III./SG3 escape from Courland 8 May 1945
 

Good morning,

In John Weal’s amazing ‘Luftwaffe Schlachtgruppen” he mentions on page 115, Erich Bunge leading III./SG3 to safety in Schleswig from Courland with their mechanics crammed in the back of their FW190s and fitted with long range fuel tanks. I’m very interested as I have all 5 of Bunge’s Flugbuch, which survived the war, although they stop abruptly in Jan 1945 (I believe fuel supplies limited their activity) but Erhard Jahnert mentions missions after that date in his autobiography.

It does appear that Bunge lost interest in filling in his Flugbuch during his time in Courland, although I’m surprised such a momentous flight and surely the last of his war, would be left out. Hence, I’m just curious as to whether anyone else has anything on this mass escape from Courland and whether it was Bunge or not?

Re: III./SG3 escape from Courland 8 May 1945
 

Hi Simon,

I've gathered a fair bit of information on the subject, and Bunge was one of the III./S.G. 3 men who flew from Courland to Germany (and Sweden and Denmark) on that day. Georg Schlaug and Sven Carlsen write about in their excellent article in Axel Urbanke (ed.), Luftwaffe im Focus Spezial 2/2006, '8 May 1945: Objective Courland, The Luftwaffe's Last Large-Scale Operation'.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

Re: III./SG3 escape from Courland 8 May 1945
 

I had a feeling you would know more about it-thanks andrew I’ll go hunt for a copy and fire up my google translate app again, much appreciated.

Re: III./SG3 escape from Courland 8 May 1945
 

It may even have been something as simple as not being able to get a new one when the old one was full. Besieged troops run out of all kinds of everyday things — I once saw a mesage from the Dunkirk garrison in 1944–45 appealing for paper and ink — and the the priorities for supply are usually food, ammunition and medical supplies.

Re: III./SG3 escape from Courland 8 May 1945
 

Hi Nick - fair point but there’s plenty of room left in his last one. It does get scruffier and scruffier so looks up me like he lost interest. However it survived the war with his others - I wonder if he sent them home somehow in Jan 45 when it looked like the war was ending? Might explain why they survived but stopped being completed!

Re: III./SG3 escape from Courland 8 May 1945
 

Sorry for the thread resurrection, I was just looking at the Courland evacuation and managed to get hold of the Luftwaffe im Focus special...which states that Erhard Jahnert was the chap who led the evacuation. I have his book aswell and his Flugbuch shows a flight on the 8th May...haven't read the text yet (sadly I rely on pointing my Iphone at a random bit of text and hoping it translates something sensible!). So, I assume it was a simple mistake by John Weal in his book - would love to be proved wrong though.

Re: III./SG3 escape from Courland 8 May 1945
 

It was 8. may 1945. At least one of them made it to Denmark.
Junker

Re: III./SG3 escape from Courland 8 May 1945
 

Thanks Juncker,

Well I maybe got to the bottom of it today thanks to Google Translate, my iPhone and a copy of Erhard Jahnert’s autobiography. Erhard seemed to have a bit of a beef with Bunge (thanks Andrew A for telling me about this) and was very uncomplimentary about him in his book, anyway I digress but he specifically mentions Bunge and the 8th May evacuation.

My translation may not be 100% but the jist of it (according to Jahnert) is that Bunge did not show up for the evacuation flight on the 8th and basically disappeared, reappearing 2 months later dishevelled and amongst a group of non-pilots, never speaking about how he escaped the pocket. Maybe to be taken with a pinch of salt but interesting nonetheless….