Vizefeldwebel Baur was awarded the Iron Cross First Class and the Bavarian Silver Bravery Medal for attacking a French formation of seven and downing two of the SPADs that day.

[4] Baur was personally selected by Hitler to be his official pilot in 1933 and was consequently released from service by Luft Hansa.

[1][3] Baur was given the task of expanding and organising Hitler's personal squadron and the government "flying group".

[10] Although he tried to convert Baur to vegetarianism, Hitler also invited him to the Reich Chancellery for his favourite meal of pork and dumplings for his 40th birthday, and gave him a Mercedes-Benz to replace his personal Ford.

Baur had devised a plan to allow Hitler to escape from the Battle of Berlin; a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch was held on standby which could take off from an improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten, near the Brandenburg Gate.

On 26 April 1945, the improvised landing strip was used by Hanna Reitsch to fly in then-Generaloberst Robert Ritter von Greim, appointed by Hitler as head of the Luftwaffe after Hermann Göring's dismissal.

That evening in the bunker complex below the Chancellery garden, Hitler said his farewell to his personal pilots, Baur and Betz.

[1][15] After Hitler's suicide, Baur found the improvised road-strip too pot-holed for use and overrun by the Soviet 3rd Shock Army.

A plan was devised to escape out from Berlin to the Allies on the western side of the Elbe or to the German Army to the North.

SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke split up the Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker soldiers and personnel into ten main groups.

[18][19] Baur was of great interest to his Soviet captors, who believed he might have helped Hitler escape before the fall of Berlin.

[23][20] During his confinement, Baur told fellow inmates (and former SS officers) Heinz Linge and Otto Günsche to "Never say what really happened" during the last days in the bunker, remaining loyal to Hitler.

[24] On 25 December 1945, Baur convinced an NKVD spy undercover as a German prisoner that Eva Braun was pregnant with Hitler's child when she died.

[1] Remaining in West Germany, in 1957 Baur wrote his autobiography Ich flog die Mächtigen der Erde (literally "I flew the mighty of the Earth").

Later, a lengthened version was published as Mit Mächtigen zwischen Himmel und Erde ("Between Heaven and Earth with the Mighty").

The book also includes an account of the events surrounding Hitler's arrest of Ernst Röhm on 30 June 1934 at Bad Wiessee, in which Baur took part.