by Heinz Kohler
Weather: Radar photos taken at the time of the accident indicate a level 6 thunderstorm, 20 nautical miles in diameter, located about 41 nautical miles northwest of the accident location, but the local weather at that time was still marginal VFR, 500 scattered, ceiling 1,500 broken, 3,000 overcast, and visibility greater then 6, wind 300 degrees at 21, gusting to 30. The temperature was 61, the dew point 59. According to FAA icing probability charts, conditions were conducive for carburetor icing during glide power or reduced-power descent. The carburetor heat control was ON when examined after the accident. The aircraft also had the correct (Kollsman) altimeter setting of 29.92 inches Hg.
Aircraft history: The aircraft was built in 1976 and had flown approximately 3,050 hours. The engine had a major overhaul at 2,010 hours. The tachometer showed only 15 hours of flight time since a routine annual inspection that had been conducted 3 days before the accident. The maintenance history was normal, including 100 hour inspections. A review of aircraft radio, engine, and airframe maintenance logs revealed that the pilot/owner performed preventative maintenance beyond the scope and intent of the regulations.
Pilot: The commercial-rated pilot was highly experienced, having flown over 10,000 hours as pilot-in-command. He was the sole occupant and had no prior infractions. He held a current medical certificate and had met the recent-experience requirements concerning instrument flight, night flight, and the carrying of passengers. The pilot verified that he had performed the required weight-and-balance checks before the flight. Immediately following the accident, the pilot passed a physical agility sobriety test. Subsequent toxicological tests on the pilot’s blood and urine were negative with respect to alcohol and carbon monoxide.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
An inadvertent in-flight collision with birds while on final approach, resulting in the loss of aileron and elevator control as well as engine power. It was confirmed that sea gulls and other birds feed actively at dusk, flying in flocks low over water, between sea level and 500 feet. Dr. Carla Dove of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, identified one bird retrieved from the cockpit as a Black Vulture (Coryagyps atratus), which weighed 75 ounces.
Other factors contributing to the accident include
1) unsuitable terrain encountered during the forced landing
2) the pilot being blinded by the setting sun
3) pilot fatigue after a long flight from New England, with a fuel stop at Norfolk, VA
Note: A review of the pilot’s medical history reveals psychiatric treatment several decades ago. The pilot would not allow a review of his more recent medical records.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Melanie Shellito for creating the book’s cover, which is truly beautiful.
The images from Heinrich Hoffmann, Der Struwwelpeter and Wilhelm Busch, Max & Moritz that appear in Chapters 1, 11, 41, and 44 have been reproduced with kind permission of the publisher. Copyright © 2009 by Otto Moravec, Vienna, Austria. For colorful versions of these and other children’s books, see www.moravec.at, where the aforementioned books are listed as Artikel Nr. 6001 and 6004, respectively.
The political posters (or excerpts thereof) that appear in Chapters 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 22, 24, 28, 29, 35, 36, and 38 have been reproduced with kind permission of Kristof Wachinger, publisher of Anschläge: 220 politische Plakate als Dokumente der deutschen Geschichte 1900-1980 (Ausgewählt und kommentiert von Friedrich Arnold.) Copyright © 1985 Langewiesche-Brandt, Ebenhausen bei München. For colorful versions of these and other posters, see www.langewiesche-brandt.de and click on Fundstücke>Anschläge.
The photographs appearing in Chapters 9, 11, 15, 16, 18, 19, 23, 25, 26, 30, 33, 34, and 40 were supplied by www.akg-images.co.uk and reproduced with kind permission from the Archiv für Kunst und Geschichte in Berlin, Germany, and London, United Kingdom. Copyright © akg-images, London.
The photograph appearing in Chapter 13 was supplied by www.defa-spektrum.de and reproduced with kind permission of defa-spektrum gmbH, Berlin. Copyright © DEFA-Stiftung/Klagemann, Eberhard.
The Spitfire photograph appearing in Chapter 17 as well as on the front cover has been reproduced with kind permission of Ronnie Olsthoorn whose aviation art can be admired at www.skyraider3d.com. Copyright © Ronnie Olsthoorn.
The photograph appearing in Chapter 42 (Honoré-Victorin Daumier, The Hypochondriac, 1841) was supplied by the Harvard Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (M16718, Gift of Carl Pickhardt, Class of 1931) and reproduced with permission of their Imaging Department. Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College.
The photograph appearing in Chapter 43 was supplied by the Verein des 17. Juni 1953, e. V., Berlin, Germany, and reproduced with kind permission of the Archiv Vereinigung 17. Juni 1953. Additional interesting materials about the 1953 uprising appear at www.17juni1953.de.
The photograph appearing in Chapter 45 was acquired from the Wikimedia Commons and reproduced under the GNU Free Documentation License. The image was taken in 1986 by Thierry Noir at Bethaniendamm in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
The remaining images come from the author’s collection.
Last but not least, I want to thank my wife, Linda J. Kohler, who provided tons of support and inspiration throughout and to whom this book is dedicated, and my brother, Professor Günter Kőhler of Berlin, Germany, who rendered invaluable help in getting many of the above-noted materials together and acquiring many of the permissions noted.
Afterword
This is a work of fiction. Yet it is also true that all of the events portrayed in it have actually occurred. Many of them were witnessed by the author within his immediate family. Others were observed by him indirectly as they affected friends, neighbors, or more distant relatives. The associated images–political posters, photographs, and more–are genuine, too. Still, this is a work of fiction because the personal experiences of many have been woven together with the help of relatively few composite characters. The result is a historical novel that depicts the life of a German family just before, during, and following World War II and thereby conveys a vivid picture of a time when Nazis ruled Germany and, later, the Communists ruled a part of it. But the work is also a story of suspense. By searching for the causes of a plane crash in the 1990s, it shows how the psychological consequences of any war may well emerge decades later and in faraway places.
This book was written because issues of war and peace, sadly, continue to be timely. It is of great importance, therefore, to give voice to the last witnesses of the Second World War before their memories are gone forever. These witnesses to human depravity have crucial lessons to teach–not only to the current generation but also to others not yet born–and, despite so much evidence to the contrary, this author harbors the hope that one day people will manage to learn from history. Czeslaw Milosz, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature, put it succinctly: “Those who are alive receive a mandate from those who are silent forever. They can fulfill their duty only by trying to reconstruct precisely things as they were.” The voices of the characters depicted in this book do just that.
Except for well-known historical figures, such as military or political leaders, the family names used herein are fictitious. No similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is intended or should be inferred. On the other hand, actual geographical names have been freely used, but except for well-known events and locales, such as the 1940 occupation of Paris or the 1945 battle for Berlin, many of the linkages of described incidents with particular geographic names are entirely coincidental.
Reviews from Early Readers
1) David R. Mayhew, Sterling Professor of Political Science, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
In novelistic form, this is a riveting child's-eye account of growing up in Germany under the Nazis and then, in East Germany, the Communists. Laced with extraordinary photos and posters from those times, it combines memory with
testimony. There are chilling SA and SS posters, a shot of the gate of Sachsenhausen concentration camp where the author's father was imprisoned (plus a copy of the camp rules), a required Aryan passport, and much more. We are told how propaganda was taught in the Nazi and then the Communist schools. Berlin in flames is recalled. Useful timelines of events are supplied throughout. The background history in the book is impeccable. Fictional in form, the book is steeped in personal authenticity.
2) Bernard Glassman, Montague, Massachusetts
This is a very important book, especially for many of us who've done a lot of work around lessons from World War II and the Holocaust. It's about the life of a young boy who grows up in Germany during the War, his extraordinary parents, and the terrible suffering he witnesses and endures as cities are bombed into rubble around him and people are killed. Just as Elie Wiesel's young boy's sensitivity arouses our sorrow and pity in "Night," Heinz Kohler's adolescent eyes also see deeply into life and death and life again, and provide us with a new window into that terrible time and place. Bravo to this author for sharing this with us.
3) Eve Marko, Montague, Massachusetts
Heinz Kohler describes a childhood in World War II Germany that is not only eye-opening, but also gripping. This precocious boy bears witness to going to school and growing up in the heyday of Fascism, then enduring loss after loss as Berlin gets bombed and family and friends disappear. It's well written and engrossing, not just as a historical document but as a very personal story of growing up, trying to make sense of what is beyond sense, and finally finding his own way. A beautiful book.
4) Heribert von Feilitzsch, Virginia
“My Name Was Five” describes the Second World War in Berlin from the perspective of a child. In a gripping narrative the author weaves the experiences of the main character together with the larger picture of Germany's road to defeat, destruction, and partial resurrection. He creates a fabric with many dimensions, patterns, and colors. The young boy experiences the effects of propaganda, state terrorism, disastrous war, more propaganda and more state terrorism. He observes the dysfunctional interaction of German culture and education with anti-Semitism, militarism, and destruction. His father is lost in a concentration camp while an uncle supported the Nazis, a dichotomy many families in war have felt. The thread of dysfunction and alienation continues through life in Communist East Germany. This work is an autobiographical eye witness account of a child who, at Ground 0, lived through the three greatest upheavals of our recent history: War, Fascism, and Communism. A must read!
5) Evelyn Bibelot
Certain people, if you loan them this volume, will find it is actually the missing family jewels, as it were, a birthright not heretofore known, but somehow rightfully theirs, and one has to agree. Grandchildren of the World War II generation, from Eastern Europe particularly -- areas where both the Nazis and the Communists swept through their family history -- will likely bury this book where they manage to forget they have it, manage to forget to return it. I'm not sure how many I should have in stock. For me, if World War II and the USSR cast a shadow, this book reveals the thing itself, in very personal terms, and in very specific, well documented terms. You can go straight from the street references to Google Earth and see where the protagonist went to school, where he had to walk to get to his house, and then later you can see where he had to walk to get to the safety of West Berlin, where he had to swim, where the island was he tried to hide without disturbing the cows, I believe it was, and thus drawing attention to his presence. (And you can savor the illustrations and diagrams, the newspaper clippings from German archives, from which the little boy was learning to read -- the book is a visual feast as well.)
6) Ilse Schottky, Stahnsdorf, Germany
A brilliantly crafted story of German history during the Hitler years and beyond. Exhaustively researched, this mesmerizing narrative is a must read for anyone eager to learn about the background and consequences of World War II. Highly educational for the younger generation. Makes a great gift, too.
7) Anita Herzsprung, Greenwood, South Carolina
A fresh and breathtaking novel! It keeps you in suspense from the beginning right up to the last page. The events of the mid-20th century play out in the life of a young boy and his family. Brilliantly conceived and executed, perfect even in details. That makes it also a documentary of World War II; a must read for history teachers and their classes.
8) Linda J. Maloney-Kohler, Montague, Massachusetts
“My Name Was Five” is a very brave book summoning, as it does, a truthful and excruciatingly personal history of World War II, as well as a flawless rendering of PTSD with all of its intractable and terrifying symptomatology, lasting often for lifetimes. This novel is at once an education and an invitation to understand the deeply wounding and too often repeated scarrings of war.
9) David Machowski, Amherst, Massachusetts
Fantastic book, a story captured in a way that the history books and existing narratives do not. A haunting chronicle of the ravages of war, but it being through the lens of a child makes it such an extraordinary read...
10) Marjorie Daysal, Alpharetta, Georgia
Well written, I could not put the book down until I finished it. Excellent, exciting, compelling and educational story.
11) Simone Krohn, Berlin, Germany
The epic events of the 20th century play out in the life of a pilot decades later. A fascinating account of general aviation in the United States and, at the same time, a deeply moving and fascinating account of World War II in Europe and its long-run consequences. A psychological masterpiece, this is a must read for anyone interested in war, psychiatry, and post traumatic stress disorder.
12) Vicky R. Burke, Mills River, North Carolina
A must read for all! I could not put the book down. A real eye-opener as to the horrors of war and the psychological impact on young children and the resilience of those that survive. A very educational book - I would highly recommend this book as required reading in any History or Psychology class.
13) Cheryl Richardson, Wendell, Massachusetts
This book tells of the horrors of World War II from the eyes of a child growing up in Germany. It is a testimonial to the man that wrote it and how you can succeed without having lived in a perfect society. This book should be read in school history classes! Great reading!!
14) Donna van Boom, Amherst, Massachusetts
"My Name Was Five" moved me like no other about Germany and World War II. It begins in February, 1937. The narrator is a very intelligent 4 1/2 year old boy whose father has just been arrested and imprisoned for his anti-Hitler beliefs, and his mother who is determined to prevent her son from becoming "a fine Prussian soldier", says through her tears, "the hell he will". This novel details daily life in Berlin at this time. This is a short list, but there is so much more: his schooling, his neighborhood, his extended family, the humiliations and disappearance of his neighbors and friends and the horror of corpses on the street. His mother is unfailing in her care for him, in her generosity of spirit to those who suffer, and her determination for her son's psychic as well as physical survival. I can't recommend this book more highly. It lingers in the mind.
15) Irmtraud Mertsch, Brilon, Germany
“My Name Was Five” is a moving family story-enthralling, captivating, and beautifully written. Through the eyes of a boy born in Nazi Germany, we learn about the war and its aftermath as if we were right there. What a vivid documentation of the horror and suffering brought on by that war! The book is an amazing account for those of us who lived through those times, but I would equally recommend it for schools and the younger generation because it provides us all with a timely lesson in history that must not be forgotten.
16) Yankeelin
Five stars for Goodreads and Amazon...more if I could. This book has touched and educated me in ways I did not realize a book could do. I've read many books about what the lives of Jews were like, what they endured in Europe
in the war years. And in ignorance I’d learned to resent the general German population of the time, wondered how and why they kept their heads stuck in the sand..
As the book opens, Hans is 5 year old boy in pre-WW2 Germany. Living thru 5 year old dreams and wishes, braces to straighten his legs, games played with his friend Dieter, loving and intelligent parents, story books etc. Hitler and his henchman slowly emerge as the sick and twisted government rulers and the lives of his family and those around him change. His father is sent to a 'camp' (eventually released) and his mother tries to protect him from the enforced propaganda taught at his school.
His education involves no frills, stern disciplined lessons, instead of names they were assigned numbers. The lower the number, the smarter you were....supposedly, hence, my name was FIVE. Hans has an incredible brain and absorbs facts and statistics as evidenced in some of the lessons described in the book...lessons I had to skim over.