Dear members,
I'm doing a research on the accident of a DFS 230 glider containing 9 persons, including the commander of 7. Flieger-Division, Gen.Ltn. Wilhelm Süssmann and his staff.
The glider was towed to Crete on Tuesday 20th.May 1941 (some sources says roundabout 18.00 hours) but over the island of Aegina the wire attached to the JU-52 broke as the JU-52 pilot had to make an evasive action from a JU-52 coming out of the clouds, head-on. As the wire broke, the glider was caught up in the slip-stream of the other JU-52 or JU-52's (some sources says one JU-52, others more, even HE-111's have been written).
This strain resulted in the gliders left wing to brake and from 300 meters the glider was seen spinning before hitting the Mt. Oros on the southern part of the island.
Yesterday I spoke to an 87 year old greek man that served as a translator for the germans on the island for several years, and he was an eye witness to this accident. Here is his exact words :
"Concerning the crash of the DFS 230, I am of the opinion that the discription (which I have located on the internet) contain some errors. My opinion is that the only thing that happened was that the rope broke. Personally I cannot recall that there where other planes coming from the same direction while I was looking at the glider from my parents home.
Suddenly after the tow broke, I saw the glider circling only once before it went into a spin and disappeared down in the Mt. Oros.
The next day I was asked to translate the discussions between the greek Mayor of Aegina and 3 german officers that came with a german ship/boat to collect the bodies from the crash scene. I spoke to a Kapitänleutnant and told him that I saw the hole incident. He listened to what I said to him, but didn't answer me. During the discussion the Kapitänleutnant just expressed his doubts about, how could such a solid rope just brake ?? Another thing that is not mentioned is that a short time after the crash, a Fi-156 plane was seen landing near the scene in the mountains of Oros, and also the enourmous amount of german money that was scattered on the entire mountain is also not mentioned anywhere.
Also the same day the chief of the greek Gendarm sent a guard to the crash scene, untill the next day when the germans came. My opinion is also that the accident must have been earlier than 18.00 hours. Anyway after 70 years it probably doesen't exist any human being that could tell any details about this incident anymore".
For my research I'm curious to know if there are anybody in this forum that know about any existing reports of this incident and what really happened ??
I'm not after the names of the nine persons that where in the glider, cause all these details I already have. From the info I have I can see that the reports concludes with "
Seilabriss" - rope broke.
If it's true that there weren't any planes coming head-on, and the rope should brake of some other reason I still find it hard to believe that a glider would fall down from 300 Meters. There MUST be another reason for this glider with its 21,1 meter wingspan, to just fall down from the sky. From what I have read on the internet, the pilot of the JU-52 that towed the glider, personally gave his testimony about what happened up there.
I have flown in a glider only once myself, and I can recall that the gliderpilot was the one that released the rope after receving permission via the radio from the towing plane. I'm not sure about wether the gliderpilot had radiocontact with the towing plane, but it must be assumed. If so, the JU-52 pilot had probably not time to warn the gliderpilot as all this happened so quickly.
Another thing is, how could one send the commander and his staff all together in a glider above the sea to Crete ?? They probably had their reasons, but it would of course been safer to send them to Crete in a JU-52 and in different planes......
Thanks!
Warmest Regards,
Flemming