He 162 "White 4" at Kassel an Leck

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Originally Posted by Roger Gaemperle

I have seen several photos of a He 162 "White 4" at Kassel and of a "White 4" at Leck. They may have been one and the same He 162 with the W.Nr. 120097. That would mean this plane was transported from Leck to Kassel.

Are there any proofs for that? What would have been the likely reason for the transport?

Thanks,
Roger

The U.S. got three main concentrating area for captured materials, one of them Kassel, 400km south from Leck and 600km north-ouest from Vienna, was the He 162 main grouping emplacement.

Originally Posted by jmelson

White '4' at Leck and White '4' at Kassel are the same He162 and the correct WNr is 120067. A replacement tail was put on White '4' at Kassel (no WNr). The wing from 120067 was eventually put onto White '7' WNr 120222. A fair amount of damage was done to the He162's at Leck at the end of hostilites. To get an aircraft in good shape a lot of parts were swapped around.
The British Army overran Leck.......a number He162's were transported to Kassel for the Americans.

John

Actually except perhaps “yellow 1” shown with a missing wing tip under British roundels it seems that no damage was done to the He 162 at Leck. The reason for those different fins visible after Leck surrender is that contrary to the main Watson’s birds flying harvest like Me 262, Do 335, Ta 152, He 219… The He 162 as Me 163, due to their short flying time and pretty small size when dismounted, were found more easy to be moved by trains and by roads than by air up to Cherbourg. (The British for themselves had also used the Ar 232 to cross the Channel with He 162 inside). But then except for the British who took care about which fins goes with which fuselage, American and French mounted any fins to any fuselages. “White 4” example is slightly different since it was abandoned at Kassel and simply got also one abandoned tail fins roughly mounted on the fuselage for fun.

Originally Posted by Roger Gaemperle

Thank you very much for the information about "White 4". That's very interesting. I would have expected that the He 162 at Leck were found more or less in operational status.

Roger Gaemperle

Same feeling here. The 22 He162 visible along the runway at surrender looks to be flyable. Another four are visible in front of one and same hangar (ie: red 4, white 23, white 8 and yellow 6) all of them were under repair or damaged. So left one under unknow condition from the 27 captured at Leck.

Originally Posted by Roger Gaemperle

I am also looking for information about He 162 "White 5". I have a photo that presumably was taken at Erfurt-Nord (based on other aircraft on photos of the same series). White 5 is barely visible in the background with a collapsed nose gear. I couldn't find any information about the fate of "White 5" found at Leck but it appears to be one and the same aircraft.

“White 5” fate is hard to follow. From photo proof we know abandoned at Kassel ‘white 3’ 120028, ‘white 4’ 120067, ‘yellow 6’ 310xxx and another with camouflage from the 310xxx W.Nr. range and though to be ‘white 5’. So perhaps more Kassel than Erfurt-Nord for this photo…

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

AIR29/931 (Disarmament Servicing & Recovery Units 434, 435 and 436) notes that seven He 162 were among the jet/rocket aircraft dispatched to France by rail in (or by?) March 1946. The others were two Ar 234, 2 Me 262 and 4 Me 163.

By June 1945 fifteen He 162 are reported under U.S. control but it seems that the U.S. finally decided to bring back to the U.S.A. only some of the operational He 162 from I./JG1 captured by the English at Leck airfield. I suppose that’s because all those captured by themselves in the south area have been left damaged by the Germans.

It is usually said that the English captured 27 He 162 at Leck keeping 12 for themselves, giving 7 to the French and only 2 for the U.S. Thus leaving 6 scrapped between Leck and Kassel. The French finally exchanging two against one Me 262 to the U.S. This corresponding to what the archives kept traces ie: four complete He 162 bring back to the U.S.A. (+ probably a not complete fifth one) and five to France.

Nick, have you found any document about how many He 162 given to the U.S. by the British ? Since the four abandoned at Kassel were probably under U.S. hands I believe British actually gave more 6 than 2 He162 to the U.S…


Cheers, Olivier