[Tom Semenza]

Last October I started a thread concerning the purported NSFK (Nationalsozialistisches Flieger Korps) ace Stürmführer Willi Strübing. I first found mention of him in Caldwell & Muller's Luftwaffe Over Germany.

Don Caldwell made reference to a book by Kenneth K. Blyth called Who Shot Down EQ-Queenie (Fenestra Books, 2004.) In this latter, the author, who was a pilot in No. 408 Sqn. RCAF, related his search for the Me 262 pilot who shot down his Halifax just south of Hamburg during a daylight mission on 31 March 1945. I have excerpted the 4 pages from the book which concern Willi Strübing.

In Sept. 2000, Blyth went back to where his plane went down, the town of Bergedorf, and through notices posted in the local paper, Bergedorfer-Zeitung, found a most remarkable answer to his quest. A man named Detlof Mohr came to the newspaper offices with documentaion showing that his uncle, Willi Strübing, was most likely the pilot who shot down Blyth's Halifax.

In 1945, Strübing was a 53-year old instructor with the rank of Sturmführer (equivalent to a Leutnant) in the NSFK unit Sturm 5 based at Bergedorf. He had previously tried to join the Luftwaffe but was rejected as too old. He had been a pilot during the First World War although apparently only in a training capacity. Remarkably he had an armed Me 262 at his disposal for one-man missions against Allied air incursions in the area of Bergedorf. Blyth's Halifax was Strübing's 25th Abschuß!

The document shown on page 2 below is a letter to Strübing dated 11.04.45 from the Standartenführer of NSFK Standarte 15 in Hamburg. In essence it states that in recognition of his 24th and 25th victories on 31.03.45 as well as his constant mission readiness and devotion to the welfare of the Reich, he had been nominated to receive the Ritterkreuz. Apparently he did not actually receive the RK due to the end of the war coming less than a month later.

The main reason for this posting is the hope that some researcher(s) in Germany would be interested in pursuing this very interesting case and digging up more information on Strübing's unusual career. Perhaps there were also other NSFK pilots who went on combat missions.

I realize that this is outside of their area of study since the NSFK was not part of the Luftwaffe, but Jochen Prien's group would seem like logical candidates to pursue the matter. For one thing Bergedorf is right next to Hamburg, for another it would make for an extremely fascinating footnote to their later issues of Die Jagdfliegerverbände concerning the RLV at the end of the war. By the way, Gerhard Bracke, who wrote the biography of Hans Waldmann, was one of the people who worked with Blyth on his quest back in 2000.

Regards,
Tom Semenza

PS: It was taking an inordinate amount of time to upload the 4 pages I mentioned so only the first three are attached. I'll try to upload the last one on another posting.