Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

Hi Hans,

thanks for this interesting information. Uffz. Horst Römer was the Bordfunker in Fw. Josef Brunner's crew. Your post suggests that their Bf110 did indeed crash (unless Uffz. Römer baled out early). As mentioned, Fw. Brunner made it back to his unit.

Cheers

Rod

Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

Hello,
Uffz. Römer remember, that the Bf 110 hit the River Rhein or near by the riverbank. Fw. Brunner was hit hanging in the Parachute and became PoW by French Forces!!!!! Uffz. Felbermaier make it back to Gerolzhofen.
By the way Ofw. Scherer was an born Luxembourg Citizien!! (Zolver Grand Ducale de Luxembourg.
The crew Uffz. Herbert Tschorschke, Uffz. Karl-Friedrich Ebel und OG Alois Lidl, also lost 25./26. March 1945. Römer meet them also as PoW in Kaiserslautern.
h.

Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

thanks for the additional information.

A signal from NJG6 Geschwaderkommodore Maj. Lütje dated 30 March 1945 stated that Fw. Brunner was transferred to Stab NJG6 with immediate effect and he was to be sent to Unterslauersbach airfield at once. This suggests Josef Brunner evaded or escaped and made it back to German territory. I doubt the message would have been sent if Brunner was missing.

PS - Uffz. Herbert Tschorschke died. He's buried in Block 4 Row 1, Grave 1754 at the Kriegsgräberstätte in Dahn.

Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

Hello RodM,
Josef Brunner was a Pilot with the new Bundesluftwaffe from 1957 onwards. He fly Noratlas Transportplanes. He come to dead when a lot of woodpanels as Cargo in the Noratlas go over and he was hit by the panels!!!!
h.

Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

So now I guess we have two possible candidates:
Ju 88 G-6, 622136, 4R+IN of 5./NJG 2, as mentioned by Matti, and Ju 88 G-6, 4R+EM of 4./NJG 2, as mentioned by Nick, both shot down in the area of the Oppenheim bridgehead on 23 and 24 March respectively. Is there any information available on the fate of the 4./NJG 2 crew?
I have a book about NJG 2, but it only covers 1. Group :(

Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

The 4./NJG2 crew are all recorded in the post-war DRK-Vermisstenbildliste (see attached image).

Riebe, Otto
Ing. Praktikant
30.11.19 W
Düsseldorf
Uffz.
Wiesbaden 3.45

Thoma, Alfred
Abiturient
25.4.22 A
Würzburg
Uffz.
Langendiebach 3.45

Bordne, Karl
Schlosser
15.4.22 B
Ilversheim/Baden
Ogfr.
Wichau 3.45

Of the 5./NJG2 crew, the two missing crew members - Uffz. Doering and Ofw. Stuesser - aren't recorded in the DRK-Vermisstenbildliste or listed in the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. online database.

I hope Matti can elucidate on the 23 March 1945 missing date for the 4./NJG2 crew. All the original German documentary sources I have (including mulitple II./NJG2 crew FBer) throw doubt on that date.

Cheers

Rod

Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

Hi,

I believe Scherer crashed at or near Hassloch, immediately east of Rüsselheim and some 12 kilometres NE of the crash site at Hessenau.

Cheers

Rod

Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

Gents,

I'm looking for some help please regarding the JU88 which crashed on the 25th or the 26th of March 1945. The aircraft was flown by a pilot and crew from Group IV of the Nachtjagdgeschwader 6 (Night Fighter Squadron 6). The target was the bridge at or near Oppenheim which was in American hands at the time. Peter Spoden who was also a pilot in NJG6 remembered this mission saying they received very heavy anti-aircraft fire from US troops from the ground. Two more aircraft (Me 110) went missing and many were damaged.

The particular JU88 I'm asking about was flown by Oberfeldwebel Hermann Scherer and was badly shot up in the attack. According to family sources and information from the surviving crew, he brought the aircraft away from the area and climbed high enough for the rest of the crew to bale out (they all survived the war) but he was wounded and didn't make it, perhaps going down with the aircraft. The official diaries record that the aircraft went missing in the area between Oppenheim to the north and Worms / Haßloch to the south. I'm trying to discover where the aircraft crashed and whether the pilot was in it, or if he parachuted out but didn't survive. His body was finally interred in the German war cemetery at Andilly near Metz in northern France so perhaps his body and/or the aircraft landed in France?

I'm aware of some brilliant help I received some time ago on this forum, and thanks for that but now I'm just trying to fill in some of the blanks so any help or information you could supply would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Eric

Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

Eric: I am not sure that, so late in the war and the details that have been already put on this thread, you will get much more than has already been said?

Re: Need Help. Possible Ju-188 loss, Geinsheim area
 

Thanks Chris - a lot of information came from this forum (thanks!) - just hoping to pin down the crash site as hoping to visit there and his grave in the future.

Thanks,
Eric