1. Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff was a Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II, German general, and NATO official.
48 Facts About Johannes Steinhoff
1. 2.
Johannes Steinhoff was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, and later received the Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and several foreign awards including the American Legion of Merit and the French Legion of Honour.
3.
Johannes Steinhoff played a role in the so-called Fighter Pilots' Revolt late in the war, when several senior air force officers confronted Hermann Goring.
4.
Johannes Steinhoff joined the West German government's Rearmament Office as a consultant on military aviation in 1952 and became one of the principal officials tasked with rebuilding the German Air Force through the Cold War.
5.
In retirement, Johannes Steinhoff became a widely read author of books on German military aviation during the Second World War and the experiences of the German people at that time.
6.
Johannes Steinhoff was born on 15 September 1913 in Bottendorf, Thuringia, the son of an agricultural mill-worker and his traditional housewife.
7.
Johannes Steinhoff had two brothers, Bernd and Wolf, and two sisters, Greta and Charlotte.
8.
Johannes Steinhoff was promoted to Leutnant on 1 April 1936.
9.
Johannes Steinhoff married his wife Ursula on 29 April 1939 and they had a son, Wolf and a daughter, Ursula.
10.
On 1 January 1939, Johannes Steinhoff was promoted to Oberleutnant.
11.
That day, Johannes Steinhoff was transferred to Jagdgeschwader 26 "Schlageter", which had been named after Albert Leo Schlageter on 1 May 1939.
12.
Johannes Steinhoff was appointed Staffelkapitan of a newly created night fighter unit named 10.
13.
Johannes Steinhoff was credited with the destruction of a Supermarine Spitfire fighter over Dorking.
14.
Two days later, Johannes Steinhoff claimed to have shot down a further two Spitfires on a mission to Canterbury.
15.
That day, Johannes Steinhoff claimed a Soviet Polikarpov I-153 fighter shot down near Varena in Lithuania.
16.
The next day, Johannes Steinhoff claimed an Ilyushin DB-3 bomber shot down south of Varena.
17.
Johannes Steinhoff was the 18th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.
18.
Johannes Steinhoff was the 115th member of the German armed forces to be so honoured.
19.
Only a few Luftwaffe fighters reached the bombers, including Johannes Steinhoff who shot down a B-17.
20.
Johannes Steinhoff was promoted to Oberstleutnant on 1 April 1944.
21.
Johannes Steinhoff stayed in Germany until early September 1944 in Germany.
22.
Johannes Steinhoff was the 82nd member of the German armed forces to be so honored.
23.
Johannes Steinhoff was allowed to hand-pick several Staffelkapitane, including Heinz Bar and Gerhard Barkhorn.
24.
Johannes Steinhoff initially acted as a de facto recruiting officer, persuading a number of veteran Luftwaffe aces to join the unit, some coming out of the Fighter Pilots' Rest Home at Bad Wiessee to do so.
25.
Johannes Steinhoff survived nearly 1,000 combat missions, only to see his flying career come to an end on the ground.
26.
Johannes Steinhoff spent two years in hospital, and years of reconstructive surgery, with his eyelids being rebuilt by British surgeon George Henry Morley at the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Hospital Halton after the war, his 69th surgery.
27.
Johannes Steinhoff was shot down 12 times but bailed out only once.
28.
Johannes Steinhoff then worked in ceramic painting and for a marketing firm in Munich before he became a member of the German delegation working on the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community.
29.
Johannes Steinhoff then entered the Amt Blank, named after Theodor Blank, the forerunner of the German Federal Ministry of Defense.
30.
Johannes Steinhoff then transferred to the newly created German Air Force, at the time referred to as the Bundesluftwaffe.
31.
Johannes Steinhoff was among the first three Bundesluftwaffe pilots to receive jet aircraft training.
32.
On 1 October 1958, Johannes Steinhoff was promoted to Brigadegeneral.
33.
Johannes Steinhoff was invited by West Germany's new interim government to rebuild the Bundesluftwaffe within NATO, eventually rising to the rank of full general.
34.
Johannes Steinhoff became the German Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee in 1960.
35.
On 4 December 1963, Johannes Steinhoff was appointed commander of the 4.
36.
Johannes Steinhoff received numerous honors for his work on the structure of the post war German Air Force and the integration of the German Federal Armed Forces into NATO, including: Great Cross of Merit of Merit of the Federal Republic with Star and Sash, the American Legion of Merit and the French Legion d'honneur.
37.
One of Johannes Steinhoff's contributions was dealing with the high accident rate the air force was having with its F-104 Starfighters.
38.
Johannes Steinhoff addressed the problem with an intensive training regime and the accident rate dropped dramatically.
39.
Johannes Steinhoff wrote The Final Hours, which detailed a late-war plot against Hermann Goring, and published a vivid account of his time in Italy: Messerschmitts over Sicily: Diary of a Luftwaffe Fighter Commander.
40.
Johannes Steinhoff became a water-colourist, and chairman of Germany's Dornier Flugzeugwerke.
41.
Johannes Steinhoff, who had joined Dornier's supervisory board on 28 June 1974, was not without controversy because Dornier was a major contractor for the German Air Force.
42.
Defense Minister Georg Leber announced that Johannes Steinhoff was not a member of the Bundeswehr, but of NATO.
43.
On 16 December 1977, Johannes Steinhoff became chairman of the supervisory board of Dornier and held this position until 1 July 1983.
44.
In May 1985, Johannes Steinhoff met Ronald Reagan, then President of the United States, during a visit to the WWII Kolmeshohe Military Cemetery near Bitburg.
45.
Johannes Steinhoff was joined by Steinhoff, Kohl and 90-year-old US Army General Matthew Ridgway who had commanded the 82nd Airborne in World War II.
46.
On 21 February 1994, Johannes Steinhoff died in Wachtberg-Pech from complications arising from a heart attack he suffered the previous December.
47.
Johannes Steinhoff was 80, and had lived in nearby Bad Godesberg.
48.
Johannes Steinhoff is one of only a handful of pilots honoured in this way, along with Manfred von Richthofen and Max Immelmann.