Recusant
Hellcat
The story of German Ace Hans Joachim-Marseille reminded me of a WWII document that I bought over 20 years ago. In the late 1990’s I taught middle school English, and as part of the curriculum my classes read The Diary of Ann Frank. I bought some WWII era German documents that civilians would have had to have in order to travel about in Nazi Germany for my students to understand what a tight grip the Nazi’s had on civilian travel. Years later I googled the names on these documents and was shocked to find that I had a Reisepass that belonged to a young man that would become a famous Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 87 Stuka pilot who would earn a Knight’s Cross. His name was Werner Roell (8 February 1914 – 10 May 2008) and he was a highly decorated Major in the Luftwaffe during WWII. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. The point of my story here is if any of you have any WWII items that bear a person’s name it might be worth your while to see if any show up on a google search. Check here to listen to an oral history recording where Werner Roell tells his story in his own words.
