[Nick Beale]

The form:

No. 3

Place and day of the loss:
a) Weisswasser, Oberlausitz. [a town south east of Berlin, close to the modern-day Polish border] Jagen 105 [a Jagen was a night fighter control centre]
b) 11 April 44, 12,00 hours [i.e. midday]
c) no (Contact with the enemy)
d) Ju 88 G-1 BSZL [BSZL are the factory call sign letters which would appear on the fuselage either side of the German cross: BS+ZL. The operational unit would normally remove these and apply its own markings]

Rank: Oberfeldwebel [= US Master Sergeant]

Role: Radio operator [so, in a night fighter, probably the radar man]

Company etc.: 11th Staffel, IV./NJG 5.

First name: Otto

Family name and i/d number: Tillack, 53585/346

Date of birth:Tag: 20 January 1915

Birthplace : Wierschutzin [couldn't locate this, spelling?]

Kreis [= District] Lauenburg

Killed*) shot down

Remarks (e.g. burial place or probably overflowed from 14) [columns 13 and 14 are headed "Missing" and then 13 is "prisoner" and 14 is "other"]
a) will be reported later
b) Wierschutzin Kreis Lauenburg
c) Wife: Charlotte Tillack, Plumenkau, Oberschlesien [Upper Silesia]
d) Registry office: Peace Garrison, Vienna-Aspern

O.U. [can't remember what this stands for], 13 April 1944

Hauptmann [Captain] and Gruppenkommandeur [i.e. the officer commanding IV./NJG 5, a unit of about 30–40 aircraft]

Entrusted with the powers of a Gruppenkommandeur [or something like that!]

And the letter:

German Service Establishment for the information of next of kin of the dead of the former German Wehrmacht [armed forces]

[address] Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) 13400 Berlin

Reference: (in further correspondence please quote reference, surname and birth date] II B 21 Tillack, Otto, *20.01.1915

Your letter of 7 June 2013 — Explanation of death/death notice

Dear Mrs Rooks,

Your relative Otto Tillack, (born on 20.01.1915) in Wierschutzin, District of Lauenburg/Pommerania was killed on 11 April 1944 in Weiswasser/Oberlausitz (aircraft shot down). His death was registered in 1944 at the Vienna-Florisdord Register Office as number 368/1944.

Production of a death registration (original) can be required there. I'm enclosing a copy of our exchange of correspondence as an attachment.

Location of grave: Neu Welzow Cemetery, District of Spree Neisse, individual burial.

You have already received information from Mr Salonen, a visitor to our offices, about his period of service in the Luftwaffe.