[Roger Gaemperle]

Thank you Philippe and Jim for your replies.

Attack on Eger 8 April:
Wollenweber only mentioned that he heard over radio that Eger was attacked shortly after his 4 pilots took off. So, it may well be that the airfield was not affected at all. I am very careful with dated and names in Wollenweber's recollections. No wartime source is indicated and he wrote his book almost 70 years after the war. So unless he had personal notes/diary or other sources, it is very likely that the information may be generally true, but not very accurate.

Lt. Manfred Büttner:
Thank you for that information. I found some information about Büttner at TOCH and it seems the information about the date came from Jager Blatt 1/2001, where Büttner stated that he crashed a jet aircraft on 3 April, 1945. While I am careful with the date (unless it is based on his flight log or other wartime records), we now know that Büttner indeed flew the He 162 and crash landed.

Fw. Wolfgang Seeling:
I know Oliver and have seen that logbook. It belonged to an E-Stelle pilot, not JG 1, but I agree with you, when I saw the name Seeling I was wondeirng if they were one and the same person or if ther was also a Seeling in JG 1 who was part of Wollenweber's detachment. He flew from Lärz in spring 1945 until 19 March. Then there are now flights for roughly one month in his logbook until 24 April when he flew from Lechfeld. The flight numbers are consecutive without gaps, but it may well be that he was assigned to Wollenweber's detachment as he had already flown the He 162 in January 1945. I just wonder why he did not indicate his transfer flight from Bernburg in his logbook. One possiblity is that he never had a transfer flight from Bernburg and got to Lechfeld by road (in which case Wollenweber's recollections are wrong).

So, Wollenweber claimed the flight was on 6 April, Eger was bombarded on 8 April and Büttner apparently crashed on 3 April. Which date was the actual one? Difficult to figure out...

Thanks,
Roger