Shadow over the Atlantic

by Robert Forsyth

  When FAGr 5 arrived at Bourges, together with their various travelling ‘companions’, they were one of several such retreating German columns moving through the area. But their timing was good. They had appeared just as preparations were being made to destroy the local fuel dump in order to prevent its capture by the Allies or the Resistance. As such the FAGr 5 personnel were able to replenish their vehicles’ tanks as well as load up the lorries with as many more drums of fuel as they could carry.

  The vehicles assembled close to the railway lines in the town, where the field kitchens set up and prepared food, and the men were able to wash. There was also the opportunity to draw upon the stockpiled treasures of the local supply office, which included such luxuries as coffee. The weather improved, which made the drive easier, but once again increased the threat of attack from enemy aircraft.

  The trade-off for all this replenishment came when the local military commander requested that Schmidt make the FAGr 5 vehicles and their cannon available for an assault operation to be carried out against the local Maquis the following evening. However, Schmidt refused, stating that both vehicles and armament were needed for other tasks in Germany, which was where they were heading. At midnight, Schmidt led the column off, towards the town of Nevers, 70 km to the east, which it reached the same day, the weather having changed markedly, with rain once again pouring down. The vehicles drove into the town park, where they were assembled into a protective rectangle and the personnel took some time to rest.

  Meanwhile, the local commander summoned Oberleutnant Schmidt and told him that he required his vehicles in order to form the basis of a convoy, which was to drive east, through Maquis-occupied territory, 175 km, to the town of Autun. More personnel would be attached to the convoy, some with vehicles and some without, including around 100 infantrymen and some French citizens who had collaborated with the Germans. This time, Schmidt obliged, drawing on the benefit of the protection that 100 combat-seasoned troops would offer for the rest of the drive to the German border.

  Under heavy guard, the column remained in the park for the night of 21st/22nd.

  Early next morning, all personnel were mustered, given orders and assigned tasks. The column had become a large force of military and civilians, and it took most of the day to get the vehicles safely loaded with people and supplies. It was late on the 22nd before they took to the road.

  On this leg, conditions became more dangerous. The infantry were deployed at one spot when the column came under heavy fire, and they suffered dead and wounded. Elsewhere, there were further harassing, lighter attacks, but once again, by deploying the aircraft cannon, the opposition was driven off. Often, the way was blocked by abandoned vehicles and the column had to call upon its heavy Faun tow-tractors, which FAGr 5 used to tow its Ju 290s at Mont de Marsan, to clear the road.

  They overtook other retreating German columns as they moved on towards the east, but at times the road narrowed and passing another column became very challenging, slowing progress. At one point, having just cleared the road of a pile of shot-up and burnt-out vehicles, a formation of USAAF P-51 Mustangs swept in low and raked the column with machine-gun fire, causing casualties, damage and panic.

  At 2100 hrs, after having shot bursts of MG 151 fire over the rooftops, the column sped past the road junction town of Autun. Beyond the town, the roads were quiet and the night was spent peacefully in the area under a strong guard.

  Heading north-west on the 23rd, at around midday they drove through Dijon, having covered another 90 km. Here the vehicles were checked over and refuelled, the opportunity taken to acquire some local supplies and provisions, and at 1345 hrs the column was back on the road, making for Vesoul.

  The hilly terrain area between Dijon and Vesoul was crawling with Resistance groups, and the Germans attracted fire from woods bordering the route. Bullets hit the vehicles, with at least one taking a rifle round through the cab, but no one was injured. It was only in spots where the column was held up for a period of time that the Germans resorted to responding with their own weapons. However, at one point, the radio truck suffered a broken axle, and under the supervision of Leutnant Scherp, a pilot in 2./FAGr 5, all the important equipment was removed and transferred to other vehicles. The trailer which had been towed behind the radio truck was blown up, an action which attracted more fire from the maquisards hiding out in nearby woods.

  The route now became very steep as the road wound through the wooded hills of Franche-Comté, and the tow-tractors had to render assistance to the wood-gas-powered vehicles, although these latter machines had performed well, against all expectations, for the whole journey up to that point.

  At around 1630 hrs, the column reached Vesoul. Here, 150 km from the German border, the personnel in the column began to feel more secure, more hopeful. The column came to a stop in the town and, for the rest of the day, no onward march was ordered. The night would be spent in the town. The halt was used to give the vehicles an overhaul, to fill up fuel tanks and to find more supplies.

  Vesoul was bustling and busy, its ancient roads choked with other German units trying to reach the frontier, including units of the SS and the feared SD (Sicherheitsdienst), the SS intelligence and security service, mostly in requisitioned French vehicles laden with family, children and ‘liberated’ luxury items. The sight did not impress the men of FAGr 5. And yet it was at Vesoul, much to Schmidt and his fellow officers’ delight, that some of the mobile elements that had ‘attached’ themselves to the column earlier took off or simply ‘dissolved’. As Schmidt recalled: ‘One could almost “smell” the border, and so some of them attempted to continue the journey on their own.’

  Under a strong guard, the Luftwaffe reconnaissance men enjoyed a refreshing evening swim in a local pool, while the Gruppe officers spent the night in a hotel, where they observed at a comfortable distance, some of the ‘wayfarers’ who had joined the column during its route from the west, playing cards in the bar with a group of SD men.

  On the morning of the 24th, Oberleutnant Schmidt arranged a checking of all weapons and equipment prior to embarking upon the next leg of the journey towards Belfort. He then gave final instructions on the route, but the opening of the field kitchens and preparation of a hot meal delayed departure until 1400 hrs.

  As the column headed for Belfort, it became quite widely dispersed and 15 km from that town, it was ambushed by heavy gunfire emanating from a house and surrounding woodland. After a short but violent skirmish, in which two of the column’s members were lightly wounded, the ‘terrorists’ were beaten off by the deployment of a small section of infantry supported by FAGr 5's heavy cannon.

  At around 1815 hrs, the column passed Belfort, unaware of the fact that at that very moment, Marshal Pétain, Chef de l’État of Vichy France, was in the town, pausing, like thousands of others, on his way to the sanctuary of the German border. Forty minutes later, the FAGr 5 column reached German soil. ‘It was a very comforting feeling to be back in the Fatherland,’ Schmidt conceded.

  It is to Oskar Schmidt’s credit that, as a relatively junior officer, he had achieved a remarkable feat in assembling and leading a large, gradually expanding convoy across central France, under threat from attack the whole way, safely back to Germany with minimal human and mechanical casualties.

  At the frontier Schmidt had to deal with the German border guards on behalf of the female Luftwaffe signals auxiliaries, various civilians, French nationals, Russian Hiwis and others – all of whom had rendered assistance to FAGr 5 during its time at Mont de Marsan, and who had journeyed across France with the column; otherwise, without sufficient papers and credentials, some personnel would have been refused permission to enter the Reich. The chaos that prevailed in France, and the reckless behaviour of certain elements of the SS and SD there was of little interest to the border officials, and, ironically, perhaps because of that, they were ‘generous’ in their decision to let the ‘passengers’ through. ‘Perhaps,’ reflected Schmidt, ‘they want
ed to keep unpleasant decisions away from their necks.’

  From Colmar, they reached the Rhine by nightfall, crossing at Breisach. A short while later, they stopped outside a village and spent the night parked up in the yards of some farms, where most of the travellers slept fully clothed in their vehicles. It was the first night that they slept peacefully without alarm, incident or danger. At 0830 hrs the next morning, the column moved off, and by 1015 hrs, it had arrived in the city of Freiburg am Breisgau.

  Here, Oberleutnant Motzkus delivered the remaining French nationals to the local Kommandantur and enquired about the location of the nearest military airfield. Simultaneously, Oberleutnant Schmidt bade farewell to the various railway workers, mariners and officials from the Organisation Todt who took leave of the Luftwaffe men to make their way to their homes and places of employment wherever they were in Germany. A little later Motzkus reported that having talked with the local airfield commander, the airfield was so overcrowded that FAGr 5’s personnel could not be accommodated there.

  Schmidt therefore decided to continue on to the Titisee (a picturesque lake in the Black Forest) and from there to Überlingen on the Bodensee (Lake Constance), where it was known that trains could be boarded to take them to Bavaria and the present base of FAGr 5. Unteroffizier Faller would remain in Freiburg to round up and follow on with any stragglers who might yet arrive from France.

  At 1240 hrs, the now smaller column, comprising almost exclusively FAGr 5 personnel, drew to a stop in a long row under bright-blue summer skies alongside the shore of the Titisee, surrounded by wooded hills. Although the town of Titisee was known as a peaceful place with no military installations, the vehicles were nevertheless fully camouflaged with netting and tree branches to protect them against being spotted from the air, after which they were serviced before the men were allowed some time to swim in the lake and to rest and sunbathe for a few hours.

  Oberleutnant Schmidt was able at last to establish a radio link with Major Fischer. Fischer promised Schmidt that he would arrange with the Reichsbahn for the necessary rolling stock to be assigned for the onward movement of the personnel and vehicles of the Gruppe at either Titisee or from the Bodensee. He also informed Schmidt that the entire Gruppe – flying and ground personnel – was to assemble at the new operational base of Neubiberg, to the south of München (Munich) and not as previously planned at Mühldorf, mainly because some of the heavily laden Ju 290s from Mont de Marsan had experienced problems in landing there – as in the case of Leutnant Hetz of 1.Staffel. Mühldorf was to remain only as a base for a small technical detachment which would liaise with Junkers and other industrial concerns. As such, Schmidt’s column was to travel by train to Neubiberg at the earliest opportunity.

  But there was still no sign of the mobile workshop mechanics, Feldwebel Walk and Unteroffizier Hunn, who had volunteered to remain with the broken-down bus outside Poitiers, and Unteroffizier Faller had waited in vain for any stragglers in Freiburg. He eventually left a message with the local Kommandantur about where Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5 could be found.

  ____________

  The last Ju 290 is believed to have left Mont de Marsan early on the 26th with Unteroffizier Heinrich Geye (observer) and Unteroffizier Heinrich Notz (radio-operator) among the crew. However, the night prior to its departure there was a very severe thunderstorm, which left the runway flooded. In addition, 60 soaking infantrymen arrived, together with assault equipment and baggage, and requested to be airlifted out. At 0500 hrs in the morning, with all the soldiers and their equipment loaded on board, its four BMW 801 engines throttled to full power, the Junkers dutifully lifted off the waterlogged surface of the airport amidst a wave of spray. Resistance fighters were already in Mont de Marsan. However, shortly after take-off, the outer right engine of the Junkers ceased running, but the aircraft kept flying all the way to Munich-Riem where they landed safely.8

  GROUND COLUMN STAGE 3: TITISEE–NEUBIBERG/HOFOLDING, 28 AUGUST TO 5 SEPTEMBER

  Misfortune befell the column after it departed the Titisee on the morning of the 28th when one of the large tow-tractors driven by Obergefreiter Schmander crashed into a beer lorry on the road to Überlingen, although the damage to his vehicle was light. Schmander had driven the tractor with faulty brakes, skillfully avoiding accident or mishap, all the way from central France – ‘A masterful performance,’ noted Schmidt.

  By midday, the vehicles of FAGr 5 were parked up on the road running along the shore of the Bodensee in Überlingen. There was no other significant military presence in the town and so there was plenty of available accommodation. A classroom in the local school was set up for most of the other ranks, while the officers found quarters in the family-owned Hotel Ochsen, where they were able to enjoy comfortable beds and bathrooms. The kitchen in one local restaurant acted as a host for the cooks of the Gruppe, who benefited from the contribution of market goods and foodstuffs brought in by the unit from France, while some officers chose to dine on fresh fish caught in the lake, washed down by French wine, and served in the town’s other restaurants.

  Soon word came through from the rail transport office at Karlsruhe that wagons and coaches had been booked and the unit was to await further details about when they would be available. However, in a portent of what could be expected in the coming weeks, there was some upheaval on the 29th when, following orders received in a telephone call from Major Fischer at Neubiberg, all personnel not essential to the functioning of the unit at its new base were to be sent via the next available train to Munich, where they would be assigned to duties with other units – probably for retraining or service as ground troops. This was a difficult task to execute, but it was done. One happy event, however, was the eventual return of Feldwebel Walk and Unteroffizier Hunn and their workshop lorry together with the faithful old bus of the Gruppe. Their return also meant that the unit could now produce some of its own spare parts by using the drills and lathes in the workshop.

  On 1 September, Schmidt was informed that rolling stock would be arriving at Überlingen the next day from Karlsruhe, so preparations hurriedly commenced to get men, equipment and vehicles ready for loading. On the morning of the 2nd, under heavy rain, the loading commenced, but, because most of the freight wagons were in poor condition and damaged, the process took much longer than anticipated and was not completed by nightfall. Loading recommenced first thing on the 3rd, but, because the wagons arrived at Überlingen station only at intervals, it again became an extended operation and it was not until 1945 hrs that all vehicles, equipment and men had embarked. Eventually, with all wagons and coaches coupled, and vehicles lashed securely, the train steamed out of Überlingen into the darkness of the night, heading through Lindau and on towards Kempten.

  Next morning, the train pulled into Munich-East, and after a brief wait, it was a halting journey to Neubiberg. At Neubiberg, Oberleutnant Schmidt quickly climbed on a motorcycle and rode to the airfield to explore the facilities for unloading the train. But getting to the airfield was a challenge in itself, for in the time he had been away in France security in the Reich had tightened, and at one point he was flagged down and almost arrested for not having the required travel permit and papers.

  Finally reaching Neubiberg airfield, Schmidt reported the arrival of the column at the railway station, but then discovered that the airfield had no suitable ramp for unloading the wagons. Thus this procedure would have to be carried out at the station, despite the primitive facilities there as well.

  The bulk of the personnel from the column would be quartered in farm buildings around Hofolding, but they were met with a frosty reception from the local farmers and so the first night was spent in their vehicles. The unloading operation commenced at 1030 hrs and was completed by 1730 hrs.

  Most of the flying officers stayed in Neubiberg with only the Stabskompanie moving to Hofolding, where a command post was set up in the old bus and more permanent quarters found, with the kitchens being set up in a local guest house.

 
By the afternoon, all personnel had been found billets. Schmidt and his fellow officers then reported to Major Fischer at Neubiberg, who thanked them for their good work and diligence in bringing the bulk of the Gruppe safely back to Germany. Fischer then read out a list of the names of men who were to be sent promptly, together with motor vehicles, to the Metallbau Offingen, a subsidiary of the Messerschmitt company, involved in the assembly of certain types of long-range aircraft. As for Oskar Schmidt, he was told he was to be posted away from FAGr 5 for further duties in the air defence of the Reich.

  Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5 ‘Atlantik’ had been assembled once more, but it had been quickly splintered and depleted. Its remaining crews and personnel would find themselves assigned to tasks very different from those which they had been undertaking in France – tasks of a covert and experimental nature.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  ‘SPECIAL TASKS’

  KG 200 and Metallbau Offingen/Sonderkommando Nebel, July 1944 to February 1945

  The dice were going to roll for our unit.

  Oskar H. Schmidt, Stabskompanie, FAGr 5

  Oskar Schmidt summarized FAGr 5’s situation at the beginning of September 1944 as follows:

  The Gruppe, with its Kommandeur, Major Fischer, now existed practically only on paper. However, a complete disbandment was not ordered by the Luftwaffenführungsstab, so the hope remained that, in early 1945, operations would resume with new aircraft. Since May 1944, the unit had flown only some ‘restricted’ reconnaissance over the Atlantic, because the U-boats could no longer reach the open sea through the Bay of Biscay. At that time, we were slowly beginning to supply our aircraft, along with crews, for special tasks, but the Gruppe did not have much experience of such operations.1