An original colour slide by Walter Frentz. Portrait of German fighter ace Oberstleutnant Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff (Geschwaderkommodore Jagdgeschwader 77) in 1944. He was one of very few Luftwaffe pilots who survived to fly operationally through the whole of the war period 1939–45. His wartime record was 176 aircraft claimed destroyed, of which 152 were on the Eastern Front, 12 on the Western Front and 12 in the Mediterranean. He also flew 993 operational sorties. Steinhoff was shot down 12 times but had to bail out only once. Explaining his preference to remain with his damaged aircraft, Steinhoff admitted: "I only bailed out once. I never trusted the parachutes. I always landed my damaged planes, hoping not to get bounced on the way down when I lost power."
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