Luftwaffe Biplane Loss - 22/4/45

[pdame141]

According to 368th Fighter Group records, Lt. Harold Eyrich of the 395th FS was credited with downing a Fokker D.VII on April 22, 1945 near "Eilenstock," Germany.

Two questions came to mind when I looked at this story:

1) where did this take place? I couldn't find any "Eilenstock" on GoogleEarth, but did find a town called Eibenstock near the German border with Czechoslovakia, which would fit with the 368th FG area of operations in April 1945.

2) what type of aircraft was likely actually shot down by Lt. Eyrich? Presumably this claim would have been confirmed with gun camera footage given the rarity of a biplane claim at that late date. Assuming that the film showed a biplane, is it even possible that a D.VII was in the air? I thought the Allies confiscated most D.VIIs after Versailles, and couldn't find any reference to operational use in WW2. Is it more likely that the a/c in question was a HS-123 or other type of German biplane?

I realize that records from this late in the war are fragmentary, but this unusual aerial victory piqued my interest. As always, thanks in advance for your help!

Best regards,
Paul Dame

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Hello Paul,

I am not an expert on that area or Front, but the Czechs produced quite a lot of biplanes just before WW2, that were used by the Luftwaffe as figthter trainers, like the AVIA B-534. We also do have the AVIA BH-21 (which looks like a Fokker DVII, indeed, from my point of view), which is older, but probably one or two survived up to April 1945...do not really know.

A Czech Historian named PAVEL can be of help. I guess he may have details about the air combats over his border or Country.

Do you have Eyrich's combat report? Did he identified it as a Fokker D.VII (I mean wrote it)?

Yours,
Adriano S. Baumgartner

[Nick Beale]

Bücker Bü 131 or 133 trainer?

[Merlin]

Paul,

the Luftwaffe bought a single Fokker D VII from Swiss (former ID-No 631, HB-46) and used it at airshows with registration D-EIRA during the mid 30ties.

This airplane was with 100% certainty not in flying condition in April 1945. As already supposed by others above this was most probably a Fw 44 or He 72 biplane.

[Tony Jones]

Hi
D-EIRA was donated to the Berlin Museum and was destroyed in the bombing raid 11/43.

Huffer H9 D-IHAT was a DVII and flown during late 1930's I have no fate fot this a/c

Tony

[gogh]

I have Hüffer H9 D-IHOT see picture on the left background source expired Ebay
Attachment 13155

[Tony Jones]

Peter

D-IHOT a DLFW D.8 , Fliegerschule Ubungsstelle Dusseldorf, cancelled 6/37. This also a DVII derivitive.

D-IHAT a Huffer H 9, also a DVII derivitive

Tony

[RolandF]

I don´t think, that this is such an exclusive oldtimer (even in those days, a fortnight before VE-day). This is certainly one of the numerous liaison and flying school biplanes of the Luftwaffe.
Take into consideration the timeframe - three days after the meeting at Torgau which split the Reich in two. Two fast approaching fronts and a collapsing resistance drowning in chaos inbetween.
In those days many authorized and unauthorized flights of all kind of Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe personnel were underway to the safe fronts of the western allies or to hitherto unoccupied areas. Just have a look at the inventory of the afterwar airfield scrapyards.
This "Fokker" is certainly one of them.

Regards

Roland F

[Mikael Olrog]

What is the likelyhood that the average US fighter pilot could identify a D.VII? Would he even know that the type had existed? He must have been an aviation buff on par with many of us on this forum to be able to identify it. Doubt that it was included in the standard airplane identification material issued.

[pdame141]

All:

Thanks for your replies. I tend to agree with Roland's working theory that this was a more modern trainer (maybe a Bu-133 as suggested by Nick - sorry for the lack of umlaut) fleeing from East to West.

The excellent history of the 368FG by Tim Grace records that the plane in question "probably being used for observation, was strafed and forced to land" and that "after the pilot escaped, the plane was strafed on the ground until it exploded." Lt. Eyrich "scored most of the hits and was credited with one enemy aircraft shot down."

This event occurred on the only mission of the day for the 395th FS, an armed recce to the Prague area in bad weather from Frankfurt-am-Main (Y-73). Perhaps the poor weather encouraged the German pilot to attempt this flight, given the low likelihood of surviving such a flight in that type of aircraft in airspace so thoroughly dominated by the Allies.

Best regards,
Paul