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Re: Weather Related Forced Bailouts
Hello,
Since nobody is answering this thread, I try it. During 1943/44 in NJG 5 and NJG 6 we fighters had the strict order to parachute and to leave the aircraft when after mission we were above all clouds, having no radio contact with the groundstation instead of trying to fly through the clouds in bad weather conditions and looking for groundcontact. There were too many losses in doing this. I jumped out 4 times, many pilots and radio-operators did more.
At night 26/27 of march1944 after mission and complete radiofailure we flew with Bf 110 above a solid cloudbase to the South and I told my crew to bail out because of no fuel. The radio-operator BF Schmiedler behind me refused instantly this order and told me that by jumping already 10 times his legs would break once more and would not heal again. With a lot of luck I made a belly landing near Stuttgart, all three WIA and several weeks in hospital ( check war diary NJG 6 by Kock),
Peter Spoden
www.nachtjaegerspoden.de
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