to Oberleutnant Grünberg’s 1 Staffel. I was back in an operational unit at last.

But here too in Prague-Ruzyn there was a general feeling in the air that it was all over. The war was lost and nobody believed for a moment in the promises of “final victory” still being trumpeted by the die-hards. The British and Americans had more or less given up their raids on Germany’s towns and cities. There was nothing left to bomb. The only aerial activity was that in support of the enemy’s armoured and infantry units now closing in for the kill from all sides.

As Prague was too far from the Russian advance through Silesia we were unable to take part in the fighting for my own home province. Where we were, in what was then called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, everything remained quiet until the end of April. Then, on 2 May, there was an uprising by the Czechs in Prague who tried to seize a number of key points in and around the capital, including the one-time civil airport on which we were based.

We were ordered to fly ground-attack missions in support of our troops fighting the insurgent forces. The effects of our 30-mm cannon fire were devastating. Trucks simply disintegrated or were tossed bodily into the air burning fiercely. Temporary street barricades thrown up by the Czechs were blasted apart by swathes of shells ploughing through them. The uprising was quickly crushed. Renegade Russian troops under General Vlasov, ex-Red Army prisoners of war who had volunteered to fight for the Germans, tried to change sides again by coming to the Czechs’ aid. We also attacked their columns as they advanced on the capital.

On 6 May I/JG 7 transferred to Saaz (Zatec) closer to the German border. From here a few final missions were flown the following day against Czech insurgent forces and Vlasov troops. On the afternoon of 7 May the Kommandeur called the Gruppe together. He told us that Generaloberst Jodl had signed the unconditional terms of surrender at Rheims early that morning and that the war was over. The Gruppe was to prepare to set out by road for Germany immediately. Then he turned to the pilots: “Those of you who flew the last missions can keep your machines. Each of you is to fly back to Germany, to an airfield of your choice, and there surrender to the Allies.”