Who was the pilot?
1. On 23.4.45, Approx. 16:00, Speer is flown from Gatow into Berlin (East/West Axis), in a Storch (Groehler; Der Neue Reichskanzlei, das Ende, p 38. Speer; Inside the Third Reich, p 638)
2. On 24.4.45, Approx. 03:30, Speer is flown out (Joachimsthaler; The last days of Hitler, p 111. Speer, p 647-48)
3. On 26.4.45, Approx. 04:00, Ritter von Greim and Hanna Reitz are flown from Rechlin to Gatow airport in a Fw 190 (Reitsch, The Sky, my Kingdom, p 205). They continue, Greim at the controls, in a Storch and Reitsch lands the plane, after Greim was injured, on the East/West Axis.
4. On 27.4.45, evening. Six Storchs are despatched, protected by some 30 fighters, in a vane attempt to haul Greim/Reitsch out of Berlin. Two Storchs crashes (Koller, p 103)
5. On 28.4.45, 24:00 (or probably shortly after midnight and thus on the 29th), Greim and Reitsch are picked up by an Arado 96 and flown to safety (Reitsch, p 208). They land safely at Rechlin 03:00 in the morning (Reitsch, p 213)*
Flights 1, 2, 3 and five were allegedly piloted by the same, incredibly courageous and skilled Luftwaffe Feldwebel: a stunning feat by an outstanding aviator. Yet I have not been able to find his name, his fate or other references than the ones mentioned here. It sounds rather unbelievable that his identity is not recorded somewhere.
If anyone here can shed more light on the matter, I would be very interested to hear about it.
Dan
* Different versions of the Reitsch/von Greim flight exist. Some historians attribute the aviatrix herself to be the pilot (Tolland, Last Hundred Days, p 583) (and some the plane to be a Storch). Reitsch, on the other hand, says that the plane was an Arado 96 and the pilot was the same Luftwaffe Feldwebel who flew the couple from Rechlin to Gatow a few days before. She names him Feltwebel B – the closest thing to a name, I have found. Although this remarkable woman was also described as hysterical and theatrical, and therefore may not hold the highest veracity rating, she has the unquestionable advantage of having actually been in the plane. Thus, I tend to go with her version.
And btw, since I’m a
newbie, thanks for accepting me and a few words about myself: My name is Dan, I am a retired technical writer, 61, live in Denmark, take a strong interest in the turbulent days of the Battle for Berlin and visit the city frequently to roam the places where it all happened.
I also run a couple of websites –
www.wartourist.eu and
www.krigsturist.dk (Danish language) – the content of which reflects my initial key interest: the Atlantic Wall. I shall have to admit though, that this interest has faded a little over the years and the sites are thus not as well kept as they should be. Must catch up with that
Dan