A labor of love.

For nearly 6 years now, I have been working on getting material for a biography on Luftwaffe Ace Walter Oesau. I am eternally grateful for the people I run into on the internet in the various forums that I frequent who give information and for the people on my other sites that provide me with information or ways to get said information.

I've spent quite a bit on documents, photographs, collected here and there, spent many a night sleepless doing the research. There's still more to be done, and I'm waiting for my feelers that I sent out and the favors I have asked of other people to come in with even more information.

I've read other biographies. Ones of Adolf Galland, Rudel, Marseille, Wick, Graf, Grislawski, Schnaufer, etc.

We that know our WWII history know all the "greats" of that era, save one.

Oesau.

Born in Farnewinkel on June 28th, 1913, this determined young man carved himself a path in the Heer and then changed to the Luftwaffe, despite what his mother, his aunt and his childhood sweetheart thought. It wasn't easy. The first time he soloed, he crashed the aircraft on landing and busted himself up but good, getting a chiding from the three women and a "Good job, m'boy" from Vater Oesau. He continued in this vein, married the childhood sweetheart on a Christmas vacation in 1940 and went on in 4 years to rise in the ranks. This was a singularly different man than what the world wants us to think of German people during that era. This was no Nazi. Rank meant nothing to him when there was no fighting to be had. All men on the ground shared alike at the barracks. There was no distinction. This was a man who possibly saved the life of another Holsteiner who had the temerity to respond to him in a manner that wasn't "militarisch" code, but the language of his home.

This was a man who could claim the friendship and respect of nearly everyone he met, and even the two most diametrically opposed personality-wise - Galland and Moelders.

That is why, for 6 years, I have not let up in my pursuit of the truth, the information and the research on Walter "Gulle" Oesau. I do not want this man's memory to be faded away as the years go by. I do NOT want him lumped in with the "they're all Nazis anyway" crowd. Oberstleutnant Oesau was a man that truly deserves the respect of a well-written, concise and accurate biography, and by god, I'm going to give it to him.

In other news, Author Ed Taylor is working on a biography of another very interesting LW officer, the Renaissance man and PhD, Ernst Kupfer. From what Ed's shared with me, I'm pretty darn excited for the book to come to press. It will serve to be another gem in the treasury of great Luftwaffe/war time biographies. I can't wait for it, Ed!