Thursday, December 19, 2024

I DIDN'T KNOW THAT

By Bob Walsh


Melitta von Stauffenberg was a pilot and aeronautical engineer in Nazi Germany. During the war, her job was to perfect the Fuhrer’s Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers

Melitta von Stauffenberg 

 

I caught a really interesting thing on the Smithsonian Channel today.  It seems that there was a very, very bright young female aeronautical engineer and test pilot who was largely responsible for the development of the Stuka dive bomber prior to WWII.  She was also Jewish according to the Nazi racial purity laws, thru her father's family.  She worked very hard to get a certificate of Aryan Equivalence for herself and her siblings and was successful, keeping them out of the camps.  Apparently they didn't just hand those things out.  
 
 
Stuka
German Junkers Ju 87 “Stuka” dive-bomber.
 
 
She was shot down and killed by an allied fighter plane towards the end of the war.  The 1 hr program did not specify whether or not it was a combat mission or some other sort of flight.  Her name was Melitta von Stauffenberg.  I admit I am surprised that anybody with a "von" attached to her name would have Jewish background, but then again my technical ignorance of such things is profound.  

You learn something new every day, if you keep your brain open enough to receive the information.

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