Seaplanes at Vienna Winterhafen 1941-45

[Martin388]

Dear all,

I am preparing a short article for the Austrian Aircraft historians (ÖFH) magazine on the use of the river Danube harbour (called Winterhafen) during WW II. Its opertion probably as subsidiary of the Leithorst Wien-Aspern started with the Balkankrieg and ended by the end of 1944 (when e.g. SNGr 7 withdraw from their lost operational stations mainly in the MTO, around Crete and the Aegean and Black Sea harbours).

Interestingly Winterhafen seems not to have been used for Minesweepers (MAUSI's where only Ju52 MS used from other airbases in the struggle to clean the river Danube from allied se mines). MSGr 1 operated from Budapest/Budaörs and later Tulln/Lagen¬lebarn airbases between fall 1944 to spring 1945.

There are very only few photos published showing seaplanes at the river Harbour. My research revealed that SNSt 7 and 8 and SAGr 125 and 126 and later SNGr 70 and Luft Transport Staffel(n) (See) 1 and 3 used the habour as transit station on their long way to and from the east, south-east (Balkans and in Greece [incl. islands], Romania, Black Sea etc.) and probaly south (Italy) seaplane stations.

Among the planes used were, He 59, He 60, Ar 196, Bv 138, Do 24T and Ju 52 3m/g5e.

I would be very interested in confirmations and additions to these information. Which planes landed at Winterhafen from which units, where there losses (very likely) due to allied bombardments of Vienna (nearby oil industry at Schwechat and Lobau) etc.

Looking forward that some of the expert researchers here on TOCH can help.

Cheers from Vienna,
Martin