Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

I have a wehrpass to a former pilot of 7./KG 26 who was assigned to the Technisches Btl at Rechlin in mid 1941. He was killed in an aircraft crash on 10th August1943.
I have looked through the book German Secret Flight Test Centres To 1945 and can find no mention of anything that tallies in the lists at the end of the Rechlin chapter. Does anyone have any information with regards to an aircraft crash at Rechlin on that date?
Of course the crash may of happened elsewhere, maybe on a liaison flight in which case it wouldn't be listed I expect but thought that I'd ask anyway.

The second question is, what would a pilot in the Technisches Btl do? Would he be involved as a test pilot with German aircraft or captured Allied aircraft?

His rank & name is Oberfeldwebel Alfred Noetzel and he is listed in the Volksbund as dying at Mar.Laz Bodburg-Hau (while the Mar.Laz refers to a hospital I assume, the closest place I can find to a Bodburg-Hau is BEdburg-Hau in the far west of Germany) and the Volksbund mentions that his body remains buried in Russia, so why would a member of the Technisches Btl at Rechlin be in Russia? (Which I suppose makes it 3 questions!)

Re: Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

10 8 43 BM 15.KG6 H Cleve b, N MSTO Ü,schl, HE111H-6 4859

Eltzner günther ofw bf
Konschak willi ofw bm
Nötzel alfred ofw f
Schulz bernhard ofw bs

Rémi

Re: Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

Noetzel was killed in the crash. He is born in Ossafeld which I believe is Ostpreussen (now Russia). He is buried in Slawsk which is near Kaliningrad. So when he was killed he was reinterred in his hometown, now in Russia.

John

Re: Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

Thank you very much Remi, that is great information - With the location being Cleve that would make it BEdburg-Hau I expect. Strange how Volksbund have him dying there but buried in Russia.
Would you be able to tell me what the abbreviations N MSTO Ü,schl mean (although I think schl will mean schule)?

As 15./KG 6 isn't mentioned in his Wehrpass and all final entries are still stamped by Rechlin, I wonder if he was loaned to that particular staffel on behalf of Rechlin as part of the process to develop & test new pathfinding/target marking methods as mentioned in Bomber Units...vol 1 by Doug Stankey & Henry L. de Zeng? Before being assigned to Rechlin in mid 1941 he was a pilot in 7./KG 26 which was itself part of a pathfinding Gruppen so he would of had some experience in the role.

Re: Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

Thank you for the amplifying information John, that certainly makes sense.

Re: Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

The very clever answer of John, has given you the why for Russia , seems you missed it , 15.KG6 was not a pathfinding unit, KG66 was nd by that unit not 15. wing, 15.KG6 was part of V.KG6 so A NOT EXISTING group of the KG6, maybe Nötzel hs been affected to this new unit nd made training for ops..., did he flown in operational unit before ???
Norm KG6 use Ju88/188 exclusively, 15. flew the He111 against England in autumn 42 nd to Stalingrad for Transport flights ??, or anything different,
With expressly need the Help of Jan Horn but seems those days is touring the bavarian castle, his girl friend choice, or aeron. Museum , his pers. favour, you hv to wait till end of this month

Rémi

Re: Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

Aye, I was busy typing my other post and after submitting it noticed that John had kindly answered the crash/burial question.

As for 15./KG 6 - taken from Bomber Units Of The Luftwaffe vol 1:
Formation; testing; re-designation (August 1942 - April 1943) Formed at Chatres, France, from Erprobungskommando 17 with He-111 to develop and test new pathfinding and target marking methods.....renamed Stab I and 1./KG 66 at Chatres (30th April 1943).

As he served in 7./KG 26 during the time when III/KG 26 were retrained as pathfinders it would make sense if he was part of a pathfinding trials team from Rechlin (maybe his 2 years at Rechlin were centered around various pathfinding & target marking trials.)

Re: Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

He flew on numerous operational flights from the start of the war with 6./KG 3 and then with 1./KG 28 from November 1939 and then from 16th March 1940 to 11th June 1941 with 7./KG 26. After that he went on a course and was then assigned to the Technisches Btl at Rechlin from 28th June 1941 to his death on the 10th August 1943. The last operation flight date entered in the campaign pages of the Wehrpass is for 11th June 1941.

Re: Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

Thanks to Larry de Zeng who has provided me with some great information, including that Oberfeldwebel Alfred Noetzel, Technisches Bataillon Rechlin, worked in Amt E4 (Navigations-und Funkgerät) at Rechlin. He installed and tested airborne electronic navigation and radio equipment. Technical personnel from Amt E4 were back and forth all the time between Rechlin and 15./KG 6 and later KG 66.

Re: Rechlin - Aircraft Crash 1943: 2 Questions
 

In relation to this wehrpass does anyone have any idea what unit 3.L.P.F Tilsit is (as seen on the attached scan)? It is an entry dated for 1934/35 and he was there for 6 months.