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Eagle Editions Major Hans “Assi” Hahn The Man and His Machines by Jerry Crandall Illustrated by Thomas A. Tullis Reviewed By Chad Richmond, #10346 |
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M.S.R.P. $39.95 For at least 40 years I have been fascinated with Luftwaffe Aces and their remarkable exploits. I have read just about everything I could get my hands on concerning the Luftwaffe and have built my fair share of Bf-109s and FW-190’s. One of the aces that I have always been fascinated with was Assi Hahn, but there wasn’t really that much written about him, and nearly every book had the same pictures of him and his aircraft. No one could seem to agree about the color of the nose of his 109’s, whether they were red or yellow. Finally, Jerry Crandall has given us the definitive narrative of the full life and career of one of the most colorful of Germany’s World War II Aces, Hans “Assi” Hahn. The book is hardcover, 81/2 x 11, with 166 pages, 175 photos and 16 pages of color. Included are color profiles, badges, rudder markings and color details of twelve of Major Hahn’s aircraft, as well as six other aircraft belonging to Sigfried Schell, Walter Oesau, Joseph Puchinger, Egon Mayer and Kurt Knappe. Once you open the cover, it is nearly impossible to put down. The chapters in the book cover Hahn from his early days as an infantry officer and then into flight school and his entry into Luftwaffe history as one of the most colorful, respected and well liked aces of World War II. The author spent over twenty years in research, doing interviews with all those who had personal contact with Assi Hahn and by digging through archives that had previously not been available for research. Copies of many letters are included in the text of the book, as well as copies of communications and awards. Personal accounts, both from Hahn himself and other pilots, of some of Hahn’s “exploits” are included. Probably his most famous incident was the story of the “Bog Ghost”, where through no special efforts of his own, except to get to a safe place after landing his aircraft in a bog in France, Hahn is transported back into ancient Norman history. He becomes the manifestation of what for a thousand years had only been a myth of a bog monster coming every hundred years to carry off all the children into the bog, never to be seen again. None of his captivity in Russia from 1943 to 1950 is covered, but his own account of his capture is included. Numerous other stories are contained in the book, along with photographs taken from private collections and stills from Assi Hahn’s and other’s movies. Each of the aircraft featured in the color plates has a fact sheet that gives the exact colors and sizes of all the markings, stencils and locations and any other peculiarities or special differences of those aircraft. Assi Hahn was a “one-of –a kind” person, officer, pilot and friend who touched everyone’s lives that he was associated with and this publication is a fitting tribute to someone who survived one of the most treacherous aspects of World War II. I highly recommend it. Thanks to Jerry Crandall for this special book and to John Noack for letting me review it. |
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