Free Hitler's Heroine: Hanna Reitsch by Sophie Jackson Page B

fear of hitting the water. Observers from the boat were annoyed; she should have held on.
    On the next attempt that is exactly what Hanna did; there was a sudden jar against the plane, the towrope seeming to jerk the glider forward, then a sheet of water flew up into the air and overwhelmed the Sea Eagle. Hanna plunged down, submerging beneath the surface of the lake, no time to think of holding her breath or reacting. She was lucky; the natural stability and buoyancy of the Sea Eagle caused it to resurface a short distance from the spot it had crashed. Both glider and Hanna were unharmed, though she was a little shaken by the experience. Everyone was agreed that this wasn’t a practical method for taking off.
    The towrope was shortened to 230ft and balsa floats were added to reduce the drag of the rope ploughing through water. This proved a reliable method. Tests were even more successful when the speedboat was switched for a Dornier amphibian flying boat – the Dragon-Fly. Dragon-Fly could tow the Sea Eagle in most weather conditions and the slipstream caused by its airscrew created another advantage – it left a relatively calm strip of water in its wake in which Hanna could hold the Sea Eagle and thus avoid any heavy waves that the Dragon-Fly might be encountering. The Sea Eagle’s biggest test came during a storm. Since her experience in the Grunau Baby, Hanna had been cautious about such weather, but one of the aims of the Sea Eagle’s designers was to test her in rough weather. After all, she was designed to land on water in any weather – how would they know if she was seaworthy if she was not tested when a storm was rippling the waters?
    Ashore, the anxious Sea Eagle crew and designers stood waiting with every life-saving device they could think of in case the worst happened. Hanna shut that thought out of her mind, if she started to imagine that the Sea Eagle might not survive the landing she would never go up. Hanna had nerves of steel when it came to flying, perhaps even a slight sensation of being charmed, which normally overcame any fear she might feel. As her mother would tell her, placing her life in the hands of God was the only way to get through such dangers. If He chose for her to perish now, there was nothing she could do anyway. With this strange comfort in mind Hanna took off.
    Hanna headed into the storm. The winds buffeted her left and right, she struggled to keep the Sea Eagle level and on course for her designated landing spot. Below, the waters of the Bodensee were bubbling and churning. The little boats that had followed Hanna out had to turn around and head for shore. She was alone with the elements. Hanna soared for an hour before coming in to land. She had to reduce her speed to 35mph; fortunately the Sea Eagle had a hull like a boat and landed smoothly on the water. Unfortunately, the storm had churned the Bodensee into a writhing mass of waves that rocked and rolled the Sea Eagle. No boat could reach Hanna in such conditions so she negotiated her craft to a crane that stood at the edge of the waters. Even then it was no simple task to attach the crane’s hook as Sea Eagle rocked about. Hanna had to balance herself on one of the wings to maintain an even keel. Finally the Sea Eagle made it to dry land without harm – she and her pilot had proved themselves.
    The Sea Eagle was next put to work testing a catapult designed to enable heavily laden transport planes to take off in a small space. Did it occur to Hanna as she climbed into the Sea Eagle’s cockpit that she was testing a device that could prove very handy in combat and when launching troop-carrying planes? Apparently not. The catapult consisted of a steel cable which ran over a cone-shaped drum. One end of the cable was attached to the nose of the glider, so that as the cable was taken up by the drum, the Sea Eagle was dragged towards the scaffolding of the catapult set on the shore. Hanna had to judge the moment perfectly to