num_pages: 224
description: The Sky My Kingdom is the autobiography of WWII test pilot Hanna Reitsch (3/29/12-8/24/79). As the war progressed, Reitsch was invited to fly many of Germany's latest, increasingly desperate designs, including the rocket-propelled Messerschmitt 163 Komet &amp; several bombers to test mechanisms for cutting barrage balloon cables. After crashing a 5th Me163 flight she wrote a report before going unconscious &amp; being hospitalized for five months. She became Hitler's favorite pilot. She was one of only two women awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class during WWII &amp; the only one awarded the Luftwaffe Combined Pilot &amp; Observer Badge with Diamonds. Surviving many accidents, she was badly injured several times. In the war's last days she was asked to fly Colonel-Gen. Robert Ritter von Greim to meet with Hitler. Berlin was surrounded by Red Army troops who'd progressed into the city center when they landed on a street to go to the Fuhrerbunker on 4/27. Their aircraft was the Fieseler Storch known for the rescue of Mussolini, adding to the legend of both Reitsch &amp; the aircraft. She overheard Hitler laying out plans for Nazi commanders to commit mass suicide when the war was lost. She hoped to rescue the Propaganda Minister's six children, who'd been in the bunker since 4/22, but Joseph &amp; Magda Goebbels wouldn't allow it. She escaped Berlin on 4/29, flying out thru heavy anti-aircraft fire. She was a devoted Nazi, adored Hitler &amp; rejected concentration camp reports. Much later she said she'd been "disgusted" by what she witnessed in the 3rd Reich. She was held for 18 months by the US military for interrogation. After the war Germans were forbidden from flying, except, after some years, in gliders. In '52 she won 3rd place in the world gliding championship in Spain, the sole woman competing. She continued to break records including the women's altitude record (6848 meters), becoming German champion in '55.
language: English
title: The Sky My Kingdom: Memoirs of the Famous German World War II Test-Pilot
publisher: Presidio Press