After The Battle 151 - First Manned Rocket Launch

FIRST MANNED ROCKET LAUNCH

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No. 151

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Number 151

NUMBER 151

LONDON STOCKIST for the After the Battle range: Motorbooks, 13/15 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4AN Telephone: 020 7836 5376. Fax: 020 7497 2539 United Kingdom Newsagent Distribution: Warners Group Publications PLC, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH Australian Subscriptions and Back Issues: Renniks Publications Pty Limited Unit 3, 37-39 Green Street, Banksmeadow NSW 2019 Telephone: 61 2 9695 7055. Fax: 61 2 9695 7355 E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.renniks.com Canadian Distribution and Subscriptions: Vanwell Publishing Ltd., 622 Welland Avenue, St. Catharines, Ontario Telephone: (905) 937 3100. Fax: (905) 937 1760 Toll Free: 1-800-661-6136 E-mail: [email protected] New Zealand Distribution: Dal McGuirk’s “MILITARY ARCHIVE”, PO Box 24486, Royal Oak, Auckland 1345, New Zealand Telephone: 021 627 870. Fax: 9-6252817 E-mail: [email protected] United States Distribution and Subscriptions: RZM Imports Inc, 184 North Ave., Stamford, CT 06901 Telephone: 1-203-324-5100. Fax: 1-203-324-5106 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rzm.com Italian Distribution: Tuttostoria, PO Box 395, 1-43100 Parma Telephone: ++390521 29 27 33. Fax: ++390521 29 03 87 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.tuttostoria.it Dutch Language Edition: SI Publicaties/Quo Vadis, Postbus 188, 6860 AD Oosterbeek Telephone: 026-4462834. E-mail: [email protected]

M. HENSEL

© Copyright After the Battle 2011 Editor: Karel Margry Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey Published by Battle of Britain International Ltd., The Mews, Hobbs Cross House, Hobbs Cross, Old Harlow, Essex CM17 0NN, England Telephone: 01279 41 8833 Fax: 01279 41 9386 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.afterthebattle.com Printed in Great Britain by Warners Group Publications PLC, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH. After the Battle is published on the 15th of February, May, August and November.

The Truppenübungsplatz Heuberg training ground at Stetten am kalten Markt was first established in 1910. During the First World War it was also used as a POW camp and by 1917 there were 5,000 soldiers undergoing training there alongside 15,000 prisoners of war. After the war part became a children’s home and hospital, and for nine months in 1933 it was a concentration camp before being taken over the following year by the Army. During the Second World War it was used as the mobilisation camp for army units like the 4. Gebirgsjäger-Division in late 1940, and later in 1944-45 for units like the Indische Freiwilligen-Legion, the Infanterie-Division ‘Italia’, and the Russian 650. Infanterie-Division. The French Army took over the base in 1945, being joined from 1957 by units of the new Bundeswehr. The French presence ended in 1997 when the 3ème Régiment de Dragons departed. In 1980 Hauptfeldwebel Manfred Hensel, the telecommunication officer at Heuberg, published Chronik des Truppenübungsplatzes und der Garnison Heuberg, a thoroughly researched history of the camp and its garrisons.

KIRCHHEIM

CONTENTS FIRST MANNED ROCKET LAUNCH 2 IT HAPPENED HERE The Birchington Mine 22 PRESERVATION The US ‘Rosie the Riveter’ Memorial 28 REMEMBRANCE German War Graves in Britain 32 UNITED KINGDOM HM Prison Pentonville during World War II 37 READERS’ INVESTIGATION The Empire Air Training Scheme in Canada 40 Front Cover: The major exhibit of the Heuberg Military Museum at Stetten am kalten Markt is this full-size replica of the Natter prototype M23 ready for launch with Lothar Sieber, the test pilot, and Erich Bachem, the inventor of the rocket interceptor. Back Cover: The German War Cemetery at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire. (Gail Parker) Acknowledgements: For their invaluable help with the Natter story, the Editor would like to thank Manfred Hensel, Sonja Gieschen and Hans Grimm. He also thanks the Bundeswehr, Thorsten Bretschneider, the late Thomas J. Dietz of the National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian Institution), Hans Holzer of the Deutsches Museum, Frau Carmen Krug of Hymer AG, Hans-Werner Neulen, Christian Payer, Jürgen Sieber and Franz Straubinger. Photo Credits: ECPAD — Mediathèque de la Défense, Fort d’Ivry; USNA — US National Archives.

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STETTEN

BAD WALDSEE

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USNA

FIRST MANNED ROCKET LAUNCH After Operation ‘Millennium’, the first 1,000-bomber raid by RAF Bomber Command which targeted Cologne on the night of May 30/31, 1942, the Allied bombing offensive on Germany grew in strength and effectiveness. A five-month-long operation which began in March 1943 against the Ruhr industrial area was followed at the end of July by Operation ‘Gomorrah’, a major offensive against Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city (see After the Battle No. 70). Hamburg was attacked for eight days and seven nights, huge firestorms killing 40,000-50,000 civilians. Over 60 per cent of Hamburg’s living accommodation was destroyed or made uninhabitable and in the immediate wake over two-thirds of the population fled the city. These attacks by both the RAF and USAAF struck a major blow at German morale and severely shook the Nazi leadership, leading Hitler to be concerned that similar ‘terror’ raids on other cities could force Germany out of the war. Although Luftwaffe fighter squadrons were doing their best to inflict casualties, and on some raids caused serious losses, they were still unable to counter the force of the Allied offensive. Thus a radical solution was desperately needed. Back in September 1942, the Luftwaffe Flak commander, Generalmajor Walther von Axthelm, had already asked for anti-aircraft missiles and his request had been developed by several manufacturers for some months. Both the Henschel Hs 117 ‘Schmetterling’ and the Rheinmetall-Borsig ‘Rheintochter’ were test-flown in 1943, and the EMW ‘Wasserfall’ and Messerschmitt ‘Enzian’ systems were also

ATB

By Jean Paul Pallud

On March 1, 1945, Lothar Sieber was the first man ever to take off vertically from the ground under rocket power. Launched from the Heuberg military training area, prototype M23 of the Bachem Ba 349 ‘Natter’ crashed after 55 seconds, killing the pilot. This scenario, depicting Sieber discussing final take-off instructions with Erich Bachem, the inventor, just prior to the launch, has been recreated in full-size at the Truppenübungsplatz Heuberg museum. 3

The Natter measured 6.06 metres long and had a wingspan of 3.65 metres, the take-off weight being 2,200 kilos (this data referring to the A1 model). The wings were plain rectangular wooden slabs without ailerons or flaps. The cruciform tail consisted of four adjustable fins to control the pitch, yaw, and roll. The armament in the nose comprised a battery of unguided rockets (the alternative armament of 24 R4M rockets is shown here). The two fuel tanks were aft of the rear cockpit bulkhead, one above the wing spar accommodating 365 litres of T-Stoff, the other below containing 165 litres of C-Stoff. The Walter HWK 109-509 main engine generated a maximum thrust of 1,700 kilos but it could be throttled back to 300 kilos. Bolted to the rear fuselage were four jettisonable Schmidding 109-533 rocket boosters, two per side, which provided a combined thrust of 4,800 kilos for ten seconds. At lift-off, with all five motors ignited, the thrust generated was 6,500 kilos and the resulting acceleration about 2g. After ten seconds of vertical flight, the exhausted boosters were released automatically and fell away. At that point the interceptor had reached an altitude of 1,200 metres and a speed of 880 km/h. The auto-pilot then engaged to alter the flight path to an angle of 60 degrees above the horizontal and the machine rocketed to an altitude of 12,000 metres in a remarkable 60 seconds. Combat time at this altitude with the motor throttled back to 300 kilos, would have been less than two minutes. (This post-war sketch was drawn by Theodor Lässig. Note the boosters are not shown.) 4

M. HENSEL

T. LÄSSIG

M. HENSEL

A graduate from the Technische Hochschule of Stuttgart, from 1933 Dipl.Ing. Erich Bachem was the Technical Director at the Gerhard-Fieseler-Werke, and from 1938 Chief of the Development Department. He left Fieseler in 1941 to establish his own company at Waldsee, 40 kilometres north of Lake Constance, his partner and co-founder being Willy Fiedler, a friend from their university days. Right: Bachem-Werk personnel in October 1944. From L-R: Eugen Walter, Friedhelm Christ, Gebhardt Zorell, Henri Frans Bethbeder, Paul Wilbrett (standing), Fahrnbauer, Erich Bachem, Hans Steybe, Willy Fiedler and Fritz Blessing. Bethbeder was a Dutchman who had also studied in Stuttgart and was now head of the Natter project at the Bachem-Werk. Fielder, who from September 1942 was the leader of the industrial testing of the V1, was to join the Bachem-Werk full time early in 1945 to assume the position of Chief Designer. In 1948, he moved to the US to work at the Naval Missile Test Center in California, and in 1956 joined Lockheed Aircraft where he worked on the US Navy’s Polaris ballistic missile.

The Bachem-Werk’s identity card belonging to Hans Zübert, the test pilot who flew prototype M8 of the Natter in February 1945. A Heinkel He 111 towed him to an altitude of 5,500 meters from where he tested the flying characteristics of the machine in a free flight before baling out.

ATB

H. GRIMM

Aerial view of the Bachem-Werk during the war, with the main production hall in the centre and gatehouse centre left. Biberacher Strasse can be seen top left.

H. GRIMM

soon to be tested. However, although the concept appeared promising, it was clear that a long development period would still be required before the problems of missile guidance and fusing were solved. (No efficient guidance system of the anti-aircraft missiles reached service application before the end of the Second World War). The idea of providing the missile with a pilot who could control the weapon during the final phase of the attack might be a shortterm solution and, though the steps that then occurred within the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Air Ministry or RLM) are not precisely known, in the spring of 1944 the ministry issued requirements for a rocketpropelled, point-defence interceptor. Four aircraft manufacturers, Messerschmitt, Junkers, Heinkel and Bachem, produced designs, all to be propelled by the same engine: the Walter 109-509 liquid propellant rocket unit. Three of the competitors, the Messerschmitt Me P 1104, the Junkers EF 127 ‘Walli’ and Heinkel P 1077 ‘Julia’, were somewhat conventional as they were designed to land back on skids. The fourth proposal by Dipl.Ing. Erich Bachem was much more radical. His ‘Natter’ was to be a semi-expendable vertical take-off interceptor launched from a ramp. Once it reached the bomber stream, the pilot would fire a salvo of rockets at one bomber before gliding away. The machine would then seperate in mid-air, the pilot and the rear part with the rocket engine landing individually by parachute. Another feature of the Natter was its semi-expendability, low-grade, non-essential materials being used throughout, and assembled by semi-skilled labour. The idea was not entirely original in that Dr Wernher von Braun had already proposed the concept of a rocket-powered, vertical take-off interceptor in 1939 but the RLM had rejected it at the time as they considered it offered no tactical advantage. Von Braun re-submitted the concept in May 1941 but the RLM again rejected it. Also, the suggestion of a piloted ‘ram rocket’ was mooted in September 1943 by Dr Alexander Lippish. His proposal was for a rocket-propelled aircraft that would take off vertically and quickly climb to the altitude of the bombers, reaching 10,000 metres in 40 seconds. The pilot would steer the interceptor to impact with a bomber, its solid, sharp ramming point slicing through the airframe, breaking it apart. With its speed and trajectory significantly unchanged by the impact, the rocket would continue to climb away, finally decelerating to zero velocity at the top of its trajectory. The pilot would then release a parachute which would recover the interceptor while the pilot would bale out seperately at a lower altitude.

from Erich Bachem’s nickname in his student days, viz, ERIch BAchem. Right: The old main production hall still stands beside Biberacher Strasse and is now being used for storage by the Hymer company, a well-known caravan and motorhome manufacturer.

H. GRIMM

Left: The entrance to the Bachem-Werk factory as seen during the war with the gatehouse in the centre and the main production hall in background. Located at No. 98 Biberacher Strasse, Waldsee, the signpost read ‘Bachem-Werk Ltd, Wood and Metal Construction’. The company name ‘ERIBA’ was taken

Men of Waffen-SS Sonderkommando Waldsee on parade in front of the production hall (out of the picture to the right). The entrance from Biberacher Strasse is in the background. Under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Heinz Flessner, this special detachment of Waffen-SS comprising unarmed technicians and skilled workers, had a strength of about 120 men at Waldsee. According to the report compiled in July 1945 by Dr Clark B. Millikan, Bachem-Werk had some 600 employees at Waldsee just before the arrival of Allied troops, of which about 300 were engaged on the Natter project including 60 engineers. Dr Millikan was a member of the US Naval Technical Mission in Europe tasked with investigating the Natter project. The team questioned six company personnel, including Bethbeder, who were under house arrest at Jerzens after having been held for some weeks at Camp Haiming in Austria (see pages 18 and 19). 5

FRANZ STRAUBINGER

M. HENSEL

Another view of the assembly hall, this one showing A1 production Natters under construction in March 1945. Note the simple gunsight of the Föhn armament on the nose section. In 1957 Erich Bachem founded a new ‘Eriba’ company to distribute caravans produced at the Hymer factory. Series production of the Eriba Touring range started in 1958, followed by Eriba Troll, Eriba Puck, all of them models based on design principles derived from aeroplane construction. Commercial success followed and the name ‘Eriba’ became legendary in the world of touring caravans. Both Hymer and Eriba successfully worked together until 1980 when the two companies merged. Today Hymer ranks among the most innovative and successful caravan and motorhome manufacturers in Europe, offering a range of over 60 models.

H. GRIMM

FRANZ STRAUBINGER

To follow up his radical proposal, Bachem visited a number of influential people in the summer of 1944 to enlist their support, including Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, the General of the Fighter Arm, who had shown interest. However, as the tendering ended in August, there had not been sufficient time for Bachem and his team to produce detailed drawings of their project. The plans they submitted were somewhat primitive and, not surprisingly, were rejected by the RLM. Instead they opted for the more conventional proposal from Heinkel — the Heinkel P 1077 ‘Julia’ — that would take off from an inclined rail and land on a skid. Nevertheless, Bachem refused to give up and sought the support of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, apparently via SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Jüttner whom Himmler had appointed Chef der Heeresrüstung und Befehlshaber des Ersatzheeres (Chief of Army Armament and Commander of the Reserve Army) in July 1944 after he replaced Generaloberst Friedrich Fromm following the attempt on Hitler’s life. Bachem was invited to Berlin for an interview with Himmler and by mid-September the Technical Office of the Waffen-SS issued Bachem with an order to develop and build his one-shot interceptor. (A post-war report stated that by 1945, 150 rockets had been ordered by the SS and 50 by the Luftwaffe.) The name ‘Natter’ was an early designation by Erich Bachem but the factory designation for the project was BP-20, possibly an abbreviation for Bachem-Werk Projekt No. 20. The RLM had no alternative but to support the project and by the end of October had given it the official type number 8-349.

fuselage which contained 19 of them, five in the nose, eight in the mid-section and six in the rear fuselage. Right: The interior of the former Bachem building is now now used for storage.

M. HENSEL

Left: General view at the Bachem-Werk showing fuselages of the first prototypes under construction. Note the sets of hoopshaped formers hanging from wall pegs. These were for the

Left: Rear sections of three of the A1 operational machines. Two are serial numbers 8 and 9, with a nose section in the foreground. Right: Unfortunately the old Bachem-Werk assembly building is 6

scheduled for demolition so Jean Paul prioritised his visit and was pleased that Hymer AG agreed to have photos taken for us in the historical Natter construction hall which was still standing.

M. HENSEL

The pilot then turned off the auto-pilot and took command. He manoeuvred to bring one bomber into his gun-sight and kept on until its wingspan reached the pre-determined position in his sight. The aircraft would then be about 300 meters from its target and the pilot pressed the firing button. Explosive bolts holding the nose cap detonated; it fell away and the 24 rockets were all fired in one half-second salvo. The Natter flew straight on across the bomber formation. [4] Its fuel exhausted, the Walter motor cut out. The pilot pushed the control stick and dived down away from the combat zone. He pulled out of the dive at an altitude of some 3,000 meters and slowed to about 250 km/h over the pre-planned recovery area. He

then prepared to leave the interceptor. He released the canopy, disconnected his intercom, undid his seat belt, and unlocked the control column so that he could tilt it forward. He then operated the lever that released the nose section from the body of the interceptor. [5], [6] and [7] The nose flew off with the windshield, instrument panel and rudder pedals and, as it did so, the nose pulled two cables that opened the parachute hatches and triggered the spring-loaded ejection mechanism. The salvage parachute opened, suddenly decelerating the interceptor and, under the shock the pilot was thrown out and fell freely. He opened his parachute and floated down.

M. HENSEL

MISSION PROFILE The rocket interceptors were to be based in the vicinity of the installations that they were to protect. Each aircraft was to be ready on the launch ramp, loaded with its propellants and, when the approach of a bomber formation was picked up by radar, a warning was sounded for the pilot to get into the cockpit. The ground crew rotated the ramp and clamped it at the angle directed by the flight control station. [1] Once the bombers were within range, the command ‘Fliegeralarm’ was given. The pilot clipped on his oxygen mask, switched on the on-board power supply and the autopilot. He started the turbine that reached its nominal speed after a few seconds when the Walter rocket engine then roared into life. He pushed the throttle to full, the turbine reached 16,000 rpm and the rocket engine developed its maximum thrust of 1,700 kilos. The pilot firmly grasped two handgrips and with his left thumb he pressed the button triggering the ignition of the four Schmidding booster rockets. [2] The interceptor rose sharply to the vertical with an acceleration of 2 g. After ten seconds of climbing straight up, the exhausted boosters were released automatically and fell away. The interceptor was by then at an altitude of 1,200 metres, the pilot still being a passive passenger. At this moment the auto-pilot engaged to incline the flight path to an angle of ascent 60 degrees from the horizontal. The progressive reduction in the weight of the machine with the depletion of the propellants would result in a gradual increase in speed so the pilot manually throttled back the motor to maintain a constant velocity of about 800 km/h. [3] Within about a minute the interceptor would have reached the altitude of the bomber formation, about 10,000 metres. The fighter was now 1,500 metres from the bombers and below, rapidly closing on them.

To test one radical novelty of the Natter concept — the separation of the aircraft in mid-air at the end of the mission — prototypes were slung under the wing of an He 111 and released at an altitude of 500 metres. Here, during one test, the successful nose separation, release of the dummy pilot, and opening of the parachutes, was all captured on film. 7

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M. HENSEL

Prototype M1 mounted on its take-off trolley being prepared for flight at Neuburg an der Donau on November 3, 1943. With test pilot Erich Klöckner at the controls, the machine was towed up to 3,000 metres by the He 111 tug seen in the left background. This flight went fairly well, and Klöckner bailed out as planned, but when the Heinkel released the unmanned M1 to try to land it on the airfield, the machine was smashed to pieces after carrying out several wing-overs. have taken place on December 22 (although no report on it appears to have survived) and another on January 27, 1945. The results being positive, it was decided that time had come to conduct a manned free flight. Prototype M8 was made available with a Luftwaffe test pilot, Unteroffizier Hans Zübert, at the controls. On February 14 a Heinkel towed him to an altitude of 5,500 meters at which point Zübert released the coupling to begin the test programme. He dived to a speed of 600 km/h, tested the stalling speed around 200 km/h, and executed turns both up and down and side to side. Then, at an altitude about 1,200 metres, he baled out. His report on the flying characteristics of the BP-20 were quite favourable. However, one problem remained: what would be the change in the position of centre of gravity of the machine during the flight as

sudden shifts would occur when the boosters were jettisoned and the weapon rockets were fired? In the meantime, a separate series of tests were being conducted to check the process of releasing the pilot at the end of the mission — the one really novel aspect of the Natter concept. To test the nose separation system and parachute opening, prototypes were to be slung under the right wing of a Heinkel and dropped from an altitude of 500 metres. Detonation of explosive bolts holding the nose section to the fuselage would initiate the nose separation. A dummy pilot equipped with parachute was seated in the cockpit. Prototype M2 was thus tested at DFS Ainring airfield near Salzburg in November but the bolts failed to fire and M2 crashed to the ground. A further series of three tests

M. HENSEL

DEVELOPMENT Designs were speedily worked on throughout September and October at the Bachem factory, the head of the Natter project being Dipl.Ing. Henri Frans Bethbeder, a Dutchman who had been a Technical Director at Dornier before joining Bachem. Several different designs were worked upon simultaneously to cover the various concepts. The prone position for the pilot was abandoned at the beginning of October, opting instead for a conventional seated position. However Bachem kept true to the basic requirements of simplicity using glued and screwed wooden parts. He later claimed that the construction cost of his interceptor would amount to about one fiftieth of that for a normal fighter aircraft, including the propulsion unit and equipment. A timetable was prepared — decidedly optimistic — with the immediate construction of 20 experimental machines, soon extended to 50. Pilot production of 200 interceptors was to start in November and full production was planned to begin in February 1945. A monthly output of 3,000 to 5,000 machines was envisaged. Himmler quickly mobilised a workforce and teams of skilled workers soon joined Bachem-Werk at Waldsee. Known as the Waffen-SS Sonderkommando Waldsee, one company of about 120 technicians under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Heinz Flessner was soon hard at work. In addition, the factory employees comprised a mixture of Germans, mainly women, prisoners of war and deportees. The latter were housed in huts in the factory grounds. By the end of 1944, Bachem-Werk had a total of around 600 workers on site. In September, tests were made with a 1:2.5 scale wooden model of the BP-20 airframe in the wind tunnel of the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (DVL) at BerlinAldershof airfield. Further tests were carried out using the high-speed wind tunnel of the Luftfahrt-Forschungs-Anstalt Hermann Göring (LFA) at Braunschweig which could produce speeds close to Mach 1. The tests proved that the Bachem interceptor would be satisfactory up to speeds of 1,100 km/h. The first prototype of the BP-20 was completed on October 4, and the operational design of the interceptor was first defined about the same time as a blueprint dated October 3 has survived. Several variants would evolve over the following two months, named BP-20 A, B and C. The initial ten prototypes were devised to test the flying qualities of the machine, beginning with manned glider tests. The prototype BP-20 M1 was taken to Neuburg an der Donau, about 70 kilometres north of Munich, where flight-testing would be carried out under the auspices of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS). The test machine did not include an engine and was to be towed up to 3,000 metres by a Heinkel He 111. Not having an undercarriage, it had to be mounted for take-off on a tricycle trolley. The towed test flight of prototype M1 was carried out on November 3 with Erich Klöckner of the DFS at the controls. Although the flight went well, it appeared that the aircraft was somewhat unstable on its transverse axis. Klöckner bailed out as planned before the Heinkel attempted to land with the unmanned interceptor but it hit the ground and was destroyed. Prototype M3 (fitted with a tricycle undercarriage) was completed on November 20 and it made its maiden flight on December 14, again with Erich Klöckner in the cockpit. The suspension points of the towing harness, which had been traced as the cause of the M1 unstability, had been adjusted and the flight was successful. Klöckner bailed out and the Heinkel landed the unmanned M3 without damage. Another test flight is believed to

One of the unmanned Natter prototypes — possibly M5 or M7 — after having been dropped over the Heuberg training ground to test the nose separation system and parachute deployment.

M. HENSEL

M. HENSEL

Left: The Föhn armament during a test. The 24 Föhn missiles were ripple fired over a period of 0.3 seconds, and a panel (the smaller one seen here) was blown away on each side to allow the exhaust gases to escape. (The larger opening was to access electrical connections for the test.) Right: The A1 series of operational Natters produced from March 1945 were

been established at the Heuberg camp on an open piece of ground called the Ochsenkopf. The main structure was a 20-metre-high launch tower with three guide rails for the wingtips and lower fin to stabilise the Natter until it cleared the tower. The whole launch process was spartan as the delicate process of filling the liquid propellants was achieved using a ladder resting against the wing. A first launch was attempted on December 18 with prototype M21, albeit without the Walter motor. The four booster rockets

ignited according to plan but the latch to free the interceptor failed and the Natter remained firmly stuck at the bottom of the launch tower. The tail soon caught fire and the whole machine was destroyed. A fault in the ground equipment was traced and cured and a new test set up on December 22 with prototype M16. Although one of the booster rockets failed to ignite correctly, the Natter flew upwards in a stable parabolic trajectory culminating at 800 metres before crashing about 1.5 kilometres from the launch site.

USNA

USNA

were then carried out in December with prototypes M5, M6 and M7 being dropped over the Truppenübungsplatz Heuberg (Military Training Area Heuberg) near Stetten am kalten Markt, 50 kilometres north of Lake Constance. These tests generally went well, the dummy pilot coming safely to earth on its own parachute, which confirmed the principle of releasing the pilot through the action of the separation of the nose section. In the meantime, a launch site to undertake powered vertical take-off trials had

equipped with the Föhn rockets canister in the nose (see page 19) but an alternative armament system was also successfully tested at the Heuberg’s firing range. The Rohrbatterie 108 consisted of a cluster of 32 cannon barrels each containing 30mm shells. The shells were fired in sequence over a period of 0.2 seconds.

Left: Not equipped with the Walter motor, and hence to be launched only by the four booster rockets, this is prototype M16 being prepared for launch. Engineers are attending to the tethering rod that was designed to break away when the thrust reached 1,800 kilos. Prototype M16 was painted in RLM

05 ivory with the rocket boosters in RLM 23 red and the bands at the separation points RLM 22 black. Prototype M16 was successfully launched on December 22. Right: In another test on December 29, prototype M17 was launched also using only the four Schmidding booster rockets. 9

M. HENSEL M. HENSEL

M. HENSEL

The booster rockets of M17 burned perfectly, though later analysis of the film taken during the test showed that their thrust was below the rated 1,200 kilograms. The machine reached an altitude of 2,500 metres and the time-delay mechanism released the recovery parachute as planned but the cable became detached at an altitude of 700 metres and the machine crashed. Wolfgang Offik (right), manager of development and construction matters for the Natter project, and his deputy, H. Michelson (left), are holding a piece of the tailplane with the ‘finder-reward’ message on it. (See page 21 for details of the colour of M17.) The trials did not resume until mid-February 1945 with the successive launches of M31 and M32, possibly because of the bleak winter conditions or, as one source claims, because a fire at the Schmidding-Werke factory delayed delivery of the booster rockets. The general characteristics of these two machines were the same as M17. The tests were still being carried out without the Walter engine but the operation of the recovery parachutes was still not reliable and both machines came to grief.

Prototype M17 was launched on December 29, on this occasion fitted with a timedelay mechanism to release the salvage parachute. All four booster rockets ignited perfectly and the machine reached an altitude of some 2,500 metres. Although the parachute was released as planned, it ripped off causing the Natter to crash. Analysis of film taken during the test confirmed what had been revealed during the flight of M16: that the thrust of the booster rocket was only about 1,000 kilos, well below the rated 1,200 kilogrammes. Two more launches followed in February with prototypes M31 and M32 which demonstrated that the method of salvaging the Natter by parachute was still very unreliable as M31 and M32 both crashed. The tests showed however that the aircraft could be launched into vertical stable flight from a guiding ramp of only ten metres. The first Walter engines were delivered at the Bachem-Werk at the end of December and prototype M22, completed early in February, was the first to be built with the complete propulsion system. It was assembled and delivered to Heuberg and by February 25 was ready for launching. The Walter engine was started and built up to full thrust. The booster rockets were then ignited and M22 roared up the ramp. The motor functioned perfectly in spite of the unusual vertical launch position and strong acceleration. At the given altitude, the nose separated and the dummy pilot was released and floated down under its parachute. The two salvage parachutes opened and took the fuselage and the Walter motor safely to earth. Unfortunately after such a perfect test, some remaining propellants ignited and the machine burnt out on the ground. Nevertheless at last there was the proof that the radical flight profile was feasible.

Left: The first machine equipped with the rocket motor — prototype M22 — was completed at the beginning of February. Delivered to Heuberg for its test-firing later that month, the photo shows it painted in camouflage pattern being prepared for launch. Right: Final preparations on M22: technicians are installing the steel cover to protect the booster ignition cables 10

from the exhaust from the Walter engine. Prototype M22 was launched on February 25, the engine and the four boosters all functioning perfectly, as well as the salvage parachutes. (According to Horst Lommel, author of Der erste bemannte Raketenstart der Welt, Geheimaktion Natter, the man on the left wearing the civilian hat is Willy Fiedler.)

S. GIENSCHEN

In 1944, Operation ‘Etappenhase’ had the purpose of establishing clandestine airfields from which commandos would operate against Allied airbases in North Africa. On March 3 Sieber took off in a Savoia Marchetti SM 75 from Kalamaki on the Greek island of Zante to deliver fuel and supplies to the clandestine airfield ‘Lager I’ in Libya. However he failed to find the objective and, after searching for nearly seven hours, had to land in the desert for the night. There were three humps nearby so they called the place ‘Drei Gräber’ (three graves). Next morning they took off and soon found the airfield where the supplies were unloaded, returning to Kalamaki on March 5. Five days later Sieber flew back to ‘Lager I’ in the SM 75 and then on to ‘Lager II’ in a He 111 on the 12th. He then carried on to ‘Lager III’ on the 13th. However the following day British troops surprised the four-man party they had left at ‘Lager I’, capturing them and destroying the SM 75. When Sieber returned that afternoon there was no one left, save for the burnt-out wreck of the SM 75. They topped up the tanks in the Heinkel from a concealed fuel reserve and reached Kalamaki safely on the 15th. For his part in Operation ‘Etappenhase’, Sieber was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class and promoted to Gefreiter.

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Lothar Sieber was born on April 7, 1922 in Dresden. When he was 18 he volunteered to join the Luftwaffe and signed up in January 1940. One year later he graduated from the Instrument Flying School at Brandis and was promoted Leutnant in April 1941. Dissatisfied with his successive posts in Germany, he asked to be posted to a front-line unit and in November 1942 he was sent to Kampfgeschwader 51, a bomber unit on the Eastern Front. However, after a farewell celebration with comrades, he failed to turn up for guard duty and was subsequently charged with being drunk on duty. On February 11 a court-martial at Luftgau-Kommando Moskau, Luftflotte 2, demoted him to the rank of Flieger (Private), and sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment but, following an appeal, the sentence was reduced to six weeks to be served at Bobruisk. In August Sieber was posted to the 2./Versuchsverband Ob.d.L., a unit tasked with operating undercover flights to insert agents into the Soviet Union. A posting followed in January 1944 to Kommando Süd, a unit flying clandestine missions from Greece to Libya, but this operation, code-named ‘Etappenhase’, ended in failure. Sieber returned to the Eastern Front and throughout the summer of 1944 flew with Kampfgeschwader 200, mainly involving the delivery of agents behind the Russian front. His log-book for this period is filled with several mysterious entries including ‘Heidelbeere’, ‘Melone’, ‘Reiher’, ‘Maulbeere’, ‘Tollkirsche’, ‘Herbstlaub’, ‘Pelikan’, ‘Traube’, ‘Feldspat’, ‘Kupfer’, ‘Schwefel’. In August he landed an Arado Ar 232 in the Ukraine to rescue 23 soldiers under enemy fire.

Left: Lothar Sieber in 1942 when still a Leutnant. He was soon to be posted to Kampfgeschwader 51, a bomber unit on the Eastern Front. Right: Having been demoted, on November 25, 1944, Gefreiter Sieber became engaged to Gertrud Nauditt,

who was a Luftwaffen-Helferin (civil employee of the Luftwaffe), the wedding being announced for July 5, 1945. On December 22 Sieber joined the Bachem-Werk as test pilot, subsequently observing a number of the test launches at Heuberg. 11

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Left: March 1, 1945, dawned dull and misty when the ground crew began to fill the tanks of prototype M23. According to Horst Lommel, the man in the hat is Erich Bachem. Right: In February 1999, the Bundeswehr carried out a detailed search to

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Lothar Sieber was buried with full military honours in the cemetery at Stetten am kalten Markt on March 3 in the presence of Generalmajor Helmut Besch, the commander of Truppenübungsplatz Heuberg. Reconstruction of the flight, which had lasted only 55 seconds, calculated that the

Natter had reached a speed of around 800 km/h. A witness of the flight, Dipl.Ing. Hans Zacher, recalled hearing the then unfamiliar double thunderclap, typical of a sonic boom during the dive, so Sieber might well have been the first human to break the sound barrier.

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FIRST MANNED FLIGHT Early in 1945, co-founder Dipl.Ing. Willy Fiedler joined the Bachem-Werk to assume the position of Chief Designer. Previously working for Fieseler, he was the leader of the industrial testing of the V1 and was responsible for the construction and testing of the projected manned version of the V1 (see After the Battle No. 114). He was known to be able to grasp and analyse the most difficult technical problem and gifted to improve any design up to perfection. In January the SS, the most senior client of the Natter project, ordered a manned launch to be carried out by the end of February. Bachem protested that further tests were required but, as he later wrote, ‘at this stage the customer provided a pilot, Gefreiter Lothar Siebert [sic], a dashing young officer who had volunteered for the mission’. On March 1, the camouflage-painted prototype M23 was readied for launch with its tanks cautiously topped up with C-Stoff and T-Stoff. Finally weighing in at 2,540 kilos with propellants and pilot, it was to be the heaviest Natter to be yet launched. At 11 a.m. all was ready and the signal was given. At first the launch looked perfect but when the Natter had risen to a 100 metres it rolled into the inverted position and continued to climb at an inclination about 60 degrees from the horizontal. The cockpit hood then flew off and some 15 seconds after leaving the ramp, the engine cut out. M23 continued to climb but at about 1,500 metres was lost to sight in the cloud. The sound of an explosion was soon heard in the distance. All eyes searched in vain for Sieber on his parachute but after an hour of waiting for news that he had landed safely, the launch team started a search. After another hour, the crash site was found in a forest south of Nusplingen, about seven kilometres away. A small crater five metres deep marked the spot, the Natter having been totally destroyed. Of the pilot, only a piece of skull and half of his left arm and leg could be found.

look for the foundations of the launch tower. This was featured in Der vergessene Raketenflug — Chronik einer tragischen Pioniertat, a documentary on the Natter project by the German TV channel Südwestrundfunk.

Camera and binoculars at the ready, Erich Bachem waits with the ground crew at the launch tower. This photo was taken prior the test of M21 in December 1944. Facing page top: After climbing the gang-plank resting on the leading edge of the wing of M23, Sieber prepares to swing himself into the cockpit. No colour photo of M23 has come to light but black and white photographs indicate that it was finished in camouflage with a single colour underneath. As far as the replica M23 displayed in the Heuberg museum is concerned (see front cover), the camouflage was based on that of the surviving Natter in the Smithsonian Institution (see page 21). This is finished with RLM 76 light-blue as base coat with an overlay of RLM 02 blue-grey. The underside is painted in RLM 23 red, as is the nose cap, the bands at the separation points, and the numbers on wings.

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With so little wreckage to go on, and no film after the Natter entered the clouds, the analysis of the accident failed to explain precisely what had happened. The report by Bachem-Werk argued that under the 3g acceleration, Sieber might have involuntary pulled back the control column, causing the aircraft to tilt onto its back. The report suggested that in this upside-down position, his weight would have pushed — as far as his safety harness allowed — heavily against the cockpit canopy causing the latch to give way. (Another explanation not mentioned in the wartime reports, but which appears to emanate from the interrogation of Dipl.Ing. Bethbeder, is that the canopy might have opened simply because it had not been properly latched. As the pilot’s padded headrest was attached to the underside of the canopy, the blow of it flying off might well have been sufficient to daze Sieber, knock him out, or even to have broken his neck.) The Bachem-Werk report includes the suggestion that the stopping of the Walter motor 15 seconds after take-off could be due to Sieber turning it off himself, implying the possibility that he had only been slightly dazed by the hood breaking off. However, the Walter motor was notorious for shutting down unpredictably because of bubbles in the propellant feed lines. The report did not exclude the possibility that Sieber, dazed but conscious, may have lost orientation in the cloud and, trying to level out, instead went into the fatal vertical dive. Nevertheless the Bachem-Werk weekly report makes it clear that, in spite of the tragic outcome, much had been learnt from the trial. However, it would appear that the Bachem team’s investigation was not quite as thorough as it should have been as excavations of the impact site in 1998-99 found the remains of one of the Schmidding booster rockets that had failed to release. This could have been an important factor in de-stabilising the Natter.

Karl Mielenhausen, a member of the ground crew at Heuberg, later recalled this fateful morning of March 1, 1945: ‘Towards 1100 hours M23 is ready for take-off. Low stratus cloud lies over the Ochsenkopf. The last mechanics leave the take-off area. The take-off signal is given with signal rockets.’ Prototype M23 rocketed up the launch tower and continued to climb until it was lost to sight in the cloudbase.

In 1980 the Bundeswehr erected a memorial to commemorate the first vertical take-off manned rocket flight in history and it was placed alongside the surviving concrete pad of the experimental pole launcher. Unfortunately, as the memorial lies well inside the military camp, it is not accessible to the public. (The geographical co-ordinates are 48°9’21”N, 9°3’60”E — GPS: 48-9.3459, 9-3.9951.) 13

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When the cockpit canopy that broke away from Prototype M23 a few seconds after launch was recovered, it was found that the starboard side was bent diagonally across the side window panel, damage caused when the canopy crashed to the ground.

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Having reached an altitude of 1,500 metres, prototype M23 crashed after a flight of 55 seconds at the edge of a forest south of Nusplingen, about seven kilometres as the crow flies, from the launch point at Heuberg. All that could be found of the pilot was his left hand with a piece of forearm and his left leg that had been ripped off below the knee. After examination of the five-metre-deep crater, a piece of skull was also recovered. Posthumously promoted to the rank of Oberleutnant, Lothar Sieber was buried with full military honours in the cemetery of Stetten am kalten Markt on March 3 in the presence of Generalmajor Besch, the commander of Truppenübungsplatz Heuberg. Above left: In its final dive to oblivion — the speed at the end of the flight about 1,000 km/h — the machine descended diagonally across these trees, from top right down to left. Some trees were smashed and those that were only slightly damaged still show traces of the impact high on their trunks. Above right: Today new trees and bushes have totally reclaimed the area and nothing remains to be seen of the crater (see page 20).

The grave — No. 48 in the plot reserved for military burials — is now marked by a simple flat stone engraved with his name. 14

Author Manfred Hensel addresses those gathered for the remembrance ceremony held in March 2000.

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In spite of the set-back, the prototype of the simpler pole launcher was erected in the vicinity of the steel launch tower. Differing from the latter where the aircraft wing tips were inserted in lateral guideways, the pole launcher provided runners under each wing-tip and a central channel for the shoemounted mid-fuselage on a short pylon and another one on the tail fin. Left: Prototype M52 — an experimental version of the A1 operational type — is prepared for take-off. Unlike the planned operational version, M52 was fitted with jettisonable auxiliary launch fins extending the tail plane. Karl Mielenhausen can be seen walking forward from the right. Prototype M52 was painted mainly in RLM 02 grey-green with the nose cap and booster rockets in RLM 23 red. To help in identifying the machine’s orientation during flight, large geometric symbols were painted in yellow on the top and bottom of each wing: a cross on the upper right; a circle on the upper left; a slash on lower right, and a triangle on lower left. Above: Engineers discuss the launch which was held at the beginning of April 1945. same. It was only then that it was realised that the spiral flight pattern was because the autopilot had not been properly programmed to fit the specific aerodynamic characteristics of the interceptor. Prototype M13 was launched on March 30, seemingly to test the rearward attachment of the booster rockets for the B-type series. Only three of the four boosters ignited but the take-off was still perfectly stable. One final launch from the tower at Heuberg was made on April 10 of M25 which had the Walter motor in place. The prototype took off but the four boosters failed just after the tower had been cleared. As the Walter engine did not have sufficient thrust on its own to lift the craft, it flew inverted up to 200 metres before crashing not far from the launch pad. The steel launch tower was too costly to be produced in large numbers for operational launches so a simple wooden pole arrangement was devised. The trials had already

proved that a shorter tower was sufficient to obtain a stable take-off so the new launcher was to extend 16 metres above the ground, the wooden pole having been sunk two metres into a concrete foundation. Providing for the necessary space at the bottom to mount the Natter with its rocket engine exhaust nozzle about 1.5 metres above the concrete foundation and its wings and tail set into the three guiding ramps, this would give a launch ramp 12.5 metres long. A launch ‘tower’ of this new type was erected in March in the vicinity of the steel one at Heuberg and the first four machines of the production series — the A1 operational type — were readied for testing. Prototype M52 was successfully launched from the pole launcher at the beginning of April, the flight faultless with both the aircraft and the dummy pilot floating to the ground on their parachutes. Although records are not complete as to the final sequence of trial launches, another one,

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OPERATION ‘KROKUS’ — TOWARDS OPERATIONAL LAUNCHES Though there clearly were some vacillations in higher quarters as to the continuation of the project, Bachem pressed on with more trials, especially to test automatic guidance and a simpler launch mounting. Prototype M24 was launched on March 15. This time the flight went absolutely according to plan: the booster rockets were released, the nose separated, and the parachute opened, bringing the Walter engine safely to the ground. Fitted with a new three-axis auto-pilot, the M14 was the first Natter fitted with automatic guidance. Launched on March 16 powered only by the four booster rockets, it went into a spiral ascent just after having cleared the tower. The safety parachute opened but the machine was completely destroyed when it hit the ground. Prototype M34 was launched on March 21 for the same trial flight, and the outcome were more or less the

Left: The concrete foundation (in the shadow just to the right of the memorial stone in the background) where the experimental pole launcher was erected has survived making it

possible to take an accurate comparison of the photo at top right of this page. Right: Even the end of the wooden pole remains set in the concrete. 15

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The location of the long-forgotten launch site was only achieved in 1999 following the publication of Horst Lommel’s book. Willy Reichert told the author that he remembered having seen some strange concrete slabs in a forest in the autumn of 1945 when he was working as a trainee surveyor. Reichert took Lommel to the wood and there they discovered the three foundations. This is Pad ‘C’ at 48°37’39”N, 9°29’54”E (GPS: 48-37.642, 9-29.905) which formed the southern tip of the triangle.

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equally successful, is believed to have been conducted some days later. In 1952, Erich Bachem recalled that seven launches were carried out after Sieber’s death: four via the steel tower and three from the pole. However the records state that there were five launches from the steel tower which would equate to just two from the pole. In late February it was decided to establish an operational launch site near Stuttgart and Major Edmund Gartenfeld, former commander of Kampfgeschwader 200, was tasked with selecting eight experienced pilots for this operation. Code-named ‘Krokus’, the deadline for going into action was March 20. Although the weapon itself had been developed, so far no real work had been done concerning target location. Consequently Bachem-Werk now put in an urgent request for Flak specialists and at the end of February a construction team from the Organisation Todt was ready to build the concrete foundations for the pole launchers. The plan was for three poles to be set up at the points of an equilateral triangle which had sides 100 metres long. The range-finding apparatus and the Malsi-Gerät, a radio beam projector that would guide the three Natter interceptors towards their targets, was to be located in the centre. The fabrication of ten pole launchers was ordered from the engineering firm at Esslingen which had already built the steel tower at Heuberg and by the end of February a team from the Organisation Todt was building the concrete foundation for three pole launchers. Back in 1955, author Karl Bartz wrote in his book Als der Himmel brannte that the operational launch site for the first Natters was located at Kirchheim unter Teck, 20 kilometres south-east of Stuttgart, and he wrote that ‘until recently’ remnants of the burnt-out machines were lying ‘scattered around at the glider airfield’. This account was accepted as gospel even though it was not backed up by documents or photographs. Then in 1998, following the publication of Horst Lommel’s book Der erste bemannte Raketenstart der Welt, Geheimaktion Natter, Lommel was contacted by Willy Reichert who told him about some concrete slabs he remembered seeing in 1945 in a wood near the town of Holzmaden, a few kilometres south-east of Kirchheim. They investigated the woods together in 1999 and soon discovered three foundations which were arranged in the form of an equilateral triangle, the distance between the launch pads being approximately 50 metres. What had been relayed to Karl Bartz about Natter’s launch ramps at the local airfield at Kirchheim unter Teck had simply been remnants of structures used to launch gliders.

The end of a pipe, now cut off at ground level, would have carried the firing cables. Left: This is Pad ‘A’ located at 48°37’42”N, 9°29’53”E (GPS: 48-37.700, 9-29.890). Right: Pad ‘B’ is at 48°37’42”N, 9°29’59”E (GPS: 48-37.701, 9-29.975). Note that the letters ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ are merely our own references.

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South of Holzmaden, five kilometres east of Kirchheim unter Teck, the three concrete pads of the first operational launch site can still be seen although difficult to locate, hence our giving the precise co-ordinates. In the centre of each pad is a square recess, about 50 centimetres deep, for the wooden pole.

To visit the Hasenholz wood, drive to the village of Jesingen, just east of Kirchheim. Take Naberner Strasse, the street branching off the main road opposite the church, and drive straight on until you pass under the A8/E52 motorway. Then turn left and park at the entrance of the wood about 100 metres away.

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The half-tracks were followed by Shermans of the 1er Régiment de Cuirassiers. After the war the city of Waldsee developed its tradition of spas and changed its name to Bad Waldsee (‘Bad’ meaning ‘spa’ in German).

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FINAL PRODUCTION AND CAPTURE At the beginning of March a BachemWerk schedule listed 15 A1 operational interceptors with production deadlines from March 23 to April 20. These were to be fullyarmed with the Föhn rocket canister in the nose and simple gunsight. Erich Bachem later said that 14 had been completed or almost completed before the war ended and that all in all, 36 Natters were actually built. Meanwhile a contract had been signed with a sub-contractor, Wolf Hirth Flugzeugbau at Nabern unter Teck, three kilometres south-east of Kirchheim unter Teck, for the pilot production of ten interceptors, and three partially completed Natters (said to be 50 to 75 per cent complete) were discovered at this factory at the end of the war. Plans were also under way for production at another factory in Thuringia under the cover name of ‘Waldhausen’. Horst Lommel identified this factory as being the Kühn & Lefler Büromöbelfabrik, a furniture factory, at Gräfenroda, 30 kilometres south-west of Erfurt. A launch tower was to be built at Trüppenübungsplatz Ohrdruf, ten kilometres to the north-west, to test the output. Some confusion surrounds the last days at Waldsee. By mid-April, it seems that SSObergruppenführer Hans Kammler issued an order to evacuate to Austria. A number of Natters were loaded onto lorries and trailers with some equipment and the convoy set off eastwards, travelling only at night because of the air threat. Bachem was not there when the convoy left, but Bethbeder left along with it. The convoy finally reached

The historic city of Waldsee is situated on an isthmus between two lakes, the Stadtsee on the east and the smaller Schlosssee on the west. This is the Hauptstrasse looking west from the Heilig Geist Spital Church.

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Combat Command 4 of the 5ème Division Blindée entered Waldsee late on the afternoon of April 24. In this picture, halftracks of the Régiment de Marche de la Légion Etrangère speed eastwards across the town.

Dipl.Ing. Hans Zacher is claimed to have sunk some 10 to 15 Walter propulsion units in the Stadtsee lake before the French force reached Waldsee. However, when an underwater search was conducted in the late 1960s under the auspices of the Deutsches Museum, nothing was found. Possibly they were

recovered just after the war by waste metal dealers and scrapped. Left: It is possible that a French photographer heard about this story and then took this photograph of the lake in April 1945. Right: The rowing clubhouse still stands on the eastern side of the Stadtsee. 17

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Bad Wörishofen, 80 kilometres west of Munich, where they remained for some days, apparently waiting to meet up with transport bringing a single Natter from the Wolf Hirth factory. With French tanks approaching Waldsee, four Natters were taken to a meadow where they were burnt. (According to one story, 15 of the Walter propulsion units were dropped into the lake but a search conducted in the 1960s by the Deutsches Museum failed to find any of them.) On the afternoon of April 24, tanks of the 5ème Division Blindée entered Waldsee. At Bad Wörishofen, one convoy started out with four Natters towards Austria. The second party with two Natters left Bad Wörishofen in the nick of time, just before lead elements of the US 10th Armored Division entered the town on April 27. With the Americans hard on their heels, the group managed to reach the Fern Pass where German forces were able to hold up the Americans for two days. Meanwhile the first group had arrived at Sankt Leonhard in the Pitz valley, 60 kilometres west of Innsbruck, although the second convoy failed to meet up with them, having stopped near Ötztal, lower down in the Inn valley, some 30 kilometres away. The two Bachem interceptors at Ötztal were set on

fire as the Americans approached on May 4 but the four at Sankt Leonhard were captured intact. With them were 13 members of Bachem’s workforce, among them Dipl.Ing. Bethbeder; Dipl.Ing. Richard Granzow, an engineer from the Walter-Werke detailed to the Natter programme; Dr.-Ing. Heinrich Rieck of the DFS; Ing. Gerhard Schaller, special representative of the Reichsführer-SS for the Natter project; Unteroffizier Hans Zübert, the test pilot, and SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Flessner. 18

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On May 4, 1945, Company L of the 324th Regiment, US 44th Infantry Division, entered the Pitz valley, 60 kilometres west of Innsbruck, and within a day or so reached Sankt Leonhard. There they found four Natter interceptors lying abandoned by the side of the road. Though it is clear from the records that four of the A1 type were recovered from Sankt Leonhard, only three appear in the photographs and the cine film. The light attire worn by the GIs, and the fact that fields in background were neatly mowed, might indicate that the photos were taken some weeks later.

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Above: Jean Paul traced the exact spot where the four Natters were abandoned in 1945 — in a grassy meadow about half a kilometre before reaching the church of Sankt Leonhard. In 1952 Erich Bachem claimed that one Natter had been captured by the Russians, namely the prototype that was sent from Waldsee to the new factory to be established in Thuringia. However, this area was first occupied by American forces before it was handed over to the Russians on July 1 because it was to become part of the Soviet occupation zone. It is therefore difficult to believe that the American intelligence teams would have missed a Natter when they expended so much effort during those weeks to remove German scientists from the clutches of the Soviets. The Natter personnel from Schlatt and Sankt Leonhard were sent to a camp at Haiming in the Inn valley where they were interrogated by CIOS agents. (Established in the summer of 1944, the Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee was tasked to plan and direct the exploitation of German technology, and it consisted of officers from the technical branches of British and American armed forces). The Natter engineers declared their willingness to continue development of the BP-20 for the Allies, stating that demonstration flights could be carried out in two or three months providing they were given suitable facilities. However

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Above: Close-up of the nose section of the Natter in the centre of the three that appear in the photos on the facing page, showing the honeycomb canister for the 24 Föhn rockets.

Above: This photograph shows the side view of the Natter in the centre of the group, with a Schmidding booster rocket lying on a trailer. Also the nose section from another Natter lies in the foreground. Left: Although the outlines of the fields have changed, and many new houses erected, the lone chalet in the meadow remains. The calvary which can be seen on the right of the centre photo on the facing page still remains standing at the side of the road. This part of Sankt Leonhard around Eggenstall No. 195 lies at an altitude of 1,360 meters. (The account that is often seen repeated that the Natters were found at an ‘airfield’ near Sankt Leonhard has little credence as there is not a single piece of flat ground anywhere in this narrow valley.) Today, Sankt Leonhard is a popular ski resort, the Pitztal glacier and the Rifflsee skiing area providing visitors with unlimited skiing activities. During summertime, sports and nature lovers can enjoy hiking up to the Wildspitze, Tirol’s highest mountain at 3,774 metres. The Pitz-Panoramabahn, the highest mountain railway in Austria, carries less-able visitors up to an altitude of 3,440 metres which still offers wonderful views of the Alpine scenery. 19

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In July 1998, Manfred Hensel who was by then the chairman of the Stetten Historical Association (Geschichts- und Museumsverein Stetten am kalten Markt/Heuberg e.V.) obtained permission from the owner of the land to allow a one-day exploration of the crash site of M23 in the Nusplingen forest. At a depth of over three metres, the largest piece of wreckage that was recovered was the steel ballast — weighing some 70 kilogrammes — that was once mounted in the nose of the prototype to make up for the weight of the rocket armament. Another discovery was the remains of a Schmidding booster rocket. All four rockets should have been released when burnt out ten seconds after take-off and it was only now that it was obvious that one of them had failed to separate during the test flight, a fact that escaped the investigators’ attention in 1945. The harness from Lothar Sieber’s parachute was also unearthed, and sizeable pieces from the Walter rocket motor, some sections of fuel tubing, and many other smaller fragments.

the Imperial Army to the present-day Bundeswehr. The major exhibit is the replica of Natter M23 on its launch pad with models of Bachem and Sieber prior to the launch (see front cover). Left: The ballast from the nose of M23 recovered at the crash site. Right: The exhaust nozzle of the Schmidding booster rocket.

Being located inside the closed military training area, the Heuberg museum only opens to visitors on four Sundays each year so please check before your visit. Special tours can be arranged for groups or schools. (www.stetten-akm.de/seiten/bundeswehr/ sammlung.html). Left: The Walter HWK 109-509 motor that

equipped the Natter generated a maximum thrust of 1,700 kilos (16,7 kNewtons) but could be throttled back to a minimum of 300 kilos. Right: The most moving exhibit on display is the harness from Sieber’s parachute which unfortunately is difficult to photograph well in its sealed glass cabinet.

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In 2006 the Stetten Historical Association loaned all the items found at the crash site for exhibition at the new museum that was then being set up at the Heuberg camp. The museum displays weapons, uniforms, and equipment covering over 100 years of military history at the training ground, from the days of

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In his efforts to piece together the movement and fate of the captured Natters shipped to the United States, Australian author Brett Gooden named the two interceptors that he was able to track down as ‘Unit One’ and ‘Unit Two’. This one seen strapped to a pallet beside a four-engined Junkers Ju 290, is Unit Two, photographed at Wright Field Air Fair, Ohio, in January 1946. Below left: According to an original caption of 1949, this photo was taken in August 1946 at Wright Field and may well be the last known photo of Unit Two. Its final fate is unknown but one possibility is that it was flight-tested at Muroc Flight Test Base, California, later in 1946.

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reports by Captain R. W. Bratt and Flight Lieutenant J. R. Evans concluded that the BP-20 did not merit further investigation although they listed the documents and equipment to be shipped to the US and Great Britain. According to their report the following items were then being shipped to a collecting point near Stuttgart: two repairable BP-20s; two serviceable Walter rocket motors; four Schmidding booster rockets; four wings; two boxes of Föhn rockets; parachutes for the BP-20s, and a few boxes with miscellaneous instruments and fittings. In trying to piece together the movements and final fate of the equipment despatched to the US, Brett Gooden (Projeckt Natter, last of the Wonder Weapons, 2006) named them Unit One and Unit Two. He traced Unit One — captured equipment number T2-1 — from Santa Monica in California in 1945, to Freeman Field, Indiana, in 1946, through to 1949 when the US Air Force transferred it to the Smithsonian Institution. The Natter, then in poor condition, was put into storage at Silver Hill in Suitland, Maryland (later known as the Paul E. Garber Facility). Today, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum plans to restore it and place it on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington, DC. The fate of ‘Unit Two’ is unknown but there is a possibility that it might have been flight-tested at Muroc Flight Test Base (now known as Edwards Air Force Base) in California in 1946 because a Natter is rumoured to have been launched from there in June under radio control although there appears to be no positive proof to confirm this.

‘Unit One’, pictured (above), was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1949. It is currently in storage at the Paul E. Garber Facility in Suitland, Maryland, awaiting restoration. Eventually it is due to be displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washingon, DC. Natter replicas, with no genuine parts, can also be seen at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California, and at the Fantasy of Flight Museum near Orlando, Florida.

Another Natter is on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. This one was rebuilt in 1971-72 from original parts recovered in 1967 from the Bachem factory. Painted in the yellow of prototype M17 which was flight-tested in December 1944, this one has a pattern of black stripes to aid orientation during its flight. Like the originals, it has an inscription in German on the tail which reads: ‘Finder report to Headquarters Troop Training Ground Heuberg. Telephone Stetten am kalten Markt 222. Reward!’ 21

The German LMB parachute mine was designated Type C by the British Admiralty. It measured 8ft 8ins long and weighed 1,000kg. On leaving the aircraft, the dome cover on the right

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THE BIRCHINGTON MINE The marshland it had fallen into made its recovery very difficult. It was not until the Monday morning that this was eventually achieved with the help of two farm tractors and the efforts of a party of men led by Lieutenant Harold West from the Chatham Torpedo School. Lieutenant West was no stranger to working on mines and had already been awarded the DSC and Bar for

By Chris Ransted his efforts. The earth surrounding it was removed to form a ramp and the mine was hauled up this using a long tow rope. Apparently the rope had to be run across the railway line which complicated matters a little.

MINE

SHUART FARM

On August 3, 1040, a parachute mine was reported to have come down on land at Shuart Farm near the north Kent coast. This farm was to be no stranger to war as a Messerschmitt 109 crashed there the following month, the identity of the pilot causing much controversy when the remains were found 40 years later. (See ‘The Discovery of Fritz Buchner’ in Volume 1 of The Blitz Then and Now.)

ORDNANCE SURVEY SHEET 179

In the early part of the war, German mines were considered to be a very serious threat. Britain was being strangled as ships importing food and war materials became victims of the mines laid around the coastline. The losses were enormous. It was in November 1939 that the secrets of the magnetic mine were revealed when two were recovered and disarmed at Shoeburyness (see The Blitz Then and Now, Volume 1). From examination of these the British were able to find methods to counteract them. However the Germans did not rest. They continued to develop their mines throughout the war so it was vital that the British kept up with all these changes. To this end unexploded examples were not only disarmed to save property and lives but also to study their construction. Even mines that came down in rural areas, where blowing them up would cause little damage, were recovered at great risk to personnel and removed for later examination by the Royal Navy’s bomb disposal squads. This was the case at Birchington in Kent. It was during the afternoon of Saturday, August 3, 1940 that the Navy’s Mine Disposal organisation, based at the shore base of HMS Vernon in Portsmouth, received a report of an unexploded parachute mine at Reculver Marshes near Minnis Bay, on the north Kent coast. It had apparently been seen floating down on its parachute by train driver Fred Pearson while travelling the line between Herne Bay and Birchington-on-Sea. The following morning, Lieutenant Geoffrey Hodges, accompanied by Chief Petty Officer George Wheeler, left Vernon and headed for the site. On arrival they found that the mine was a magnetic Type C and was entirely embedded in marshy ground at Shuart Farm (referred to as Stuarts Farm in the official records). It had come down not far from the railway line.

pulled away releasing the parachute. The primer and fuze pocket are visible on its side. These mines were initially dropped by Heinkel He115 seaplanes at night.

LIEUTENANT GEOFFREY HODGES

As parachute mines were primarily naval weapons, the responsibility for dealing with them, whether on land or at sea, was that of the Royal Navy. Lieutenant Geoffrey Hodges (above), based at HMS Vernon, the mine disposal headquarters at Portsmouth (right), was detailed to deal with the Birchington mine. Lieutenants West and Hodges removed the primer from the Birchington mine and then the detonator, cutting the wires that connected it. By arrangement, West then withdrew from the mine, while Hodges and CPO Wheeler, with the aid of a pressure horn tool, removed the fuze. The pressure horn was like a bicycle horn that was attached to the fuze and pumped to recreate the pressure of sea water, thereby tricking the fuze not to run. However the fuze could still start running as the attempt was made to fit this tool; if it did you had to be quick! Once this had been dealt with, the men were of the opinion that the mine was now safe.

Externally it was identical to other Type C mines that had been disarmed by this approved method. Stencilled on the side of this one was its serial number ‘568L’. The clock that was fitted was left in place as it was considered harmless. Not only that, the men had no box to carry it and thought it would be less likely to be damaged in transit if left where it was. Also at Vernon, captured mines still containing explosive were craned into the nearby Vernon Creek during air raids as a safety measure, and keeping the clock in place would keep the mine watertight. The mine was transported to HMS Vernon, arriving there by 10 p.m. that night.

CHRIS RANSTED

These Type C mines had five main features, the first being approximately 1,540lbs of explosives. Secondly there was a clock which served as a safety timer for the benefit of the Germans so they had time to get clear before the mine armed. The third feature was a tube that ran horizontally through the centre of the mine and its explosive filling. This had a primer at one end and a detonator at the other. The fourth component was a magnetic unit housed in the rear end of the casing that would detonate the mine once the magnetic signature of a passing ship was picked up. The last feature was a completely independent bomb fuze. This was designed to fire the mine about 25 seconds after impact with the ground or if it was not immersed in at least 14 feet of water. Should the tide go out and the water level fall, it would also detonate at that point which was meant to prevent the mine falling intact into enemy hands. However often the fuzes did not work properly, as in this case. It was a bit like a clockwork toy, you think it has finished running but when you pick it up it restarts, the danger being that it could restart if the mine was disturbed. The clockwork could run for up to ‘around’ 17 seconds. Hodges was to experience this only a few weeks later. On September 19 he was working on a mine on the bridge over the railway at Clifford Avenue, Sheen, when he heard the sound of the fuze as it started running. Hodges, along with his colleague Lieutenant Spiers, made a dash for cover. Spiers managed to get further away and took cover behind a wall, while Hodges decided to lay in the gutter, not wanting to get caught in the blast while he was standing upright, but he was still pretty close when it exploded. He was taken to hospital suffering from shock, bruising and a discharge from his ears, as well as having his clothes torn and loosing a shoe. These fuzes were very unpredictable. Sometimes they ran for just a split second, sometimes as long as 22 seconds.

According to locals, the mine dropped in August 1940 came down very close to this crossing on the main line from London to Margate. At the time there was a railway cottage close by which was at risk should the mine have exploded. Apparently the cottage was later destroyed by floods in the early 1950s. This photo was taken looking east with the town of Birchington in the distance. 23

HMS VERNON

POLYPHEMUS

After the fuze had been removed on site, the mine was transported to Portsmouth for further examination in the Soon after 9 a.m. on the Tuesday morning, August 6, Petty Officer Guss Razzel and his small party moved the mine into the mining shed from where it had sat overnight by the torpedo workshops ready to be craned into the creek should an air raid have materialised. Lieutenant John Glenny, assisted by Commissioned Gunner (T) Reginald Cook, were tasked with stripping down the mine, which

was now considered safe as the sting had been taken out of it at Birchington. They were to investigate its construction looking for any updated features, specifically with regards to the magnetic unit. Glenny and Cook had a working party consisting of Petty Officer Cecil Fletcher and three or four ratings. Also present were two storekeepers, Able Seamen Thomas Moore

The mining shed was demolished in 1955 — it stood where the nearest grass with the square sculptured trees has now been planted. Vernon Creek in the foreground is where mines were submerged during air raids. The roof, top floor and clock tower of the Vulcan building (No. 21 on plan) were burned out by 24

mining shed — Building No. 7 ‘Polypremus’ on the plan on page 23. This had been built in 1917 as a mine assembly shop. and Wallace Stewart. Their role was to collect items removed from the mine. A number of other people were also in the shed going about their business, including the Officer in Charge, Lieutenant Alfred Walker who was in his office in the corner with Chief Petty Officers Arthur Bennett and George Wheeler. The shed messenger Able Seaman William Croake and various other ratings were also there.

incendiaries on January 10/11, 1941, and were rebuilt after the war. Vernon is today part of the Gun Wharf Quays shopping and apartment complex. Although no longer occupied by the Royal Navy, the odd mine and torpedo remind people of its past history and plans are in place for a suitable memorial.

HMS VERNON

Lieutenant John Glenny. Cook first weighed the mine before removing the tail fitting which housed the parachute. Glenny came in and was witness to the events that unfolded. At about 9.45 a.m. he was standing just three feet behind and to the right of Fletcher and watched him undo the last three bolts that secured the rear of the mine. With the housing held against his stomach, Fletcher pulled and the top came away by about half an inch. He lifted and pulled again and there was a sharp bang followed by a short pause, a violent ‘fizz’ and then a terrific flash of an explosion. At the time of this explosion, Cook was just returning from the office with a notepad. He was blown back against the side of the office

UK NATIONAL ARCHIVE

UK NATIONAL ARCHIVE

Right: This sketch was used in the Court of Inquiry into the accident and shows the interior layout of the mining shed and where each person was standing at the time of the explosion. This was not the first time there had been an accident involving a mine at HMS Vernon. On March 19, 1930, a hydrostatic fuze exploded in the Test and Proof Shop killing Gilbert Hutchinson and William Williams. Below: The mine in the left foreground shortly after the booby-trap had exploded.

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CHRIS RANSTED

UK NATIONAL ARCHIVE

Then . . . and now. This is where two men died and two more were mortally wounded, dying later in hospital.

UK NATIONAL ARCHIVE

UK NATIONAL ARCHIVE

Examining the evidence to determine the reason for the explosion. Right: The rear door that Petty Officer Fletcher was removing. Below left: Damage to the rear casing where the booby-trap was located. Fortunately the main filling did not detonate. Below right: This cylindrical portion of the mine casing which encircled the magnetic unit was completely stripped off and straightened by the blast.

UK NATIONAL ARCHIVE

and was badly burnt with a number of other severe injuries. Surgeon Lieutenant Duncan Lorimer, who was quick to arrive at the scene, gave him some morphia but he was beyond help and died within minutes. Fletcher was killed instantly in the blast, the parachute housing being later found 20 feet from the mine. Razzel at the time was in an office at the other end of the shed and came out to find Moore with a burnt face, pinned down by a heavy mine sinker. Others came to help, including Wheeler, and they lifted the sinker off Moore. An ammunition trolley was used as a makeshift stretcher for him. Lieutenant Walker called for ambulances as some of the casualties were in a very bad way, suffering burns and various other injuries. They included Able Seamen Walter Taylor, Herbert Robinson, Wallace Stewart and Petty Officer Henry Brooks. Lieutenant Glenny, despite being so close, amazingly survived the blast though his hands and face were burnt. Able Seamen Croake and Alfred Stevens were not so lucky and they both died of their wounds a short time later in hospital.

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UK NATIONAL ARCHIVE

The secret revealed — this is the remains of the clicker device. British Empire Medal; Bennett and Hodges the George Medal; Glenny the Distinguished Service Cross and DSO, while Dr Wood received the Order of the British Empire and West the DSC and Bar as well as being Mentioned in Despatches. Fletcher and Cook were also Mentioned in Despatches.

COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION

bombs designers and the British technical specialists and bomb disposal personnel. New innovations were a constant threat that continued right throughout the war. A number of those involved with the Birchington mine were awarded medals for their brave work. Wheeler was awarded a

The four men who lost their lives — Commissioned Gunner (T) Reginald Cook, Petty Officer Cecil Fletcher and Able Seamen William Croake and Alfred Stevens — were all buried in Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery on the shore of Alver Lake in Gosport.

HMS VERNON

CHRIS RANSTED

Though Hodges had also wanted to be involved with the stripping down, his life was probably saved by the fact an American, Lieutenant Forrest, was visiting Vernon and the Mining Commander didn’t want him to be at the examination of the mine. It would be over a year before the Americans were officially in the war, so Hodges was instructed to take Forrest up harbour to see other salvaged weapons. They were in a boat only a short distance away when they heard the explosion. Another individual who had a lucky escape was a WRNS messenger who had just passed a signal to the mining shed. She went on to deliver others and heard the explosion. The man she had passed the signal to was one of the casualties. Had she altered the order in which she delivered the signals, she too might have been caught in the blast. Parts from the mine were later collected and taken to Dr Albert Wood of the Scientific Section for investigation. This department comprised mainly of civilian scientists and engineers and had been moved out of Vernon earlier to nearby Portsmouth Grammar School. The bulk of the mine was taken out to sea on the Wednesday afternoon and sunk. The clock was then taken out remotely using a line in case of a further booby trap. Clock and mine were then hauled back in and returned to Vernon. An investigation found that the booby trap consisted of about 4lbs of explosive. Fortunately it had not detonated the main charge of the mine otherwise there would have been death and destruction on a far greater scale. From the pieces recovered it was also clear that the booby trap had been fitted to destroy the evidence of a new ‘Clicker’ device. The existence of the ‘Clicker’ device had been suspected but this was the first time one had been seen. Its purpose was to count off the ships that passed but delay detonation so that it caught say the sixth ship. This was not only useful for catching out big ships in convoys but, more importantly, it meant minesweepers would have to go over the same area repeatedly to be sure they had cleared it of danger. They could be set up so that it could take up to 20 passes of a mine before a ship would detonate it. This clicker repeater mechanism found in the Birchington mine was very crude and no doubt an early production type using ordinary cheap clock parts which had been modified to suit. It did however, give the British an idea of how it would be constructed and used in the future. The war against the mines, and unexploded bomb in general, was a constant cat and mouse game between the German

As a result of the Birchington mine explosion, it was decided that an open space for mine disposal investigation should be found close to HMS Vernon where less damage could be done in the event of a similar, or worse, accident. HMS Mirtle (the nicest name they could think of that began with MIR for Mine

Investigation Range) was set up at a disused quarry (left) at Buriton in the chalky South Downs. The photo shows the explosive being steamed out from one of the mine casings. Right: After the war, the quarry was used as a site for rubbish landfill. 27

DAVID MITCHELHILL-GREEN

THE US ‘ROSIE THE RIVETER’ MEMORIAL

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By David Mitchelhill-Green Reminiscent of an upturned ship’s hull under construction, the Rosie the Riveter Memorial in Richmond, California, runs the length of a ship’s keel. Based on a design by visual artist Susan Schwartzenberg and landscape architect/environmental sculptor Cheryl Barton, the memorial is the first in America to honour the estimated 18 million women who worked in the defence industries in the United States during the Second World War. Located on the site of the former Kaiser Shipyard No. 2, the memorial forms part of the WWII Home Front National Historical Park, a number of sites in the immediate area being uniquely associated with the war including the Kaiser Shipyard No. 3, the Richmond Tank Depot (Ford Assembly Building), the Shimada Friendship Park, the Lucrieta M. Edwards Park, the Barbara and Jay Vincent Park and the Sheridan Observation Point. The memorial includes a walkway, containing a timeline and various inscriptions, to a platform overlooking the water, the alignment pointing to the Golden Gate through which the ships would have sailed.

DAVID MITCHELHILL-GREEN

In his State of the Union address to Congress on January 6, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to inspire American citizens and industry with a vision of victory: ‘Superiority of the United States in munitions and ships must be overwhelming, so overwhelming that the Axis nations can never hope to catch up with it. In order to maintain this overwhelming superiority, the United States must build planes and tanks and guns and ships to the utmost limit of our national capacity. We must raise our sights all along the production line. Let no man say it cannot be done. It must be done.’ To meet this daunting challenge, millions of female workers — who affectionately became known as ‘Rosies’ -—joined the war effort, and an evocative memorial to these women was dedicated in Richmond, California, on October 14, 2000. The Rosie the Riveter Memorial fittingly stands on the site of a former wartime shipyard which now forms part of America’s World War II Home Front National Historical Park. Following America’s entry into the war, a appeal went out for traditionally maledominated jobs to be filled by women but, dissatisfied with the response, the government launched a propaganda campaign to highlight the importance of the war effort. One campaign focussed on a fictional patriotic female worker, ‘Rosie the Riveter’. Today this iconic image, the Home Front equivalent of GI Joe, is synonymous with female workers engaged in wartime work across America. The origin of Rosie the Riveter dates back to a popular 1942 song in featuring an indefatigable assembly line worker toiling to help the war effort: All the day long, Whether rain or shine She’s part of the assembly line, She’s making history, Working for victory Rosie the Riveter

Personal recollections and a chronological narrative highlight the importance of the ‘Rosies’ to the US war effort. This one, at the memorial’s stern, reads: ‘You must tell your children, putting modesty aside, that without us, without women, there would have been no spring in 1945’.

Left: Norman Rockwell’s depiction of ‘Rosie’ appeared on the cover of the Memorial Day issue of The Saturday Evening Post on May 29, 1943. Right: However, the image most commonly associated with Rosie was created by J. Howard Miller in 1943. The poster was based on a picture of Geraldine Doyle, a 17-year-old

A fortnight later the Press picked up the story of a real-life Rosie named Rose Hickey. She was discovered working at the Eastern Aircraft Company in Tarrytown, New York, where she and her partner had a set a record for the number of rivets driven into the wing of a Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo-bomber. Another ‘Rosie’, Rose Monroe, achieved even

greater fame following a chance meeting with Hollywood star Walter Pidgeon at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Michigan. Thrust into the spotlight, Monroe made a film for war bonds that played between features in cinemas across the country. Later actress Jane Frazee starred as Rosalind ‘Rosie’ Warren in the 1944 motion picture Rosie the Riveter.

BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

For the cover of the Memorial Day issue of The Saturday Evening Post on May 29, 1943, Normal Rockwell, America’s most celebrated illustrator at the time, depicted Rosie wearing men’s overalls, flexing her biceps while seated with a riveting tool, her feet firmly resting on a copy of Mein Kampf. This famous image quickly captured America’s imagination.

from Inkster, Michigan, who worked as a metal presser at the American Broach & Machine Company. She was unaware of the poster’s existence until 1984 when she came across the original photograph in an issue of Modern Maturity magazine and recognised herself. She passed away on December 26, 2010.

Rosie the Riveter, about war plant workers who were sharing rooms in a boarding house, was released in the United States

in 1944 starring Jane Frazee (right) in the title role. When shown in Britain, it was titled In Rosie’s Room. 29

laid in Basin No. 2 on May 14, just 118 days after construction on the yard had commenced. Simultaneously, excavation work continued on the four neighbouring basins (in total some 2,200,000 cubic yards of rock and earth were shifted to level the area and reclaim new land for waterfront storage.) On November 11 the USS General George O. Squier (AP-130) became the first ship to be launched from the yard. While activity on the Richmond waterfront mushroomed, recruiters toured the country bringing thousands of workers, many of whom were victims of the Great Depression, into the Bay area. This influx rapidly propelled Richmond’s pre-war population of 23,642 to over 100,000. The integration of women workers was so successful that by 1944 approximately 27 per cent of the 90,000strong shipyard workforce was female. Remarkably, 41 per cent of welding jobs were held by women, an unthinkable statistic only a few years earlier. Amid this gender upheaval ‘Wendy the Welder’, a more

appropriate motivational character than ‘Rosie’, appeared, based on an actual worker in the yards, Janet Doyle. To help dispel existing stereotypes, Kaiser’s weekly shipyard newspaper, Fore’n’Aft ran numerous articles on its women employees, the November 27, 1942 edition, for example, read: ‘What’s more, these two women war workers [who had laboured on the record-breaking construction of Hull No. 440, USS Robert E. Peary] are an example of something that male skeptics find rather hard to believe. Women in industry don’t waste time in feminine gossip. Observers say they actually talk less than the men.’ At war’s end, all the workers at Richmond could be justifiably proud of their achievement as America’s leading merchant ship builder. Altogether the four shipyards launched 747 ships which included 519 Liberties; Victory ships, C-4 troop-transports, British trampsteamers, frigates, LSTs and C-1s. The No. 3 yard alone was responsible for the construction of 35 C-4 troop transports.

DAVID MITCHELHILL-GREEN

RICHMOND’S KAISER SHIPYARD The Rosie the Riveter Memorial aptly stands on the site of the former Kaiser Shipyard No. 2. Early in the war, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser built four shipyards with a total of 27 shipways at Richmond on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay. These yards were among a number scattered along the West Coast that Kaisers operated separately or in partnership with other large businesses during the war. Shortly after Shipyard No. 2 commenced building Liberty ships (the name given to the EC2 type ships for ‘emergency’ construction), contracts were signed on January 9, 1942 between Kaisers and the Maritime Commission for the construction of a another yard — No. 3 — and the building of 15 C-4 troopships. Unlike yards No. 1 and No. 2, this third facility was intended to be in permanent operation with basins in place of shipways which could also be used as dry docks for ship repairs. The construction of No. 3 yard began on January 13 with the yard’s first keel being

Designed to supersede the Liberty ship, the Victory ship was a faster and more modern cargo vessel. It featured an extra deck, increased loading capacity on the decks, searchlights, gyrocompasses, better winches and longer booms. It was also available in different models based upon a common hull. Left: Pictured prior to its November 1944 launch, Red Oak Victory (AK-235) was the 558th ship launched at Richmond. Built in 87 days, she was one of ten Victory ships ordered by the US Navy as ammunition and cargo carriers. Commissioned on December 5, 1944 with Lieutenant Commander John S. Sayer USNR in command, 30

Red Oak Victory served in the Pacific theatre. She had been named after a town in Iowa that lost 27 men from Company M, Iowa National Guard, during the battle for Kasserine, Tunisia, in February 1943 (see After the Battle No. 134). Altogether 50 men from Red Oak, out of a population of 5,600 were killed in the war, reputedly (but unproven) the highest per capita loss of any American community. Right: After the war Red Oak Victory was decommissioned and served in the Merchant Marine as a freighter in the Korean and Vietnam wars and is now preserved at Richmond Yard No. 3, Berth 6A.

DAVID MITCHELHILL-GREEN

The former Richmond Tank Depot measures 1,050 feet long and 320 feet wide. In preparing vehicles for shipment, workers would place bundles of recent magazines and newspapers into each Jeep or tank for the troops on the frontline to read.

Ford’s Richmond plant switched back to the production of civilian cars and trucks in 1945 and closed in 1955. In addition to the shipyards and the Tank Depot, Richmond had 54 other wartime support industries which precipitated one of America’s largest wartime housing projects. Catering for 24-hour, three-shift production also created the need for child minding and general health care. Other wartime sites in the Memorial Park not yet open to the public

include the Kaiser Hospital, which introduced the concept of pre-paid healthcare for his shipyard workers, and several Child Development Centres that have remained in continuous operation since opening over 60 years ago. A collection of wartime homes in Atchison village also remain intact in private hands.

DAVID MITCHELHILL-GREEN

RICHMOND TANK DEPOT Close to the shipyards, the Ford Motor Company’s assembly plant in Richmond was also one of the city’s primary sites supporting the war effort. Opened in 1931, this enormous complex -— the largest assembly plant built on the West Coast -— was converted in 1942 to wartime production. Under the command of the US Army’s Ordnance Department, the plant, now called the Richmond Tank Depot, assembled Jeeps and processed tanks and other combat vehicles prior to shipment abroad. This final production stage required the installation of small arms, radios and other communication equipment, together with modifications for the climates in which the vehicles would operate and be shipped. A year after switching from civilian production, the depot was processing hundreds of vehicles each month. In July 1943, for example, it received and dispatched 862 M3A3 light tanks, 134 M5A1 light tanks, 242 M4 medium tanks, 50 M16 gun motor carriages, four M8 75mm howitzer motor carriages, 51 3-inch howitzer motor carriages, 50 M8 armoured cars, 250 M3A1 scout cars, 217 M2-5 half tracks and 522 assorted trucks, tractors and trailers. The depot’s processing peaked in May 1944 when it dispatched more than 2,800 tanks and trucks. By the end of the war, the Richmond Tank Depot had processed and shipped a total 55,904 vehicles and assembled 49,359 Jeeps. (Due to its West Coast location, the majority of vehicles were used by the Marines in their amphibious landings across the Pacific.) Similar to the shipyards, a considerable number of women were also employed at the depot. Records at the beginning of October 1943 show 248 female and 672 male employees and by February 1945 29 per cent of the women in the depot were working on the Jeep assembly line. One particular girl was responsible for test-driving Jeeps for five miles before their final hand-over to the Ordnance Inspectors. She tested at least 20 Jeeps per day and, as they had come straight from the paint-curing oven, they were so hot that she was forced to sit on a pillow as protection from the radiant heat. Home Front working conditions, however, were often far more hazardous and an article in the New York Times on January 21, 1944 gave some horrendous statistics: ‘Industrial casualties (men and women) between Pearl Harbor and January 1 this year aggregated 37,500 killed or 7,500 more than the military dead, 210,000 permanently disabled and 4,500,000 temporarily disabled, or 60 times the number of military wounded and missing’.

The building was an outstanding example of 20th-century industrial architecture designed by architect Albert Kahn, known for the ‘daylight factory’ design that became his trademark. 31

JOE POTTER

JOE POTTER

For over 40 years, Oberfeldwebel Leo Raida (left) lay in a grave in Felixstowe Cemetery marked simply ‘Ein deutscher Soldat’. The enigma as to why he was buried as an unknown while his

crewman, Feldwebel Franz Zwissler, had a marked grave (right) has been lost to history but thanks to the dedication of Joe Potter (above) a named headstone (left) now marks his grave.

GERMAN WAR GRAVES IN BRITAIN and Feldwebel Franz Zwissler who lay in the adjoining grave. Zwissler was the pilot of a Messerschmitt Me 410 -– the first one of the type to have been lost to British defences -– which had been shot down in the sea off Felixstowe by a Mosquito of No. 85 Squadron on the night of July 13/14. With the ID reference it was then easy to confirm that the next grave contained the other crewman, Oberfeldwebel Leo Raida, whom we listed as missing on page 286 of Volume 3 of The Blitz. How his identity had been overlooked is not known but, thanks to Joe’s efforts, the VDK were able to erect a new headstone on the grave. It ought to be explained at this point that while many German servicemen, like these two, still lie in their original wartime graves, most bodies were exhumed in two phases during the 1960s. They were to be concentrated in a new cemetery established some 20 miles north of Birmingham on Cannock Chase. Not only was it a central location but the heathland was ideally reminiscent of the German countryside.

By Andy Saunders German servicemen lay buried in some 700 different sites in the UK — in municipal cemeteries and village churchyards all over the country — and more than 5,000 dead were exhumed to be transferred to Cannock. However, in some cases the next-of-kin did not want the original grave disturbed, and those buried in plots already landscaped by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) were left untouched to avoid spoiling the overall appearance. There are now over 1,350 individual German graves in 46 different counties, more than 950 being airmen from the Second World War. Having tasted success with the naming of Leo Raida’s grave, Joe was now fired up to carry out more investigations into missing German airmen and Andy Saunders devotes a chapter to describing Joe’s further discoveries in his latest book Finding the Foe (published by Grub Street in 2010: ISBN: 13:9781906502850).

REBECCA GREEN

NORTH WEALD AIRFIELD MUSEUM

In issue 100 we described how Joe Potter identified the occupant of a grave in Felixstowe Cemetery in Suffolk which was marked with a headstone simply inscribed: ‘Ein deutscher Soldat’. First querying the inscription with the cemetery superintendent, who told him that he had seen a reference somewhere to an ID disk in the records, Joe told us that ‘I thought that if I could obtain this number and an approximate date of death, it might be possible to get a name put on this grave, my main reason being that there may be a relative somewhere who would like to know where he was buried’. Joe started his research in his local library using our books on the Blitz which list all the German crews coming down in the UK. He then gained access to the original entry in the Burial Register to which the funeral director had added as an afterthought:‘58214/270’. Armed with this vital clue, Joe wrote to the German War Graves Service, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (VDK). It turned out that there had been a joint funeral on August 4, 1943 of the unidentified soldier

German aircrews were buried in over 700 cemeteries and churchyards throughout Britain: this is the funeral of the crew of Junkers Ju 88 (144475) which crashed at Stapleford Abbots, 32

Essex, on May 8, 1943. The RAF bearer party, transporting the four coffins draped with Nazi flags, has halted outside the churchyard at North Weald.

ATB

ANDY SAUNDERS COLLECTION

In the early days, funerals of German airmen were quite widely attended by members of the public but, when bombing began in earnest in September 1940, the attitude changed in the face of increasing civilian deaths. Thereafter funerals were low-key affairs although crews were still buried with full military honours. Here Leutnant Helmut Krüger and Oberfeldwebel Wilhelm Stolle are laid to rest at St Margaret’s Churchyard, Catton, Norfolk. The two men

were part of a crew of a Dornier 17 of 4./KG3 shot down in the sea off Scolt Head on August 21, 1940, their bodies being washed ashore at Brancaster. When the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge established their central cemetery in the Midlands, some 5,000 dead were exhumed and the remains re-interred in the German War Cemetery on Cannock Chase (see rear cover). Krüger and Stolle are both now buried in Block 5 (Graves 79 and 80).

On the night of March 14/15, 1944, the Luftwaffe returned to attack London after a break of two weeks in what they called Operation ‘Steinbock’ — to the British it was called the ‘Baby Blitz’. Fielding their entire bomber fleet on the Western Front, 140 aircraft reached London but nine failed to return, six of them crashing in Britain. Wing Commander D. Hayley-Bell and Flying Officer H. W. Uezzell in a Beaufighter of No. 68 Squadron intercepted a Junkers 88 and shot it down causing it to crash into a shop at Gants Hill near Ilford, Essex. Leutnant Paul Kohn and Unteroffizier Gerhard Donzyk were killed outright. Unteroffizier Claus Prodehl managed to bale out but died the following day from his injuries. The fourth crewman, Unteroffizier Hans-Rolf Eger, survived. Above: The three dead were buried on March 25 at Becontree Cemetery in Dagenham where three crewmen from a Junkers 88 of 9./KG6 had previously been interred, having been recovered from an earlier crash at Bowers Gifford, Essex, on May 8, 1943. They were Obergefreiter Paul Steinmann, Leutnant Fritz Morzik and Feldwebel Kurt Lebeda whose cross can be seen on the right.

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Andy explains that ‘over a period of nearly 15 years, Joe Potter has sought out the unknown German burials at Cannock and elsewhere in the British Isles and carefully reexamined the paper trails that invariably lead from the recording of the crash itself, to the original burials, through exhumations for removal to Cannock, and the burial registers themselves. Very often the clues are tortuous and sometimes tenuous; other times, as in the Raida case, they are clear and indisputable. However, to Joe, each pursuit of elusive facts has but one goal in sight: to see another name ticked off the missing list and yet another family told where their kin lies buried. To date, over 20 names have been (or are soon to be) added to graves previously marked with headstones inscribed as “unknown” through Potter’s indefatigable and tireless efforts. Without this valuable independent work, these men would doubtless remain missing. Also it is important to bear in mind that after the war, unlike the RAF’s Missing Research and Enquiry Unit, there was no organisation dealing with the identification and burial of German war dead. At the time of writing, the specific work undertaken by Joe Potter remains ongoing with at least three more cases pending.’

Following the removal of the Germans for re-burial at Cannock, all these grave spaces have now been re-used. The dead from Becontree Cemetery (now more commonly know as Eastbrookend Cemetery) in Dagenham now lie in Block 1. Leutnant Morzik lay in grave 863 at Becontree, to the right of Kurt Lebeda, but with his name spelt ‘Marryik’ in the burial register. At the request of his next of kin, he was repatriated to Freudenstadt in Germany in 1962. 33

GERMAN WAR DEAD IN BRITAIN IDENTIFIED BY JOE POTTER Date of Death

Name

Unit

July 5, 1940

Marchlowitz, Uffz Rudolf 8./KG30

Original Grave

Where Buried Today

Method of Identification

Folkestone (New) Cemetery

Still buried in Block O, Grave 11

Mortuary records

August 13, 1940 von der Groeben, Oblt Horst

Stab III./KG2 Milstrood Road Cemetery, Whitstable

Unmarked Grave

Identification number in burial register

August 13, 1940 Müller, Oblt Gerhard

8./KG2

Milstrood Road Cemetery, Whitstable

Unmarked Grave

Identification number in burial register

August 13, 1940 Trutwin, Ofw Arthur

5./JG53

Cremated Weymouth Crematorium

Ashes scattered Weymouth

Cremation records

August 15, 1940 Neumeyer, Uffz Arnulf

4./KG30

Bridlington Cemetery

Cannock War Cemetery Block 3, Grave 365

Process of elimination

Sept. 1, 1940

*Jackel, Fw Martin

15.(Z)/LG1

St Martin’s Churchyard, Brasted

Cannock War Cemetery Block 9, Collective Grave 34

Process of elimination

Sept. 1, 1940

*Rösler, Fl Heinz

15.(Z)/LG1

St Martin’s Churchyard, Brasted

Cannock War Cemetery Block 9, Collective Grave 34

Process of elimination

Sept. 6, 1940

Holzapfel, Gefr Karl

7./JG26

Folkestone (New) Cemetery

Still buried in Block O, Grave 28

Process of elimination

Sept. 20, 1940

Clauser, Uffz Erich

9./JG27

St Peter & Paul Churchyard, Ospringe

Cannock War Cemetery Block 1, Row 5, Grave 176

Process of elimination

Nov. 2, 1940

Enßlen, Hptm Wilhelm

Stab II./JG52 Folkestone (New) Cemetery

Still buried in Block O, Grave 404

Mortuary and funeral director’s records

Nov. 14, 1940

Vorbach, Fahr Erich

1./JG51

St Peter’s Churchyard, Broadstairs

Cannock War Cemetery Block 1, Grave 131

Process of elimination

Nov. 10, 1941

Weber, Oblt Heinz

2./KFG506

Thornaby -on-Tees Cemetery

Still buried in Section O, Row L, Grave 10

Burial slip held by the RAF Air Historical Branch.

August 5, 1942

*Bucholz, Uffz Friedrich 3./KFG106

Efford Cemetery, Plymouth

Cannock War Cemetery Block 9, Collective Grave 50

Aircraft code letters found in maintenance record book in wreckage

August 5, 1942

*Commes, Ogfr Eduard

3./KFG106

Efford Cemetery, Plymouth

Cannock War Cemetery Block 9, Collective Grave 50

Aircraft code letters found in maintenance record book in wreckage

August 5, 1942

*Jaggy, Uffz Adolf

3./KFG106

Efford Cemetery, Plymouth

Cannock War Cemetery Block 9, Collective Grave 50

Aircraft code letters found in maintenance record book in wreckage

August 5, 1942

*Sobotta, Gefr Günther

3./KFG106

Efford Cemetery, Plymouth

Cannock War Cemetery Block 9, Collective Grave 50

Aircraft code letters found in maintenance record book in wreckage

July 14, 1943

Raida, Ofw Leo

16./KG2

Felixstowe New Cemetery

Still buried in Plot B, Row K, Grave 2

Identification number in burial register

Sept. 6, 1943

Geisler, Hptm Kurt

3./SKG10

Bury St Edmunds Cemetery

Cannock War Cemetery Block 1, Grave 465

Process of elimination through pilot’s age

October 2, 1943 Beubler, Lt Günther

2./KG66

Hull (Northern) Cemetery

Still buried in Section 202, Grave 82

Burial Register

October 2, 1943 Fischer, Uffz Albert

2./KG66

Hull (Northern) Cemetery

Still buried in Section 202, Grave 83

Burial Register

January 22, 1944 Runge, St Fw Otto

V./KG2

Folkestone (New) Cemetery

Still buried in Block O, Grave 377

Association with known and named pilot buried in adjacent grave

This list of Luftwaffe personnel covers those where Joe Potter’s research has led to official confirmation and acceptance by the VDK as to the burial location of the casualty concerned. The specific work undertaken by Joe has been greatly assisted by the exhaustive records held by Peter Cornwell and Simon Parry. Joe 34

also extends his appreciation to Brian Bines, Melvin Brownless, Bob Collis, Chris Goss, Philippa Hodgkiss, who provided notes from the late Peter Foote, and Steve Vizard who have all been of great help in his research. (The asterisks indicate that these servicemen are buried in collective graves.)

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On the night of August 4/5, 1942, an attack was made on the docks at Swansea. Six aircraft failed to return, one from 3./Küstenfliegergruppe 106 crashing at Frogmore in Devon. This is the unmarked grave of the four crewmen, Unteroffizier Friedrich Bucholz, Obergefreiter Eduard Commes, Unteroffizier Adolf Jaggy and Gefreiter Günther Sobotta.

Unteroffizier Erich Clauser from 9./JG27 was shot down on September 20, 1940 and crashed at Ospringe in Kent. His body could not be identified and he was buried in the local churchyard of St Peter and Paul as an unknown German airman. When his remains were transferred to Cannock Chase, he was re-interred in this grave in Block 1.

‘One case that was possibly the simplest of them all was that of two Germans buried as unknown in Hull (Northern) Cemetery. Incredibly, when he checked the burial register for details of these two men, he found their names already recorded there; Leutnant Gunther Beubler and Unteroffizier Albert Fischer, and yet above their graves stood two headstones describing the occupants as unknown. Somehow there had been a failure along the way to record the names on the original grave markers; leastways it seems that nobody had ever bothered to check and that situation had remained unchanged since they were buried in 1943 ‘Both men had died on the night of October 2/3 when their Ju 188 from 2./KG66 crashed on a mud-bank about half a mile from Spurn lighthouse killing all four crew. Incredibly, Beubler’s centenarian mother was still living at the time his grave location was discovered by Joe, which gave a great deal of comfort to a still-grieving mother in her last days. ‘Perhaps, in view of the apparent simplicity of these two cases, one might ask why no official efforts have ever been made to clarify the identity of these unknowns. The answer is simple. Since the Iron Curtain was removed, the German War Graves Service has been very hard pressed to deal with discoveries, unmarked burials and derelict cemeteries in eastern Europe (see After the Battle No. 99), and the VDK has precious little in the way of manpower or fiscal resources to deal with such cases on a proactive basis. Dealing with them on a reactive basis is a struggle enough. It is also important to realise that the VDK is funded very much on charitable lines, completely different to the CWGC whose regular income is received from the governments of its various member countries on a proportional basis according to the number of war graves possessed by each Commonwealth nation. Consequently, the resources of the VDK are both stretched and limited, and it is for this reason that of the 19 graves identified by name through Joe Potter’s work, only two named headstones have so far been erected; that for Leo Raida and for another Messerschmitt 410 crew member, Stabsfeldwebel Otto Runge who had been lost on January 22, 1944, and was

buried in Folkestone (New) Cemetery. Whilst the newly-identified grave locations have been recorded in logs and registers, and listed on line, the headstones for the majority have been ordered but not yet inscribed or erected. ‘Another burial in Folkestone Cemetery that Joe has worked on — and solved — is the mysterious grave that is simply marked with the name “A. Schenck”. Hauptmann Wilhelm Enßlen had taken part in the Spanish Civil War as a fighter pilot and was one of only 28 men awarded the Spanish Cross in Gold with Swords and Diamonds. An experienced fighter leader, the 29-year-old

flier had taken part in the campaigns in Poland, France and the Battle of Britain, steadily adding to his score of claims. However, on November 2, 1940, he tangled in combat with a Spitfire flown by Squadron Leader Johnny Kent, the Canadian CO of No. 92 Squadron. ‘Kent describes the combat in graphic detail in his biography One of the Few: “The rest of the formation dived for the coast and did not attempt to turn and fight, at least all but one. We chased after the fleeing Germans and I caught up with this one and attacked. I found that I had picked an old hand; instead of just running away he waited

ANDY SAUNDERS COLLECTION

ANDY SAUNDERS COLLECTION

Left: In this grave at Cannock Chase lies Unteroffizier Arnulf Neumayer. He was the gunner on a Ju 88 shot down while on a bombing mission to Driffield aerodrome on August 15, 1940. The other three crewmen, Feldwebels Rudolf Bihr and Robert Pohl and Unteroffizier Severin Kürsch are already buried with named headstones in the same Block 3.

Leutnant Günther Beubler (left) was a member of the crew of a Junkers 188 shot down near Spurn lighthouse, Yorkshire, on the night of October 2/3, 1943. He was buried in Hull (Northern) Cemetery simply as an unknown German airman together with Unteroffizier Albert Fischer (right). However, the other two crewmen from 2./KG66, Unteroffiziers Heinz Urban and Erwin Pausch did have named graves and when Joe Potter checked, the names of Beubler and Fischer were found in the burial register. 35

Feldwebel Otto Runge was originally buried as unknown in Folkestone (New) Cemetery in Kent. His Messerschmitt 410 was shot down on January 22, 1944. Now his grave (No. 377 in Block O) has a named headstone.

36

Andy comments that ‘in his extraordinarily detailed account of this aerial duel, Kent is absolutely correct when he says that he must have picked on “an old hand”, and he is equally correct when he explains that the pilot was highly decorated although it had not been possible to establish his identity. However it appears that Enßlen had managed to bale out. Quite what happened is

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Left: Another enigmatic inscription on a headstone in the same cemetery was this one simply bearing the name ‘A. Schenk’ with no further details as to date of birth or death. It was not until 1982, when Steve Vizard recovered the serial plate (below), that the mystery was solved. This particular Messerschmitt 109, serial 3784, was flown by Hauptmann Wilhelm Enßlen (the family insist on the use of the German symbol for double ‘s’). Shot down on November 2, 1940, for some unknown reason the pilot had been buried under a spurious name. Right: On his wedding day.

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until I was very close and then suddenly broke to the right and into the sun. I momentarily lost sight of him but as he continued to turn he moved out of the glare of the sun and a tail chase developed. As we came round full circle he repeated his manoeuvre but this time I pulled my sights through him and, although losing him under the nose of my aircraft, gave a short burst in the hopes that I might get some tracer near enough to him to frighten him into running for home. I misjudged my man, however, and he continued his tactics and apparently had no intention of running at all but finally after the fourth or fifth circle I drew my sights through him again, gave a longish burst and was startled when he suddenly appeared from under my nose and we very nearly collided. I still have a very vivid mental picture of him looking up at me as we flashed past not 20 feet apart. I distinctly remember that he had his goggles up on his helmet and his oxygen mask in place. “I also recall the gashes along the side of the Messerschmitt where my bullets had struck and the tail of the aircraft with practically no fabric left on it and a control cable streaming back with a small piece of metal whirling around on the end of it. It is one of those pictures of a split-second’s action that remains indelibly imprinted on one’s mind. I did not, in the heat of the moment, fully appreciate the significance of all this and was jubilant when I saw that my opponent was reversing his turn, a fatal move in a fight, and gave him one last burst from ‘fine quarter’ into his left side. A thin trail of grey smoke appeared and the aircraft rolled quite slowly onto its back and started down. I immediately thought that he was getting away and followed him with throttle wide open hoping to catch him as he levelled out. “The last time I glanced at the airspeed indicator it was registering something like 450 mph but still the Me 109 outdistanced me and I finally lost it against the ground. While continuing my dive and waiting to see the grey plan-form of it as it pulled out, I was startled to see a vivid red flash and a great cloud of jet-black smoke appear as the machine hit the ground and exploded. “A few days later the Intelligence Officer told me that the pilot had been quite a highly decorated major but it had not been possible to establish his identity. Apparently I had shot away his controls and he was on the point of baling out when my last burst killed him. This was deduced from the fact that his fighting harness was picked up undone and undamaged and the left half of his tunic was found with six bullet holes in it.”

ANDY SAUNDERS COLLECTION

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unclear although it is known that he fell into the sea just beyond the low water mark at Dymchurch. According to mortuary records, he was “rescued” from the sea, which rather implies that he was pulled out alive and died later, but it seems more likely that he fell dead with an unopened parachute. What is not debatable is that his body defied identification and he was ultimately buried under the name “A. Schenck”. Quite where this name came from is a mystery, possibly it was a tailor’s name on a piece of clothing, or maybe the name of a previous owner on his parachute harness. ‘In 1982 a piece of linking evidence was found when Steve Vizard excavated the wreck of a Messerschmitt 109 at Hagueland, Burmarsh, just a few yards from the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway. With the knowledge from RAF air intelligence reports that this crash had happened on November 2, 1940, and the fact that the unknown German airman who was pulled out of the sea just a short distance away had fallen from this aircraft, the discovery of the main aircraft data plate showing it to be a Bf 109 E-4 with the Werk-Nummer 3784 confirmed this to be the aircraft of Hauptmann Enßlen. ‘Once more, Joe Potter assembled all those pieces of the puzzle and presented his case to the VDK and was delighted to discover later that his evidence had been accepted. Whilst the headstone is awaiting replacement at the time of writing, it has at least been officially confirmed that the Schenk grave is indeed that of Enßlen. His elderly widow, left wondering for nearly 70 years as to what had happened to her husband, at last knows his resting place.’

STEVE FIELDING

HM PRISON PENTONVILLE DURING WORLD WAR II EXECUTED BURIALS

A

B

C D

WHEELWRIGHT STREET

CALEDONIAN ROAD GOOGLE

Pentonville prison, designed in the Victorian era as a model for British prisons, was needed because of the ending of capital punishment for lesser crimes and the reduction in transportation to the colonies. Opened in 1842, it was also one of the two London gaols where hangings were carried out, Pentonville taking over Newgate’s gallows for executions performed in north London, while Wandsworth dealt with those south of the Thames. Early notable executions were Dr Hawley Crippen in November 1910 and Roger Casement in August 1916. During the Second World War six of the German spies who landed in Britain and could not be used in the Double Cross system were also executed there (see After the Battle No. 11), as well as seven German prisoners of war convicted of murder in 1945 (see After the Battle No. 17). Before capital punishment was ended in Britain in 1964, a total of 120 prisoners had met their end at the hands of the hangman in Pentonville, including Neville Heath who brutally killed two women in 1946, and mass murderer John Christie in 1953. The last man to be hung at the prison was Edwin Bush on July 6, 1961. On the morning of September 3, 1939 there were 270 inmates in Pentonville. The declaration of war that morning must have sent considerable ripples of panic throughout the prison system for no less than 245 of those inmates were transferred that day, being dispersed between Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford and Bedford gaols. The 25 who remained were sent to Winchester and Leicester prisons the following day. Although devoid of inmates, the prison was used instead to house staff families as an entry in the Governor’s Journal for September 5 reads: ‘The prison is now empty. The families slept in the prison last night’. The same seems to have happened the following night. However, when none of the feared air raids had occurred, on December 4 prisoners were once again received and the roll began to rise steadily.

The Victorian prison of Pentonville is situated on the Caledonian Road in North London. Designed by Sir Joshua Webb, it was built between 1840-42. 37

Although the prison was hit in September and October 1940, and again in April 1941, the most spectacular damage was caused during the major raid on London on the night of Saturday, May 10/11, 1941. Luftflotte 2 and 3 dropped over 700 tons of bombs and more than 85,000 incendiaries. Although the aiming point was the East End of London, over 60 boroughs

A reminder of the war occurred on May 16 when a group of ten aliens arrived, imprisoned under Regulation 13B of the War Emergency legislation, a sign that a prison has its uses in wartime as well as in times of peace, and by July 28 there were 473 foreign nationals held in the prison. A party of Members of Parliament led by Emmanuel Shinwell visited Pentonville on August 1. That same month concerts for the aliens were held on the 19th and 26th and on September 2, the latter two being given during a period of air raids. There were alerts on almost every night from August 24 until the end of the year, when they began to be more spasmodic.

On September 10 a bomb fell on C Yard, causing no damage, but a second bomb damaged four prison quarters in neighbouring Wheelwright Street. On September 25 an incendiary fell into the prison grounds, doing little harm but the first real damage seems to have been caused by a bomb which fell outside the wall on October 14. The Governor’s Journal reads: ‘A Wing damaged by falling masonry from air shaft. Boundary wall plus flat quarters damaged by HE bomb’. During this period of intensive raids, the daily prison population varied between about 350 and 475 but the routine remained much as it had ever been, and Christmas was celebrated with the usual services and a concert.

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ISLINGTON LOCAL HISTORY CENTRE

After the return of prisoners, the prison seems to have run as normal save that fire practices were fairly common. On Christmas Eve, a Salvation Army band played to the inmates (by now numbering some 200) and the next day the Empire broadcast and King’s speech were relayed to them. A sign of the times was the party of officers ‘in ARP clothing’ who demonstrated fire procedures on February 7, 1940. There had been air raid warnings at the outbreak of war but they had died down quickly, not recurring until March 2 but even this came to nothing. Prison life continued as normal, including such a relative rarity as a concert on April 14.

were hit and over 2,000 fires started. The Luftwaffe lost 11 aircraft. (This was the same night that Rudolf Hess decided to fly to Scotland — see After the Battle No. 58.) The prison wall was breached in Wheelwright Street, this photo being submitted to the censor by the News Chronicle on May 16 but not authorised for publication until the following month.

The houses on the opposite side of the road, occupied by members of the prison staff, were also hit. Sarah Arnold, 38

George and Dorothy Hirst and Rose Jeffery all lost their lives, but the names of the prisoners killed were not released.

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Normally, photographs of bomb damage could not be published before 28 days had elapsed to avoid giving the Luftwaffe clues as to how accurate their bombing had been. This Evening News photo is dated June 9 at which point workmen were at work, bricking up the gap which had temporarily been secured with barbed wire.

Although regular raids had ceased, Pentonville remained in a state of alert with fire practices a major concern. This was no doubt a sensible policy for on the night of April 16/17, 1941, incendiary bombs set fire to the Deputy Governor’s house, the reception area, tailor’s shop, fenders shop, basket shop, the roofs of A and B Wings, the chapel and ladder shop. The Governor’s Journal records that ‘all [fires were] dealt with successfully’. Further evidence that Pentonville was being forced into a new role by wartime events was the reception on April 29 of 85 naval prisoners. At unlock on the morning of Sunday, May 11, there were 510 prisoners in the gaol when the last major raid recorded that three HE bombs fell on the prison, almost cutting C Wing in two and killing 17: eleven prisoners, two members of staff and four members of staff families. In addition several buildings were damaged and a hole was blown in the south wall. A major catastrophe of this nature was bound to disrupt the prison and the following day 200 inmates were transferred to Wandsworth; others due for discharge that week were released early. The experience of May 11 seems almost to have been a cathartic one, shaking the prison back to its senses, for nothing out of the ordinary directly attributable to the war seems to have happened thereafter until January 1942 when Pentonville was taken out of the control of the Prison Commissioners, becoming a civil prison for the duration of the war. It was handed back to the Commissioners in January 1946. The damage to C Wing, though repaired immediately, was not rectified fully until the late 1950s when the present education and gymnasium complex was built, reuniting the two halves of the wings, and the repairs to the south wall can still be seen quite plainly from outside the prison in Wheelwright Street.

The breach remains to be seen as one of London’s blitz landmarks. 39

Right: This amazing photo was taken in 1943 over the lake used for an RAF bombing range east of the relief airfield at Airdrie in Alberta. The horizon would be the approximate location of the RAF’s Empire Air Training Scheme base at Penhold. This is the type of air space the RAF trained in over southern Alberta from 1942 to 1944. Harvard FE824 was taken on charge by No. 37 Service Flying Training School RAF Calgary on February 9, 1943 and struck off charge by the Royal Canadian Air Force on October 2, 1946. Total flying time 2,053 hours. Three and a half months after the outbreak of the Second World War, a group of men gathered in the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King for the signing of an ‘Agreement Relating to the Training of Pilots and Aircrews in Canada’. It was just before midnight on December 16, 1939, but King insisted the document be signed on the 17th as that happened to be his birthday! This was the simple beginning of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), known in Britain as the Empire Air Training Scheme. In the spring of 1940, the war took a turn for the worse, which put more pressure on aerodromes and airspace in the United Kingdom causing a downturn in training activities. On July 13 the Canadian Government received a request from the RAF that they wished to transfer four service flying training schools to Canada. The new Canadian Air Minister, the Hon. Charles ‘Chubby’ Power, replied that the four schools could easily be accommodated, then added: ‘If the British wished to transfer more schools to Canada, room for them would be found, however it must be understood all costs for the RAF schools must be borne by the United Kingdom’. At once the RAF revised its request to include eight service flying training schools, two air observer schools, one bombing and gunnery school, one air navigation school, one general reconnaissance school and one torpedo bombing school. The RAF was coming to Canada in force!

THE EMPIRE AIR TRAINING SCHEME IN CANADA Between September 9, 1940 and November 3, 1944, the RAF operated 26 aircrew training schools in Canada, plus No. 31 Radio Direction Finding School at Clinton, Ontario, which was the only one of its kind in North America, training both Americans and Canadians alongside the RAF. No. 31 Personal Depot at Moncton, New Brunswick, was also a one of a kind as it was the main reception centre for all members of

By Clarence Simonsen the RAF moving by ship to and from the United States and Canada. The main port of arrival became Halifax, Nova Scotia, or New York City. A quick change from boat to troop train led to a new adventure in a new country. At Moncton the RAF were split into groups of 50 or more and sent west to

CLARENCE SIMONSEN

On August 29, 1940, the complete staff and equipment for No. 7 Service Flying Training School (SFTS) set sail for Canada. An airfield at Collins Bay, Ontario, was already being built for them and, to avoid confusion with other BCATP schools, they became No. 31 SFTS. (From this point on, all numbers 31 and above were reserved for RAF schools transferred or formed in Canada during the war.)

September 15, 1942, and Pilot Officer Don Webber and Flying Officer Taffie Davies wait for transport at Bowden station, some 60 miles north of Calgary. 40

The train station was located on the left where the second set of tracks runs today. The old driveway to the entrance can be seen filled with snow.

CLARENCE SIMONSEN

Left: Arriving at RAF Airdrie. Right: The Albert Pallet Company is now on the site although the H-huts on the left have gone. various Elementary Flying Training Schools, the average trans-continental train journey taking at least five days. A total of 47,406 British airmen passed through Moncton, the greater number of these pilots receiving their

The water storage tank was built by the Royal Air Force in the summer of 1942 for firefighting.

wings in the three prairie provinces where six schools were located in Alberta, seven in Saskatchewan and two in Manitoba. (Due to the political climate, no RAF training schools were located in Quebec.)

While under training, 899 British airmen were killed in Canada and their graves lie scattered across the vast country. They received no ‘wings’; were given no recognition, and they lie forgotten today.

PENHOLD

INNISFAIL

BOWDEN

AIRDRIE

CALGARY

DE WINTON

41

This photo taken at RAF De Winton in 1944 by Flight Sergeant Geoff Sellers looks across the parade ground towards the Cornell trainers parked in front of the hangars. The wall of the butts to the rifle range is on the right.

Above: Instructor Reg Eastwood (left) with Flying Officer Gafney. Nothing more is known about him other than his photo album came up for auction in Britain in 1985. Below: From 1944 . . . to 2010. Only the rifle range still stands at De Winton, now abandoned and returned to farmland.

CLARENCE SIMONSEN

No. 31 EFTS, DE WINTON In April 1941 the first intake of RAF personnel for No. 31 EFTS at De Winton boarded a troop train which took them to Greenock, Scotland. They were put aboard an Irish cattle boat that had been freshly painted but, as LAC Reg Routledge recalled, ‘the fresh paint slightly improved the looks but did nothing to disguise the smell of the former occupants’. Two days later they arrived in Iceland where they spent two nights sleeping on the cold floor of a Quonset hut. They left Reykjavik on the MV California and docked at Halifax in the late afternoon, followed by the train ride to Moncton. After the long trip to Western Canada they were housed in new H-huts at No. 37 SFTS, at Calgary, then still under construction, until the De Winton base was ready for occupation on June 18, 1941. LAC Leslie Landels arrived at De Winton in October 1942. Under the second phase of the BCATP, student pilots from other countries were now mixed in with RAF students and Leslie recalls his class had many other nationals: Polish, French, Czechoslovakian, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadians. On December 8 during a dog-fight between a British and Czech student, the two Tiger Moths collided. The RAF pilot parachuted to safely but the Czech, LAC Kingsley Perera, never made it. He was buried with full military honours at Cemetery Hill in Calgary.

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CLARENCE SIMONSEN CLARENCE SIMONSEN

CLARENCE SIMONSEN

Above: Classmates of Gafney, L-R: Ian Reekie, Ted Jones, Ted Ivison and Geoff Knowles. The picture was taken on the western side of Hangar No. 1 of which only the concrete base remains today (below). Nine RAF pilots were killed at De Winton and all are buried in Calgary (Burnsland) Cemetery (see page 54). They are LAC Michael Woozley in Steerman FJ809 on October 5, 1942; Pilot Officer Anthony Frost in Tiger Moth 4072 on October 25, 1942; LAC Kingsley Perera (right) in Tiger Moth 4200 on December 8, 1942; LAC Alfred White in Tiger Moth 5862 on December 8, 1942; Flight Sergeant Allan McCue and Sergeant Pilot John Fleming in Cornell 14449 on July 13, 1943 (Sergeant McCue died of wounds on the 15th); Sergeant Pilot Ivan Dodds and LAC Arthur Bloxham in Cornell 15026 on September 1, 1943, and Sergeant Pilot Clive Lord in Cornell 15025 on December 28, 1943.

RAF tractors used for towing aircraft were sold off to farmers after the war and two still remain at De Winton today. 43

Left: Flight Sergeant pilots at RAF Bowden in 1942 with their instructor, Flight Sergeant Hickling, on the far right. Right: These are the civilian bowser girls who took over in July that year with a line-up of Stearmans. In 1942, RAF Bowden had three flights with over one hundred students learning on the Tiger Moth and it was only to be expected that accidents occurred, especially when student pilots began to fly solo. The first of 117 accidents at Bowden occurred in the spring of 1942 when a Tiger Moth in difficulty almost struck the Thompson house before crashing into the cattle fence and bursting into flames. On this occasion the pilot and instructor escaped injury but three other students were killed flying the Tiger: LAC Reginald Whyte on February 19, 1942; LAC Charles Mann on

August 3, 1942, and LAC Norman Presland on September 10, 1942. The young pilots remained training in Canada for an average of 18 months. A large number fell in love with Canadian girls and some — like John Bugbee — returned to make their home there after the war. In 1985 I interviewed a Mrs Elsie Duncan. She had married a Canadian and raised a family but she never forgot her very first love, LAC Norman Presland, whose photo and the newspaper report on his fatal accident she still treasured.

Ab initio trainers were Tiger Moths, the first fatality occurring on February 19, 1942 when LAC Reginald Whyte was killed. Above: This is another near-fatal crash which took place in April 1942 . . .

CLARENCE SIMONSEN

No. 32 EFTS, BOWDEN In August 1940 the Canadian Government took over John Thompson’s farm located two miles north of the town of Bowden, Alberta. Although the family remained in the farmhouse and the barn remained standing, both buildings were in direct line of the new runway built by the Western Canada Construction Company of Edmonton. John Bugbee had joined the RAF in 1938 and was posted to ground defence at Biggin Hill in Kent. He went to France with No. 85 Squadron on September 7, 1939 where he remained until the evacuation in late May 1940. In May 1941 he was sent to the RAF depot in Manchester from where he and 400 others took the train to Scotland. They boarded the troopship Brittanic but not until they had been at sea for two days were they informed that the next stop was Canada! The ship docked at Halifax on May 28 and the following day they arrived at No. 31 Personnel Depot at Moncton. Four days and five nights later they arrived at No. 39 SFTS at Swift Current, Saskatchewan, (see After the Battle No. 41) which was still under construction. John became the clerk under the RAF chief flying instructor. New Tiger Moths from the RCAF arrived and flight training began in mid-June 1941. When the ground party moved from Swift Current on September 15 they found that No. 32 EFTS at Bowden was still not finished. John was the last to arrive in midOctober and recalls that there was no heat in any of the buildings. He said that while the single paraffin heater attempted to heat his room, the air temperature was freezing so that even the ink in his fountain pen froze! He would place the pen on the heater and continue writing until it froze again. Ground crews worked outdoors with only wood fires to keep them warm. In early November steam-heat was provided and flight training got underway on November 16.

. . . In difficulty, the Tiger veered off the NE-SW runway closely missing the Thompson farm before ending up in a cattle fence. 44

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Lives were lost and hearts were broken. Elsie Duncan never forgot LAC Norman Presland (centre) who lost his life on September 10, 1942. His Tiger Moth collided with another and although he baled out he was too low for the parachute to save him. She retained this press cutting (left) on the accident. Right: He was laid to rest in Innisfail Cemetery where 13 RAF airmen killed while training at Bowden were buried. THE AIRCRAFT During the Second World War, Canada refused to accept the offer of lend-lease from the United States as it was felt that this would jeopardise its national sovereignty. Instead the Canadians insisted on paying for all their aircraft, as well as supplying Canadian and American-built aircraft to the RAF schools in Canada. While the first RAF Elementary Flying Training Schools received RCAF Tiger Moths, the RAF was to supply their school’s permanent aircraft complement. However, in late 1941, the RAF found that the Canadian and British elementary trainer production was fully committed so they turned to the most obvious choice: American aircraft on lend-lease. On October 17, 1941, RAF personnel inspected the USAAF PT-17 at the Stearman Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas, and requested a number of alterations for RAF winter training in Canada. The new designation was PT-27 and a contract for 300 aircraft was signed on November 5. Shortly thereafter the company asked the RAF if they would accept production line PT-27s without the modifications to speed up delivery. Then, as soon as the components for the modifications were available, they would be shipped to Canada for installation by the RAF which was agreed. One PT-17 which retained its USAAF serial number (41-25453) was quickly supplied for flight testing and to prepare the Pilot’s Notes, and the bulk order was delivered to Canada beginning in March 1942. The USAAF serial numbers were 42-15570 through 42-15869. The RAF serial numbers became FD968 to FD999, FJ741 to FJ999 and FK100 to FK108. Eight of these aircraft were assigned to RCAF’s No. 3 Flying Instructor School at Arnprior, Ontario, with the other 292 going to the RAF schools in Alberta: No. 31 EFTS RAF at De Winton; No. 32 EFTS at Bowden, No. 36 EFTS at Pearce and No. 37 at Calgary. (No. 36 EFTS operated from March 30 to August 14, 1942 when it closed. Their Stearmans were then flown to Bowden and De Winton. No. 2 Flying Instructors School, RCAF, opened at Pearce in May 1943.) As the harsh Canadian winter approached, no cold weather modifications had arrived for the Stearmans, most important being a cockpit canopy. Instead pilots had to be issued with leather masks to try to prevent

Some Bowden crash sites were on water, this student coming to grief while chasing ducks with his Tiger! The chap in the bathing trunks is Air Engineer George Frost whose duty it was to investigate all aircraft accidents at the base.

It was on September 19, 1942 that the one and only fatal crash of a Stearman occurred. On a warm Canadian harvest day, Flying Instructor Pilot Officer Gordon Williams and his pupil LAC Owen Wynne took off in FJ923 but they never returned to base. The crash site was found in a farmer’s field, where the aircraft had forcefully impacted the ground, killing both pilots. Cause unknown. George took the photos, the man in white coat being the RAF Medical Officer at Bowden, Doc Lawton. 45

With its open cockpit, the PT-27 was totally unsuited for the harsh Canadian winter. LAC Archie Pennie (left) was one of the last to train on the aircraft. Above: He obtained his wings on December 5, 1942 and the following day had the unpleasant task of delivering his Stearman to No. 37 SFTS at Calgary from where American pilots ferried the aircraft back to the States. their faces freezing, and on October 14, all PT-27 flying training came to a halt. The only fully modified PT-27 (RAF serial FK108) arrived in Canada on October 23 for testing but it was too late. On November 28 the decision was made to fly the remaining 287 PT-27s to the USAAF for equal number of Fairchild Cornells which had an enclosed cockpit. American bone-chilled ferry pilots flew the Stearmans to Great Falls, Montana, as a new chapter in the RAF training was about to begin, PHASE TWO — JULY 1942 The spring of 1942 saw many profound changes for the RAF training scheme in Canada. The original agreement was due to expire on March 31, 1943, and Canada’s financial responsibilities for air training and the cost of building the new RAF schools in Canada had increased enormously. On a visit to Washington in April 1942, Prime Minister King asked President Roosevelt if the Americans would like to be involved in future. Roosevelt thought it was a good idea and suggested that all the Allied nations with air training programmes be invited to a special conference in Ottawa. However, having been taken by surprise, the British Government was not amused and strongly opposed the idea. The conference included delegates from the Free French, China, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Norway, Yugoslavia and Poland. The first part involved the co-ordination of the BCATP and USAAF air training plans but nothing came of this until April 1943 when the US and Canada formed a committee to thrash out the details. The second part of the conference was restricted to New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Unlike the original signing of BCATP, where hard-line bargaining and in-fighting was so conspicuous, business was easily disposed of and the British quickly agreed to the amalgamation of the RAF schools into the BCATP. The new agreement was to run from July 1, 1942 to March 31, 1945 at a total cost of $1,446,310,000. The United Kingdom’s share was 723 million Canadian dollars which included $283,500,362 in lend-lease material. Elementary Flying Training Schools now went through numerous changes. Due to the rapid expansion of the second phase of the training scheme, the schools were given four new classes: Class A: training for up to 90 pupils. Class B: training for up to 120 pupils. Class C: training for up to 180 pupils. Class D: training for up to 240 pupils. Also all RAF elementary schools now came under control of civilian management 46

which freed some 2,000 ground personnel for service elsewhere, and hundreds of RAF flying instructors were posted to other schools. For example, No. 32 EFTS at Bowden was taken over by the Edmonton Flying Club on July 20, 1942. The Chief Air Engineer was

George Frost who had come to Canada in 1920, joining the club in 1926. George recalled the age of the RAF student pilots began to change in the summer of 1942 as more combat veterans were coming to Canada for pilot training.

In July 1942, the running of No. 32 EFTS was taken over by the Edmonton Flying Club which freed many RAF instructors for other duties. The Bowden magazine took its name from Shakespeare: ‘. . . came the three corners of the world in arms. And we shall shock them. Naught shall make us rue, if England to itself do rest but true . . .’

Although the replacement for the Stearman had an enclosed cockpit, George Frost considered the Cornell a death trap and as a result eight pilots were killed while flying them at Bowden. Above and below: George pictured the crash of 10740 on August 27, 1943 taking the lives of Flight Lieutenant Ralph Mount and LAC Cuthbert Ellis. LAC Ivon Davies

had been killed the previous month in 14409, later Cornell fatalities being Sergeant Pilot Barry Thompson and LAC Nevil Armstrong in 14395 on October 26, 1943; Flight Sergeant James Fowler and LAC Charles De Wever in 14396 on May 14, 1944 and Sergeant Pilot Gordon Bennett on August 26, 1944 in Cornell 14488.

THE CANADIAN-BUILT FAIRCHILD CORNELL PT-26A In 1943, the Canadian Government adopted the Fairchild Cornell PT-26A as the primary trainer in the BCATP. Built by Fleet Aircraft Ltd in Toronto, Ontario, unfortunately they became killer aircraft in the RCAF and RAF as George Frost recalls: ‘We switched to Cornell II in May 1943. The training order stated “Do not overstress the Cornell” but what we did not know was during construction there was a fault in the leading edge of the main wing at the root which caused the wing to shear off in a dive. This killed a number of good RAF chaps at Bowden. The Cornell should have been grounded after the first crash. Eventually, reinforcement of the centre section main spar corrected the trouble.’ A total of eight RAF pilots were killed in the Cornell trainer at Bowden. No. 36 SFTS, PENHOLD In March 1940, farmland at Penhold, Alberta, was earmarked as a site for an RCAF Elementary Flying Training School but these plans were changed in July when the RCAF Aerodrome Development Committee approved the construction of a Service Flying Training School there for the Royal Air Force. The Doncaster Construction Company of Edmonton started work in November 1940, continuing throughout the winter in temperatures of minus 35 degrees F. By August 1941, five hangars and 31 other buildings were ready for the RAF. In the last week of July, the nucleus for RAF Penhold sailed from the Clyde to Halifax and on August 23 RAF No. 36 SFTS opened for business under the command of Group Captain W. B. Farrington with over a thousand members of the RAF. Two days later the first Airspeed Oxford was received, the first fatal accident taking place on January 6, 1942 when LAC Philip Bushell crashed in Oxford AS523. The 21 RAF students who lost their lives under training at Penfold are buried in Red Deer Cemetery.

January 6, 1942 — LAC Philip Bushell’s wrecked Airspeed Oxford AS523. 47

RAF RELIEF AIRFIELD, INNISFAIL In October 1941, the land of four Innisfail farmers was expropriated by the Canadian Government for constructing an RAF relief airfield for No. 36 Service Flying Training School at Penhold. Sections of land were taken from four farmers: Lyman Melrose, Dave Bateman, Les Munro and Jack Stubbs. Situated on the corner where Highway 54 makes two bends, building work was begun in April 1942 by the Crown Paving & Contracting Company of Edmonton. The field had one hangar with control tower, an H-hut, a motor transport garage, and three paved runways in a triangular pattern, each 1,000 yards long. Training ceased in September 1944 and on November 1 the land was turned over to Crown Assets Corporation and sold. The barracks and hangar were dismantled in July 1946 although the MT shed remained until 1990. In 1984 the Innisfail Flying Club took over the airfield.

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Innisfail airfield. The RAF nick-named it ‘Big Bend’ from the adjacent road layout.

RAF RELIEF AIRFIELD, AIRDRIE In the summer of 1940 the RCAF Aerodrome Development Committee selected 640 acres of farmland two miles east of the village of Airdrie for the construction of a relief airfield for No. 37 Service Flying Training School at Calgary. It opened in the autumn of 1941 and for the first year operated for training pilots of multi-engine aircraft (Avro Ansons and Airspeed Oxfords) doing touch and go landings from the main base. The original buildings comprised a hangar, one H-hut

Above: The first RAF casualty at Calgary was LAC Ernest Thomson who was killed in this crash on December 5, 1941. The Airspeed Oxford AS365 had been taken on the strength of No. 37 SFTS on August 20. Right: Ernest Thomson’s grave lies in Section G of Calgary’s Burnsland Cemetery (see page 54). 48

and three service buildings but in August 1942 it was expanded to include another H-hut, two service buildings, plus three buildings for the assembly of small smoke bombs. Two observation towers were constructed in 1942 and used until the RAF left April 1944. The RCAF re-opened Airdrie that August, using Cessna Cranes for bombing practice on the nearby lake. In March 1945 Harvards arrived from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, and bomb training continued until September 1945 when the base finally closed.

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No. 37 SFTS, CALGARY No. 37 SFTS was established on McCall airfield located in north-west Calgary, Alberta, and was opened on October 22, 1941. Calgary had been designated as No. 4 Training Command Headquarters at the beginning of the month, responsible for all BCATP operations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. No. 37 SFTS became the administrative and operational control centre for all the RAF schools in Alberta, closing in March 1944.

The airfield lives on . . . this is the same view in April 2010.

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In 1957 the abandoned runways were used as a race-track, while the ex-RAF buildings were purchased by Don Southland and used for the manufacture of prefabricated trailers for the oil industry. In 1969, Tom Conroy purchased the airfield and formed the Airdrie Country Club of the Air, turning it into a friendly base for all local pilots. The Conroys also owned and flew four bright yellow RCAF vintage Harvard trainers, performing aerobatics at numerous local air shows. Tom was killed in a crash in 1979 but his wife continued to run the airfield until she sold it in 1998.

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The RAF bases in Alberta were built on the north-west staging route that ferried American aircraft to Edmonton, Alaska, and on to the Soviet Union. Many Bell P-39 Airacobras and Douglas C-47s in Russian markings landed on the RAF airfields. On April 14, 1944, an American Douglas Digby was returning from Alaska, when it lost an oil line and made an emergency landing at Airdrie but became stuck in the snow-covered wet field. The old bomber landed just short of the southeast runway and was towed to the hangar. Once the oil line was repaired, she took off and headed south to Great Falls, Montana, in the United States.

And the Harvards also live on. Left: These RAF pilots who received their wings had just flown their aircraft to Airdrie to have smoke bombs fitted. Right: Thirty years later, Tom Conroy

(rear right) and his wife Gwen (left) purchased the airfield from where they flew four vintage RCAF Harvards at local air shows. Tom was killed in 1979 and Gwen passed away in 2006. 49

MOSQUITO ‘F’ FOR FREDDIE In 1993 I was conducting research into the history of Airdrie airfield and during an interview with Burt Sharp of Olds I noticed he had a number of photos of the famous Mosquito ‘F for Freddie’ taken at No. 37 SFTS. I asked where he got them and he told me that his sister was a girlfriend of an RAF pilot Maurice Biggs and had taken them just before he took off in ‘Freddie’ on May 10, 1945. Maurice had joined the RAF in 1938 aged 17 and initially trained as an air gunner. In September 1940, he completed a tour of duty with No. 77 Squadron flying Whitleys and was awarded the DFC. For the next year he was a gunnery instructor but he applied for pilot training and arrived at No. 31 EFTS at Bowden in September 1942. During this period he met and dated Miss Sharp from Olds, Alberta. Flight Lieutenant Briggs returned to England where he completed a further 107 operations. In December 1944 he and his co-pilot, Flying Officer John Baker, were transferred to Transport Command to ferry Canadian-built Mosquitos to England. In late April 1945, they were assigned to take a Mosquito to Canada for the 8th Victory Bond drive but en route their aircraft developed problems so they had to turn back. They were given instead Mosquito Mk IX known as ‘F’ for Freddie. As one of the RAF’s most famous aircraft, LR503 had flown her last operation to bomb the marshalling yards at Leipzig on April 10, 1945. Now ‘Freddie’ was heading to Canada where Briggs thrilled the crowds with his low-level flying displays on a series of one day stopovers beginning at Toronto before heading west. 50

taking display over their city on May 9, 1945. Here the Mossie is pictured beating up the tower on the municipal airport.

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Mosquito ‘F’ for Freddie had made over 200 operational flights over the Continent of Europe before Calgarians enjoyed a breath-

Local historian Richard de Boer beside the tower 65 years later.

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Left: The Palliser Hotel on 9th Avenue South West, now dwarfed by tall buildings, (right) was a well-known haunt of RAF pilots so Flight Lieutenant Briggs could not resist a low-level pass . . .

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Briggs arrived at Calgary on the afternoon of May 9 and before landing he put on an aerial display over the streets of the city. He buzzed downtown flying around and over the roof-top of the Palliser Hotel which was the RAF’s party venue known as the ’Paralyser’, and also where he had romanced some of his ladies. Briggs was home and he wanted everyone to know it. That evening a huge party was held at the hotel in honour of Briggs, Baker, and the end of the war in Europe. It is not known if Miss Sharpe attended this party but she was certainly invited to a special luncheon held there the following day. After lunch they were due to fly north to Penhold, then south to Lethbridge, and back to Calgary that evening. The departure of LR503 was delayed an hour due to minor repairs and that was when Miss Sharpe took her photo. . . . and even lower past the Hudson Bay Company. He flew down 1st Street below the top floor at 300 mph!

Enthusiastic crowds swarm round ‘F’ for Freddie after she landed at Calgary’s McCall airfield. Note the Russian C-47 in the background. 51

GLENBOW ARCHIVES

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The last photo taken by Miss Sharpe 20 minutes before Flight Lieutenant Briggs (right) and Flying Officer Baker took off.

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Having struck the flagpole on the control tower and then the aerials on the hangar roof, the Mosquito lost its port wing.

The flagpole and metal aerials before being struck. 52

First point of impact — the mounting for the flagpole still extant.

The direction of travel for ‘F’ for Freddie after the impact. The Mosquito tumbled for half a mile over the H-huts and just cleared the farm buildings before hitting the ground and skidding 300 yards to its doom.

The final resting place for Flight Lieutenant Briggs and Flying Officer Baker in the extensive veteran’s section of Calgary (Burnsland) Cemetery. A large sand hill, just south of the Calgary Stampede grounds, is commonly called ‘Cemetery Hill’ but it is in fact four cemeteries divided by the McLeod Trail South.

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They took off just after 4 p.m. Briggs then circled north and made two high-speed passes over the old control tower. On a third pass the Mosquito came in very low, then attempted to pull up at the last minute. However the port wing struck the flagpole on the roof of the tower and the aerials on the hangar roof. The wing sheared off and the aircraft tumbled out of control for approximately half a mile. ‘Freddie’ hit the ground at 400 mph, both crew being thrown clear and killed instantly. The famous RAF Mosquito burned to ashes. The next day Flight Lieutenant Briggs and Flying Officer Baker were buried in the Field of Honour at Burnsland Cemetery, Calgary.

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Of the 197 Second World War graves in Calgary Burnsland, the majority are of those killed during training, either under the

RAF schools were still operating in Canada. No. 31 Air Navigation School at Port Albert, Ontario, continued until February 1945, and No. 1 Naval Air Gunner School at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, closed in March that year. The total cost of the BCATP was calculated at $2,231,129,039 and the financial arrangements involved so many claims and counterclaims that Air Minister Power quipped that it would take three generations of accountants to clear the snarls. In the end Canada footed the bill for 72 per cent of the air training cost.

The United Kingdom paid Canada $54,206,318 cash and supplied $162,260,787 in matériel. Australia provided three per cent ($65,181,068) and New Zealand two per cent ($48,025,393). Lend-lease (mostly PT-27 aircraft) came to $283,500,362 or 13 per cent of the overall costs. In March 1946 the British Government still owed Canada $425 million but in May that year Ottawa passed a bill wiping out the debt, thus closing the books on the Empire Air Training Scheme.

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RUN-DOWN 1944 In the spring of 1944, the British government asked the Canadians to begin the closure of the training scheme. This began a slow process of either disbanding the RAF schools or turning them over to the RCAF. The Canadians took over No. 37 SFTS at Calgary in March 1944; No. 32 EFTS at Bowden in September and No. 36 SFTS at Penhold in November. However No. 31 at De Winton was disbanded on September 25. By the end of November 1944, only two

British and Commonwealth Air Training Plan or at the local small-arms and infantry training centres.

In 1941 Penhold was just a train stop with some 20 homes so it had no cemetery of its own. Instead, those airmen who lost their 54

lives there were buried in Innisfail Cemetery, mid-way between Penhold and Bowden, whose casualties were also interred here.

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In 1982 the Canadian Government began to demolish the wartime buildings at Bowden prior to the site becoming a prison farm. In October the RCAF took over the base until December 1953 when it was turned over to the Alberta Government Corrections for a Boys School. Then in April 1974 the Government of Canada Correctional Services claimed the land and ex-RAF buildings for a Federal Institution, and in 1982 Bowden Institution was chosen as the site for one of Canada’s six prison farms. Their purpose was to allow prisoners near the end of their sentence to work with animals, operate farm machinery, and grow vegetables. Bowden also provides beef for other prisons and even sells the surplus to local businesses. Over the following two years, all the original RAF buildings were removed along with the runways. In December 1994 I obtained permission from John Edwards, Commissioner of Correctional Services in Ottawa, to meet with Mitch Kassen, Warden of Bowden Institution. Warden Kassen was very interested in

my research into the buried RAF equipment and he allowed two digs which took place in October 1999 and June 2001 but unfortunately we were unable to locate the burial pit. In September 2005, I contacted Professor J. M. Maillol of the Earth Science Program and Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Calgary. Professor Maillol quickly agreed to carry out a magnetic ground survey to try to pinpoint the burial site. This was completely successful but when I approached the prison, the new Warden turned down flat any further exploration stating that ‘Permission can no longer be granted. Consultation with our legal services has an issue with uncertainty surrounding the presence of hazards buried in the ground and “ownership” issue (any artifacts found in the ground are the property of the Crown) present too great an obstacle for accommodation’.

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POSTSCRIPT Today most of the RAF buildings are gone and only the cracked and weed-covered runways remain as a memorial to the thousands of airmen who trained and died in Canada. However, below the surface of each training field there lies the buried history of the period. When I interviewed George Frost he stated: ‘Did you know each RAF base in Canada contains an historical burial pit?’ Bowden officially closed on September 8, 1944, and nine days later George Frost was informed he would no longer have to report for work and he would be given two weeks wages in lieu of notice. When the RAF cleared the base he was instructed to bulldoze a pit and bury all the British inventory and then forget about it. On September 2425, a bulldozer dug a deep pit in which was dumped all the remaining equipment. Over the next two days all the RAF records, crash sites, photos, records of training, kitchen pots, pans, dishes, aircraft parts, uniforms, tools, rifles, etc. were thrown in and then bulldozed over.

Left: In 1994 our author Clarence Simonsen obtained permission to carry out exploratory excavations at Bowden to try to find the location where the RAF equipment had been buried in 1945. Machinery and prison farm inmates were supplied for the dig but nothing was found. Now, although the correct site has

been pinpointed by ground radar, permission to go ahead has been revoked. Right: Nevertheless, the spirit of the Empire Air Training Scheme lives on in Canada as RAF Penhold is still in operation as Red Deer Regional Airport, complete with its own Harvard gate guardian. 55