Gottfried Dulias paper

[David Ransome]

An excellent piece of investigative work with solid pointers to further investigation/research. Now is the time for others to give further information for or against the Dulias story.

I agree with your comments relating to training pattern and aircraft types and they tie in with what I have been told by at least two former aircrew. I previously did some checking into Fred Browning with MoD and the DSS (latter relating to War Pensions etc) and nothing came up particularly for the periods covered. I don't know much about fighter units in the Luftwaffe to be able to make comment on the units and timelines relating to the Dulias case.

The route to a Flak unit seems most reasonable and was certainly common at the time, I believe, again mainly connected with fuel shortages and a need for more ground defence.

Let's hope for meaningful responses, without huff and puff, to this balanced piece of work!

David

[Nick Beale]

Thanks for an excellent piece of work.

My (completely unscientific) feeling when I first heard Dulias's story was that the part about his Soviet imprisonment rang true but that if he'd been a successful fighter pilot, contemporary evidence would have shown up for at least some part of his career.

[Peter Spoden]

Hi Thijs,

thanks for the good research and paper.
Being an old veteran myself I think that many of these old men (incl. me) have bad dreams after all the years and if they finally talk they tend to exaggerate sometimes to get attention.

regrds Peter

[Brian Bines]

Really good research by Thijs. I did wonder about the Lt. Browning story and noted a Typhoon pilot P/O R Downing was taken POW on 17th. August when several Typhoons were lost. Is there a chance that Dulias in whatever capacity Pilot/Flak/ or prisoner escort did meet Downing and after many years got the name and aircraft type wrong. Has Dulias ever been approached to request a copy of his own service records. Whatever transpired the man seemed to have got his wings and been a POW in harsh conditions.