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April 10, 2026
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"[briefing the other pilots] Keep the sun on your back. Don't fire too soon. It just warns your opponents, it has no other effects. The best range for shooting is 50 meters, not more. But remember, our tasks is to bring down aeroplanes, not men. So stop firing when your opponent's falling. Gentlemen, we are sportsmen, not butchers."
"[to Käte] When I became a pilot, I truly thought I had see everything from up there. I saw nothing. I was blind before I met you. You opened my eyes. You thought me to see what I didn't want to see. We all choose to fly. Voss, Sternberg, Lehmann, Wolff, Hawker. On whatever side we fought, we all knew the risks we took. I wanted to be the best, I wanted to win and I thought I won. But I can see now, Kate. I have seen that we have turned the world into a damn slaughter house. And I'm already too big a part of it. They're using my photograph, to give hope where there is none. They used my name to feign immortality, whereas the reality is annihilation. You said it yourself, "The men dying out there, they have no choice." I have! I cannot order them into battle. I can perhaps leads them. Help them! Die with them. But I will not betrayed them, nor keep the truth from them by remaining the immortal god's Berlin wants me to be. You... are my greatest victory."
"I only attack if I can win."
"There are so many hospitals now they have to give them numbers. This is No: 76. There's 500 patients. Most of these men will die. Those that don't will never walk again, see again, taste again... love again! No, it's not great to have a hole your head. You're lucky to be still alive. Being born of nobility, you've advantages these men here do not. They don't have choices. It's not a game. This is the lowest we'll ever get. It never gets darker."
"[over Manfred's grave] I could not come sooner. It's not so easy to cross the line into British territory. Finally a friend of ours help me. He asked me why it was important for me to come here? I told him I love you. Did I ever tell you?"
"Heroes Rise. Empires Fall. Legends Endure."
"One warrior ruled the sky."
"Matthias Schweighöfer — Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen"
"Lena Headey — Nurse Käte Otersdorf"
"Til Schweiger — Leutnant Werner Voss"
"Volker Bruch — Lothar Freiherr von Richthofen"
"Maxim Mehmet — Leutnant Friedrich Sternberg"
"Hanno Koffler — Leutnant Lohmann"
"Tino Mewes — Oberleutnant Kurt Wolff"
"Steffen Schroeder — Oberleutnant Karl Bodenschatz"
"Axel Prahl — General der Kavallerie Ernst von Hoeppner"
"Joseph Fiennes — "Captain" Roy Brown"
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.