Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Controversy Over German Pilot

On behalf of those who are now demanding that this pilot by the name of Werner Mölders who downed 115 enemy pilots is not stripped of his honors I will say that I know there was members of the German military that opposed the Nazis.

This is why he is being divested from his honors:

Now Peter Struck, the Defence Minister, is to enforce a 1998 law that bans any honour being bestowed on the German volunteers who served in the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War, including Colonel Mölders. German pilots, wearing the uniform of the Spanish Fascists, bombed the Basque city of Guernica, killing thousands.

But there is a part that bugs me, here it is:

Colonel Mölders did not take part in the bombing — he was a fighter not a bomber pilot. However, he did shoot down 14 aircraft during the civil war and, according to recent research, took part in a battle on the River Ebro that claimed many civilian casualties.

There is recounts by survivors that indicate that fighter planes were involved in the process of gunning down the civilians running away from the bombs. They mention that these fighter planes, Messerschmitts it seems, came back again and again machine gunning anything and anyone that moved.

Julio Medem even made up this fictitious story about German Otto el Piloto for his movie "Lovers of the Arctic Circle". In the movie, a fighter plane crashes to the ground after the bombing of Gernika.

Lore is knowledge that is handed down to the younger generations through oral recounts based on the memories of those who lived through specific moments in history.

Germans are known for keeping record of everything they do, I believe them if they say that he did not take part of that specific bombing, but the fact is, Mölders is not being divested of his honors for what happened in Gernika only, but for what the Kondor Legion did to prop the soon to become Fascist dictator Francisco Franco.

The story appeared at Times on Line.

You can read the whole story here also.

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