[Boris Ciglic]

Hello Csaba,

strange, I just returned from Hercegovina and found your question. Luckily I was able to trace my original message left at old TOCH few years ago. It was a reply to statement of Mr. Spoden who claimed Kirchenr was tortured and his body mutilated by the partisans. Here is the original text minus some unimoprtant questions and remarks:

"Regarding the matter of Luftwaffe airmen captured by the Yugoslav partisans I must say that their treatment differed very much from time to time and in different areas. First I would like to say few words about circumstances of death of Hptm. Kirchner. He was shot down in combat with Thunderbolts of 57th FG and bailed out from Bf 109G-6 W.Nr.20618. His plane fell on Crnoglav hill whilst he landed between Bjelojevici and Donje Hrasno villages, close to Mostar – Dubrovnik railroad, in eastern Herzegovina. He was captured by 30-men battalion “Marko Mihic”, which was a part of 29. Hercegovacka Udarna Divizija (roughly translated Herzegovinian Striking Division), and shortly thereafter sentenced to death, executed by shooting squad and buried. Searching party, which was coming from Mostar and counted approximately 80 men in one car and four trucks was then ambushed by same battalion between villages Burmazi and Udore and suffered grievous losses. On 29 June 1944, at “peak 286” near Stoc, first POW-exchange negotiations in this area were held between representatives of 29.HUD and German 369. Division. German delegation was lead by certain Hptm Kurz (or Kurtz) who offered some concessions for excavation and return of Hptm Kirchner’s body, for which he said he knew was buried near Donje Hrasno. His offer was not accepted. Area of Donje Hrasno was never overtaken by German or Croat troops by the wars end and Hptm Kirchner probably still lies in unmarked grave. Only conclusion I can draw from this is that no German or Croat soldier were ever in situation to see his throat or mutilated eyes. Still, cut throat or shooting squad doesn’t change much in Hptm Kirchner’s cruel destiny. And he was not the only one. On 6 May 1944 an Feldwebel, whose name still remains unknown to me, force landed his Bf 109G-6 near Stoc (I have poor photo of his plane) after running out of fuel during ferry flight from Wien to Mostar. He was captured by men of 29.HUD and executed also. Area in which both he and Kirchner fell was almost completely burned and most of Serb civilian population (Serbs made a backbone of 29.HUD) executed already in1941 by Croat Ustasha forces in worst possible and unimaginable manners. After such atrocities there was no mercy for anyone, on any side. However, in some other areas Luftwaffe flyers had very good chances for exchange. Official partisan HQ policy was indeed exchange whenever possible (depending on situation on the field), with exception of Stuka-crews who were “to be considered war criminals and not treated as prisoners of war”. You know what it meant. There were numerous documented cases of exchanges, sometimes after few days only and sometimes after months of extremely hard imprisonment conditions."



I can also add after this time is that exact losses of the German column ambushed between Burmazi and Udore (according to German documents) were 2 officers and 4 soldiers killed and 22 soldiers and single officer captured (I dont know what happened to them). I can also add a detail on my remark about the atrocities done to the Serbs in Hercegovina in 1941. On friday I wisited a memorial plate and small church built next to a Koricanska jama (natural cavity near the Korita village near Bileca) positioned just beside the main road between Gacko and Dubrovnik in eastern Hercegovina. On 4 and 5 June 1941, 145 villagers from Korita were taken next to the cavity, their heads smashed with the mallets and bodies thrown into the hole. Miraculously eight men survived to tell the tale. Similar atrocities were repeated all across Hercegovina, and it was in Hercegovina that first clashes between Serb uprisers and Ustasa forces have erupted at this time exactly. As you can imagine, by the end of 1943 the hatriot only grew (unfortunately same feelings prevailed in the nineties).