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Old 1st March 2016, 17:07
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Huib Ottens Huib Ottens is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Netherlands
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Huib Ottens
Looking for information about Ar 234 pilot Hauptmann Miersch / Mierisch

Dear Gruppe,

After the end of the war, on the 3rd of October 1945, an Arado 234 made an emergency landing at Eelde airfield in the Netherlands. This Ar 234 was on a transfer flight from Sola Norway, via Denmark to Farnborough. It was accompanied by another Ar 234 flown by (the late) Capt. Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown.

The aircraft became separated over the IJsselmeer due to heavy fog and Brown made an emergency landing at Nordholz (Germany) in failing light.

The other Arado was flown by a German pilot. Up until now it was assumed that this was Hauptmann Helmut(h?) MIERSCH. It was reported that he originated from I./FaGR 5 and that he was presumably a “maintenance test pilot”. Nothing further is known about Hauptmann Miersch other than that he was working for Capt. Brown for two years afterwards.

Triggered by the current 'Werner Altrogge' thread on this great forum, I wondered if Hauptmann Miersch could have been a Hauptmann (Ing.) and that he was attached to I./FaGR 5 in a technical role.
I contacted Chris Goss because we had discussed Hauptmann Miersch some 15 years ago. He pointed me to the “Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries” and mentioned that (now) a Hauptmann Karl MIERISCH (with an ‘I’ between the ‘R’ and the ‘S’) was mentioned as the pilot of the Ar 234. (Thanks for this important pointer Chris!)

I checked the Summaries I found the following entries:

A. MIERISCH, Karl. 01.09.41 promo to Hptm. 03.10.45 Hptm. and POW, assigned to fly an Ar 234 to Farnborough.
B. MIERISCH, Karl. 16.04.42 Hptm. in Abt. Qu 4/Italuft Rome.
C. MIERSCH, ? . Summer 1941 Lt., 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 22 MIA - Ju 88 shot down behind the lines but evaded capture for 14 days and escaped.

Regarding these entries I have a number of questions partly based on some (wrong or bold) assumptions:
1) Where does the information come from that Hauptmann Karl MIERISCH was the pilot of the Ar 234?
2) Could the entries A and B be referring to the same officer?
3) If A and B are referring to the same officer, what does the posting to Abt. Qu 4/Italuft Rome entail? Could this be a posting in a technical role?
4) Is there additional information available regarding the activities, roles and postings of Karl Mierisch? How did he end up in Norway?
5) Could the entries A, B and C be referring to the same officer? In entry C a posting to 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 22 is mentioned and that could be a qualification to fly an Ar 234 later in the war?
6) Could Karl Mierisch have been a Hauptmann (Ing.)?
7) Is there any information available about Hauptmann (Ing.?) Helmut(h) Miersch?

I hope that these questions make sense and that someone has some additional information available that might shed some light.

TIA,
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Huib

Last edited by Huib Ottens; 1st March 2016 at 20:26. Reason: Typo
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