[Hans W. Koerfges]

Hallo Christer,

thanks for the answer. Yes, my father was the fourth man. But he was not shot down. He deserted to Sovjet lines and handed his plane to them. His POW file from Moscow shows that the file was manipulated because the same day he should be transferred to a prisoner camp in Donez region which is more than 1.000 km south west of Vitebsk. In real he was transfered from the Sovjets to a special camp east of Moswow and at teh end of 1944 he did training to become an agent. After he came back home in Nov. 1949 he acted for decades as an agent for the Sovjets. From that time I have a number of stories and I know the name of his Secret Service Officer from eastern part of Germany which introduced himself when he visited my family as an Do 17 pilot which he never was.

Thats a short version of a long story. Kittel did after 16. of October 1943 an officila Verlustmeldung about my father which is definately false because nobody was interested to become trouble for a pilot deserted to enemy lines.

Regards and godd luck for the nect Volume of Red Star and Black Cross

Hans