HITLER'S BOMBERS

Today, countless European cities still bear scars from the Luftwaffe's bomber crews. But with bombers constituting one-third of all German aircraft lost in WWII, such devastation didn't come cheap for the Kampfflieger

- DR VICTORIA TAYLOR

The fighter pilots were lively, thirsty for action and quickly landed again after a successful fight - they are people of a very special kind," recalled German airman Klaus Deumling. "Since I did not fit such a character, I signed up for the calmer, more relaxed but no less endangered bomber pilots. I didn't just want to take off and land straight away: I wanted to fly long distances with navigation.

My subsequent flying career was not suitable for quickly achieving major awards but it became so interesting for me - both in terms of flying and especially technically in a way that I would never have dreamed of at the end of military school."

Deumling, who later flew in the Luftwaffe's reformed Kampfgeschwader 100 Wiking, demonstrated how being a Kampfflieger ('bomber airman') was not seen as a consolation prize for those who yearned to be a fighter pilot; rather, it was a treasured sanctuary for prospective airmen of a cool, curious and calculated nature. Such a dutiful and unwavering temperament, however, lent uncomfortably well to carrying out the demolition work that would help to realise the Nazi regime's most rapacious geopolitical ambitions.

Averaging between 18 and 21 years old, the Kampfflieger were rigorously selected, trained and primed for the bomber war - whether they were a pilot, Beobachter ('observer'), Bordfunker ('radio operator'), Bordmechanik ('flight mechanic') or Bordschütze ('air gunner'). By 1939, German bomber crews tended to be posted to operational units after receiving an average of 250 flying hours over 18 to 24 months; it took around twice as long to train a Kampfflieger pilot than it did a fighter pilot.