Luftwaffe ace Walter Oesau interviewed in April 1944 just days before being killed in action

Walter Oesau (June 28th 1913 to May 11th 1944) was a Luftwaffe fighter pilot from 1934 until his death in 1944. He served with the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War with Jagdgruppe 88 and claimed nine aircraft during the campaign, becoming one of only 28 people to earn the award of the Spanish Cross in Gold and Diamonds.

At the start of World War II, Oesau was given command of a fighter group within Jagdgeschwader 20. The group took part in the Invasion of Poland, later moving to the Western Front as the redesignated III Gruppe, Jagdgeschwader 51. Oesau operated on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. He then returned to operations as commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 and was eventually killed in action on May 11th 1944.

At the time this footage was filmed he held the rank of Major and was flying a Bf 109 F with Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen". He waggles his wings on returning from a mission to indicated that it was successful, this was possibly August 12th when Oesau claimed five Spitfires shot down in one day, raising his score to 101 victories. Between August and December 1941 he claimed a total of 14 aircraft shot down, all of them Spitfires.

Oseau took over command of JG 2 not long before this footage was captured after his predecessor Wilhelm Balthasar was killed in combat against RAF Spitfires over France on July 3rd 1941. Oesau himself was killed while dogfighting with P-38 Lightnings of the 428th Fighter Squadron USAAF on May 11th 1944 while he was Geschwaderkommodore of JG 1, dying from wounds suffered from gunfire striking his cockpit. He was apparently unwell with influenza that day but pressure from Hermann Göring led him to take to the air regardless of his high fever for what would be his final mission.

Oesau was aged 30 at the time of his death. with a total of 127 victories scored over 300 missions. 27 of his claims were Spitfires and 14 were four-engined bombers, 44 were scored on the Eastern Front and 9 in the Spanish Civil War. In recognition of his record, JG 1 received the title "Oesau" in honor of its fallen Geschwaderkommodore. Only Werner Mölders had a similar honor with JG 51 "Mölders".

Transcript:

"Die ganz jungen kommen von der Schule, eigentlich immer mit einer Mordsbegeisterung. Sie kommen und wollen möglichst morgen schon eingesetzt werden. Sie können es nie erwarten, bis sie das erste Mal tatsächlich nicht mehr auf die Scheibe schießen, sondern auf das, was ihnen gezeigt worden ist an Bildern und an Feindflugzeugen. Die Begeisterung dieser Jungs ist ganz groß und wir hoffen, dass sie immer so bleibt und dass wir es immer mit solchen Kerlen zu tun haben, die fliegerisch auch so vorgebildet sind, dass es vollkommen ausreichend ist, wenn sie zum Kampf kommen. Natürlich ist der Weg über die Schule ein sehr langer gewesen, vor allem dann, wenn man glaubt, dass man zu spät kommt."