Typed Letter Signed.
This Knight's Cross recipient was a Luftwaffe ace who scored all of his victories on the Western Front -- 54 downed enemy aircraft in more than 250 combat missions. Item #38059
TLS (in German), heavy stock 8¼" X 5 3/4", Munster, Germany, 24 September 1997. Addressed to M.K. Schmidt. Near fine. On a correspondence card, the right side of which bears a 3½" X 5" reproduction of a well-known WW2-era head-and-shoulders portrait of Meimberg in uniform wearing his Knight's Cross, Meimberg writes to an American admirer. Below his portrait on the right side, Meimberg signs boldly in blue ink. With original envelope. Though a small format letter accomplished later in life, the content is exceptional and, being typed alongside a likeness of Meimberg in his prime, the presentation is superb. Meimberg offers "reminiscences about a time that lay more than a half century behind us." He mentions musing about fallen comrades, offers some serious thoughts about his thinking as group commander of the II Jagdeschwader 53 (Pik-As) group when he was 27 years old ("At the time it was clear to me that the war for Germany was lost. I hoped for a political solution...."), and remarks how he knows today that war is always the result of failed politics. He bemoans the fate of his generation, but is pleased that a war among European nations is unthinkable today and that other peoples might learn from their history. A touching and provocative letter.
Price: $125.00