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Fw 190 carying people behind the hatch


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Bremspropeller
Posted (edited)

Can't find the thread anymore, where this was discussed - in the video below, Hugo Broch describes (23:00) how he evacuated the Kurland Siege.

He and his fellow pilots would evacuate technical personnel in their airplanes and fly to Flensburg (over 3.5hrs flight-time).

 

Two people were carried, laying down inside the fuselage behind the aforementioned hatch and another (short person) could be transported in the cockpit, by removing the armor...

 

 

Edited by Bremspropeller
  • Like 3
Posted

Gerhard Thyben even shot down a Pe-2 on 8 May 1945 with his chief mechanic in the fuselage.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Dutchman Van Zinnicq Bergmann flew with Sqn 181 from Normandy to the end of hostilities and in his book he recalls a similar
incident in the last days of the war. I have taken the liberty of translating it:

 

"My thoughts where interrupted by a low flying airplane that was definitly not a Typhoon. With its wheels down it flew low over
the airfield and made a steep left-hand turn and landed with the wind. Everybody was surprised. The tower didn't know what to do except to fire a red flare.
We ran to a jeep and made for the plane at the end of the track. We made it clear to the pilot he needed to put the plane next to the track and stop the engine.
With a revolver in my hand I let the pilot exit the plane whilst keeping a good eye on him. He did not do anything suspicious.
The military police had by now arrived and wanted to take him away when the pilot wanted to make something clear. I asked him what it was and he
explained that there was somebody else in the plane, something that seemed impossible to me because this was a single seat plane and smaller
than our Typhoons. The danger excisted that this was one of those fanatics that could blow us up. I asked him where this other
person was. He pointed at a hatch that had to be unscrewed. After this hatch was opened a tiny man rolled out and remained on the ground
completly paralysed. I asked the pilot where they came from. Their airfield at the eastern front was completely surrounded. He and his mechanic
had decided to make it to Lunenburg since he knew this airfield very well because he had been stationed here for a long period. He had thought that a
surprise landing would give the biggest chance of making it. Well he had succeeded in this. I immediatly recognized the strong bond between
pilots and mechanics".

The Fw 190 was later painted in RAF colors with the code XM-?  The next day Zinnicq Bergmann flew the plane for half an hour.

 

Zinnicg Bergmann also mentioned that during the Normandy campaign when a new Typhoon was delivered from Britain it
was equiped with an 85 gallon centre tank filled with beer. I hope (one day) this is modelled correctly in game .....

 

 

Zinnicq Bergmann.png

Edited by Heliopause
  • Like 2
  • Upvote 3
Posted (edited)

Reminds me of the old novel 'Stuka' by Milkula where they evacuated personnel and female members of a front-theatre from airfield Pitomnik in their Ju-87s. Read it as a boy.

Edited by vonGraf
  • 1 year later...
Posted

Hi,

 

The Courland evacuation is a very interesting topic, to say the least, and I've gathered enough material to write a whole book about that subject alone! I have information on at least 200 German evacuation flights, along with a bunch of first-hand accounts. Plus there were more than 3,000 sorties by the Soviet air force (3rd Air Army, 15th Air Army and Baltic Fleet Air Force) on that day, so their story needs to be told as well. Writing on the evacuation chapter has begun, and the hardest part is deciding what to include and what to leave out.

 

Cheers,

Andrew A.

  • Like 2
  • Upvote 1
Bremspropeller
Posted

Hey Andrew, how are your and Morten's book-projects coming along? ?

Posted

Hi,

 

We've got three books approaching completion, which is a nice feeling! We were hoping to get two of them out this year, but early next year is looking more likely.

 

My Air War Courland writing was flying along until April, but has steadied up since then. Still, mid-March to May 1945 is finished, as is 20 July to 15 August 1944, and I've written various sections between 16 August 1944 and mid-March 1945. The biggest problem is that I have so much material, and it is difficult to decide what should and shouldn't be included. But rest assured that I'm doing my best to get the book finished!

 

Cheers,

Andrew A.

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