LTC Righetti me262 kill

[luftquest]

Does any one know the exact location of his first jet kill? it is said to be on the autobahn near Brunnthel

[Karoband]

Hi Luftquest,

I do not know if this was the "first jet kill" of Lieutenant Colonel Elwyn G. Righetti who claimed 27 aircraft by strafing. Norbert Loy, Der Feldflugplatz Brunnthal, (2016) p. 37 and p. 39 presents his original combat report and claims for 9 April 1945 along the autobahn at Brunnthal. The exact location is not given. Righetti did not return from a mission on 17 April 1945.

best regards,

Jim

[RSwank]

This contains a link to his report on the 9 April attack:

http://www.station131.co.uk/55th/Pil...0G%20LtCol.htm


There is a brief description of the airfield here:
https://www.pinterest.com/LuftQuest/...nthal-germany/

It notes
"A satellite airfield situated west of the village of Brunnthal, and 12 miles south of Munich on the Munich-Salzburg A8 Autobahn. This was an alternative to the regular fields at München-Neubiberg and München-Riem which were under constant air attacks. It provided two runways, one of which was the Autobahn itself. Used as a collection point by the allies."


This link on pdf page 98 contains more info on the field:

https://www.ww2.dk/Airfields%20-%20G...Borders%5D.pdf


Another discussion of the field layout is here: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=47947

[luftquest]

Thank you. That was my Pinterest page and have since updated it. I believe I had received inaccurate information in the past.

[luftquest]

An artist had recently messaged me about this subject. He wants to paint a pic of this pilot after the ground run looking over his shoulder at the burning me 262.I haven’t looked at this in years. The location I had received years ago didn’t look right on google maps when compared to some Luftwaffa aircraft pics in the area. I did find coordinates of that field on the Axis side of this forum a week after my post that does look right. Guess it’s still up in the air as to weather the current a8 autobahn was used or the smaller road running north from the center of town. What I do find interesting are what appears to be the footprint of bombs that lead north east to the trees. Brunnthal (GER) (a.k.a. München-Brunnthal, Munich-Brunnthal) (48 00 40 N – 11 41 10 E)

Your thoughts?

[RSwank]

The April 1945 report for the 38th FS is on fold3, starting here:

https://www.fold3.com/image/705493644

and running on for 101 pages.

There is a sketch (map) of the layout of the Brunnthal airfields on fold3 here (this is page 82 of the squadron report):

https://www.fold3.com/image/705493725

The co-ordinates you give are about where the sketch map shows a roughly rectangular area marked as Brunnthal Airfield (A/F). The autobahn area where the planes were hidden is north west of the A/F. It appears on the map that they may have numbered some of the planes that were struck to match up to claims made in the report. (I am not sure about that as, for example I would have thought Righetti's claims (1) and (2) would show up in the autobahn part of the map.

The sketch map shows that the path of the a8 autobahn was the same, but the exit at the intersection/interchange of A8, 99, 995 etc, did not exist. That exit is at the southern end of where the planes were hidden along the autobahn.

[luftquest]

Thank you RSwank!!! So the coordinates are now correct for the field and the jets did use the area of the current autobahn.