Shadow over the Atlantic

by Robert Forsyth

  The aircraft was heavily laden with Panzerfäuste of all kinds that were to be taken to southern Germany. The flight was reported to the Reichsverteidigung. The weather was bad; at around 400 m, there was heavy cloud. Because the course of the flight passed over some mountains, the crew took the aircraft up through the clouds in order to fly above them. The clouds were at 3000 m, the aircraft settled down to fly at 3200 m. Feldwebel Frohn announced over the intercom that he had received a radio signal to the effect that there was no expected enemy activity. After about 20 minutes in the air, at 0320 hrs, the aircraft was suddenly shaken, and it rocked back and forth. I was wounded in several places by Flak shell splinters. Inside the aircraft, wood, leather and fabric began to burn, as well as the parachutes which were on the floor. The intercom system packed up, so that communication between the individual crew members was not possible.

  I wore the harness of an observer’s parachute with a breast pack, and at that moment I fixed the parachute to the straps on my chest. Then I went with Oberfeldwebel Drescher, who emerged out of the tail-gun position, to the fuselage, extinguishing glowing and burning pieces of equipment as we went. My parachute pack fell off, and I had to hold the chute with one hand. But the fire could not be extinguished. At this point, the aircraft was hit for a second time by a salvo of Flak bursts, violently shaken about and it began to burn ferociously. The aircraft now tilted forward slightly. I clasped my loose parachute with both hands in front of my chest and stood in the open fuselage door to jump out. The violent slipstream pulled at the parachute, then pulled me down and away. Hanging on to the parachute, I saw the burning aircraft flying away in an ever-steeper dive. I came down in a field of corn. It was not yet dark, and I saw and heard the aircraft crash about five kilometres away.

  I realized that the cargo in the aircraft and the fire caused by the Flak shells had caused the load to slip and block the passage through the fuselage. I managed to get up and was then picked up by a Volkssturm unit. I was then able to direct a local policeman on a bicycle to the crash site. But when he returned, he said that the whole aircraft was destroyed … I was taken to the hospital in Schwerin. There my right index finger was removed and several Flak splinters were removed from my body. While in the hospital, I also continued to look for any of my companions who might have been taken there, but without success. The hospital at Schwerin was later taken over by the Americans. When the Russians began to approach that area, the Americans moved the hospital with all its patients back to their territory, and they later transferred it to the British. After I had been treated to some extent, I was sent to a detention centre at Eutin, not far from Lübeck.51

  Also departing the north that morning for Neubiberg was Ju 290A-3 Wk-Nr 0162 9V+EK, flown by Oberfeldwebel Willi Wittemann, with Leutnant Oskar Nau of 2./FAGr 5 as commander. This aircraft would make its last flight from Neubiberg at dawn on 30 April when it flew to Salzburg, where its crew left it on the Autobahn. Shortly before the arrival of the US Army, it was rendered unserviceable.52 Two or three other Ju 290s, including the aircraft of Major Fischer, were left abandoned at Neubiberg.

  On 21 April, the General der Aufklärungsflieger announced that 1.(F)/5 was being disbanded and that 1.(F)/33 was taking over the ‘entire task’ of reconnaissance for U-boat operations. As a result, Einsatzkommando 1.(F)/5 would be renamed Einsatzkommando 1.(F)/33 and absorbed into that parent Staffel. Operational control and signals channels had been set up between Stavanger and Grove, and the Kommandierender General der Deutschen Luftwaffe in Norwegen would also receive reports on the unit’s operations.53 At some point in early May, on paper at least, it seems the Einsatzkommando 1./FAGr 5 had still survived in name, but was redesignated Einsatzkommando 1./FAGr 1.

  Then, on the afternoon of Friday, 4 May, Admiral Hans Georg von Friedeburg, the Oberbefehlshaber der Marine (the Naval Commander-in-Chief), and General der Infanterie Hans Kinzel, Chef des Generalstabes vom Operationsstab Nord (Chief of the General Staff [Operations Staff North], OKW Operatuions Staff A), signed the instrument of surrender of the German forces facing Montgomery’s 21st Army Group. Immediately after the surrender, the last functioning Ju 290s of FAGr 5 left Rechlin to fly to airfields in the west, such as Flensburg and Rügen Island. On the ground, the men of FAGr 5 retained their weapons as the Danish Resistance was still thought to be ‘active’.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  ‘GENIESSE DEN KRIEG, DER FRIEDE WIRD FURCHTBAR!’

  May 1945

  ‘Enjoy the war, the peace will be terrible!’

  Popular German soldier’s expression at the end of World War II

  In the last days of the war, Hauptmann Georg Eckl and his crew were ordered to fly their Ju 290 to Haderslev in Denmark. As Eckl recalled:

  Because of the presence of the enemy we made a low-altitude flight at about 40 m. At Rendsburg, west of the bridge over the Kiel Canal, the aircraft received fierce anti-aircraft fire from a German U-boat supply vessel, despite the fact that we gave the appropriate identification signal.

  After refuelling in Haderslev, we waited for further instructions. There was talk about flying either to Oslo or to Madrid. We had two days of sitting around without orders. Then I took my own decision to go to Flensburg, along with my crew, and into captivity. There we met up with the ‘old gang’ from FAGr 5. From there I took a ‘bicycle ride’ to Schleswig to my family to pass on some supplies. I then returned to the camp to await official release.1

  At Grove on 8 May, German units in Denmark began a march back to the German border. It was an orderly process, with the long columns of men organized into Marschgruppen (marching groups). Those personnel of FAGr 5 and FAGr 1 in Denmark, numbering a few hundred, were assigned to Marschgruppe C, destined for an assembly camp at Elpersbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein, close to the North Sea coast, from where they would be officially discharged and released. They were allowed to carry with them only their personal belongings, and curiously, their weapons, although Major Fischer and Hauptmann Schmidt had decided to take all the serviceable vehicles of the Gruppe along for the journey as well, including the field kitchen. Thus while the army units adhered faithfully to the order and marched by foot, the Luftwaffe men enjoyed mobility; ‘marching was truly not our strength,’ Schmidt recalled wryly. By the end of the first day, they had reached Herning, where they spent the night on a local sports field and where the terms of the surrender were read out to them beneath a fluttering and defiant Reich war flag. At the end of proceedings, before being placed at ease, the men lined up to give the old military salute.2

  At this point, with tears in their eyes, the group of loyal Soviet Hiwis, who had joined 3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10 back at Kharkov in August 1942, before transferring to FAGr 5, asked to take their leave, fearing that the British would hand them over to the Soviets. If they left now, their plan was to obtain civilian clothes and make their own way to the east. The senior German officers reluctantly agreed.

  Next day Marschgruppe C walked on to the Skarild area where some of the FAGr 5 men purchased luxuries such as milk, cream, eggs and butter. With full bellies, morale was high. The day after they journeyed south, passing through Hejnsvig to Vorbasse, where they settled for the night with hundreds of other German personnel in a large camp in woodland.

  To the north, in Norway, the two Ar 234B-2b of the Einsatzkommando 1./FAGr 1 remained at Stavanger-Sola, along with the nine officers and 59 other ranks of the Kommando. They were also joined by eight Ar 234s from 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.123, 1.(F)/33 and III./KG 76, meaning that ten of the jets awaited the British when German forces at Sola surrendered on 8 May.3

  The British were assisted at Sola by Hauptmann Helmut Miersch, formerly a pilot of 2./FAGr 5, who had received training on the Ar 234. It is probable that Miersch was flying an Ar 234, possibly, WK-Nr 140491, the aircraft flown briefly by Leutnant Hetz on 4 May, when it was caught in a crosswind while landing, and its nosewheel collapsed. The aircraft skidded along the runway and ended nose-up close to the waters of Sola Bay. The Arado wa
s subsequently abandoned and later scrapped.4

  By the 18th, Marschgruppe C had reached the German border where, under the eyes of relatively friendly British troops, the NCOs and other ranks were required to dispose of all their weapons by the roadside (British officers helping themselves to German pistols as ‘war prizes’), while binoculars, compasses, bicycles and all other items of military equipment that were deemed useful were ‘liberated’. When they crossed the border back into Germany, they did so peacefully, safely and with little fanfare.

  On the 21st, in a wood not far from Flensburg, a small group of men managed to drive surreptitiously to the home of Leutnant Heinrich Morf, an observer from 1./FAGr 5, where they held an unofficial ‘last post’ followed by copious quantities of a ‘stiff grog’.

  South of Flensburg, at another huge wooded assembly camp for German servicemen, the contingent of former FAGr 5 men were delighted to run into their old comrades Georg Eckl, Emil Sachtleben, Horst Degenring, Hans Münsterer, Heinz Schlichting and Herbert Wagner. They also met Hans Wessel, the former signals officer of FAGr 5 who had been transferred away from the Gruppe to carry out a similar role with JG 51 in the East. Together they moved on, and at Friedrichstadt on the 28th, they crossed the River Eider where they passed long columns of British troops, vehicles and armour. Later in the day, they came to the village of Südersheistedt where, with increasing weariness, they stopped to rest in some large barns. After a short while, British troops arrived and relieved the officers of their remaining sidearms, although many had already been ditched or destroyed some days previously.

  Already, at this point, the column’s numbers became depleted by the departure of those men who, as residents of Schleswig-Holstein, left to return to their homes. One officer, Hauptmann Werner Breese, a Ritterkreuz holder and a highly experienced reconnaissance pilot who had joined FAGr 1 at Grove in the final weeks of the war, offered to take a large quantity of the officers’ personal luggage to his home for safekeeping, from where it could be collected at a later date.

  Marschgruppe C had now been redesignated Bataillon 163, and, under the command of Major Fischer, continued to head south, cross-country, the men's mood kept high by periods of singing until a British officer, evidently irritated by the apparent good mood of the defeated enemy, forbade it. On the 29th the Bataillon started out on the last leg of its journey to Elpersbüttel. It reached the Endlager two days later – groups of tents set up around the local farms. They spent the next two weeks there, staving off boredom by organizing a camp ‘circus’ and playing sports, including handball, in which a small tournament was played against the men of a former Schlachtgeschwader (ground-attack wing) at Meldorf.

  An overview of the planned development of the Ju 290A, C, D and E variants and the Ju 390 as a reconnaissance aircraft, long-range bomber, night-bomber and transport, using BMW 801D and E engines, showing armament, radio and fuel configurations. This shows the intention to develop the Ju 290C-1 as an interim reconnaissance aircraft until the arrival of the Ju 390. Note also the plan to incorporate a bomb ‘gondola’ in the D-1 and E-1.

  In mid-June, a period of unseasonal rain drenched the tents, making conditions unpleasant. But it passed and was followed by warm, sunny weather, which prompted some of the men to take the opportunity to bathe in the sea. On one such trip to the coast, on 19 June, word came through to Oskar Schmidt that he was to make himself ready next morning for a march to Tellingstedt, 23 km away. At Tellingstedt he was discharged and by 26 June, he had finally reached his hometown of Melle in Lower Saxony. By comparison, Josef Augustin, the former Staffelkapitän of 1./FAGr 5, was held initially in Norway, but was later moved to France, from where he was finally released in 1948.

  The Ar 234 Wk-Nr 140493 was flown out of Stavanger on 9 July 1945 to Schleswig by Squadron Leader Tony ‘Marty’ Martindale. Four days later, Martindale piloted the Arado from Schleswig to Gilze-Rijen in the Netherlands. On the 14th, after staging via Melsbroek and Manston, the jet arrived at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. From late July until late October 1945, it made a series of test flights from Farnborough, totalling 9 hr 25 min, before being ferried to No. 6 Maintenance Unit (MU) at Brize Norton on 27 November for storage.5 It had been scrapped by 1948.6

  Ar 234 Wk-Nr 140491 may have been damaged as it landed following a test flight at Stavanger-Sola on 1 August. By November 1945 it was known to have been scrapped at Forus.7

  Ju 290 Wk-Nr 0186, originally 9V+FH, was among the first A-7s to be delivered to FAGr 5. It was later used by 1./KG 200 from July 1944 and recoded A3+OB. Its last flight was to Flensburg, from where it was flown on 22 June 1945 by Squadron Leader Joe McCarthy, who commanded the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) out-station at Schleswig. McCarthy then ferried the Junkers from Lübeck to Wormingford in England on 2 July, and the following day it went on to the RAE at Farnborough. It later returned to Schleswig and then went to Copenhagen, returning to Schleswig on 10 July. It was coded ‘AM 6’ and went once more to Farnborough on 13 July. A week later, it was test-flown at the RAE, and again on 8 August. On 17 August, it was transferred to No. 6 MU at Brize Norton and remained there in storage until it was struck off charge on 14 August 1947.8

  On 17 August 1945, Ju 290A-2 WK-Nr 110157 9V+BK of 2./FAGr 5 was flown by Squadron Leader McCarthy from Flensburg (to where the aircraft had last been flown by its Luftwaffe crew) to Schleswig. Subsequently, Squadron Leader H.J. King ferried it from Schleswig to Farnborough on 21 September, where it became coded ‘AM 57’. It was not test-flown by the British, but it was included in the German Aircraft Exhibition held at Farnborough between 29 October and 9 November 1945. By December 1946, it had been relegated to the scrap area, and was finally broken up in 1950.9

  APPENDICES

  APPENDIX 1: JU 290 A-2–A-7 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

  APPENDIX 2: LIST OF KNOWN AIRCRAFT AND LOSSES (FAGr 5)

  LIST OF KNOWN AIRCRAFT

  Ju 290 LOSSES FAGr 5

  Month Due to enemy action Due to accident Total Strength (inc. deliveries)

  November 1943 1 1 2 9

  December 1 1 2 10

  February 1944 3 – 3 13

  May 3 – 3 17

  August 1 3 4 12

  September 3 – 3 10

  December 1 – 1 8

  March 1945 – 1 1 8

  April 6 2 8 0

  APPENDIX 3: LIST OF OFFICERS

  Previous units are given where known; ranks shown are the last known.

  Gruppenkommandeur

  Maj. Hermann Fischer (3.(F)/22, to FAGr 1)

  Gruppenstab

  Oblt. Herbert Abel (Gruppen Adjutant) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10)

  Tech.Insp. Baerwald

  Reg.Rat. Dr. Konrad Blank (Meteorologist)

  Dr. Wilhelm Dünnweber (Meteorologist)

  Oblt. Siegfried Frank (Signals Officer)

  Stabs.Int. Heinrich

  Oblt. Ludwig (Lutz?) Herlein (Pilot) (3.(F)/22)

  Maj. Ernst Kloppenburg (Gruppe Navigation Officer)

  Oblt. Hans Müller (Gruppe Technical Officer)

  Flg.Ing. Unger

  Hptm. Jochen Wanfried (Pilot)

  Stabskompanie

  Hptm. Oskar H. Schmidt (Chef, Pilot and Observer)

  Hptm. Karl Nather (Photographic Officer)

  Lt. Hans Wessel (Signals Officer) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10)

  Medical

  Dr. Oberarzt Rückstuhl (Achmer) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10)

  Dr. Stabsarzt Willy Spiesmann

  Dr. Oberarzt Krüger (from 28.6.44)

  1./FAGr 5

  Staffelkapitän

  Maj. Josef Augustin

  Oblt. Hans Ascheid (Observer) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10, det. to 1./KG 200)

  Lt. Uwe Baumann (Signals Officer)

  Oblt. Beuthel (Observer and Offz.z.b.V.)

  Oblt. Paul Birnkraut (Pilot)

  Lt. Horst Blum (Pilot)

  Lt. Günther Dittrich (Pilot) (also 2./FAGr 5)

  Lt. Eberhard Elfert (Pilot)

  Oblt. Erich Grün
(Observer) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10)

  Oblt. Hans-Günther Hassold (Observer)

  Lt. Hellmut Hetz (Pilot and Technical Officer, to FAGr 1 Ar 234)

  Lt. Hans Koithka (Observer) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10)

  Oblt. Günther Korn (Pilot and Technical Officer) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10)

  Lt. Heinrich Morf (Observer)

  Lt. Hellmut Nagel (Pilot) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10)

  Lt. Kurt Nonnenburg (Pilot)

  Lt. Albert Pape (Observer)

  Hptm. Wille Pawlittke (Pilot)

  Oblt. Adalbert Frhr. von Pechmann (Observer and Signals Officer)

  Oblt. Hans Rehne (Observer)

  Lt. Rolf Rodenburg (Pilot)

  Hptm. Emil Sachtleben (Pilot) (det. to 1./KG 200)

  Oblt. Heinz Schlichting (Observer – also with Gruppenstab)

  Lt. Eduard Schmitt (Pilot) (to FAGr 1 Ar 234)

  Hptm. Walter Schoof (Pilot) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10)

  Hptm. Hubert Schreiner (Pilot) (KG 40)

  Oblt. Horst Thede (Observer)

  Lt. Augustin Thomas (Pilot)

  Oblt. August Vaupel (Observer and Offz.z.b.V.) (3.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.10)

  Oblt. Siegfried Wache (Pilot) (det to 1./KG 200)

  Oblt. Herbert Wagner (Pilot – also with crew of Gruppenkommandeur) (Tr.fl.st.5)

  2./FAGr 5

  Staffelkapitäne

  Hptm. Karl-Friedrich Bergen (lost 16.2.44)

  Hptm. Georg Eckl (from 20.2.44)

  Lt. Wolfgang Adler (Pilot)