[Marcel van Heijkop]

Addition: Together with the rest of I./KG66 (or more exact: the part of I./KG66 that had made it to Norway on 5 May..) Ofw. Jürgen Pfau was on his way to the Kurland Pocket on 8 May 1945 in order to evacuate as much German soldiers as they could fit in their bomb bay and cockpit. Despite the fact that it was the last day of the war, it was still an official order. Only the return flight was left up to the crews' own discretion. (Most crews intended to go to Fliegerhorst Dedelstorf, their previous homebase from September 1944 - March 1945, a lot had girlfriends there.)

In the end only a single crew made it to Kurland, the rest claimed technical problems, had suspicions about Kurlands swampy airfields or didn't bother to fly there whatsoever..Apart from Pfau's early aborted mission, on 8 May some 7 aircraft landed at or near Dedelstorf while a few others returned to Stavanger-Sola or Kjevik/Kristiansand.

I haven't come round to identify Pfau's "Hellcats" yet, although British Royal Navy Wildcats (Martlets) were already on my mind as the most likely candidates.

Regards,

Marcel
(I./KG66 Research)