abyssinian

[gaynako]

Hello,

The Negus had a Junkers W33c arrived in Abyssinia on the 5/09/1929. It seems that there was another Junkers W33c, as it is related that TWO Junkers were held up a time by the french customs in Djibouti..
In december 1929, a near parent of Ras Tafari (future Negus) was killed in a crash with a Junkers. The two german pilots, Schatzberg and von Nagel, were immediately fired after that !
In 1934, the well known swiss pilot, Mittelholzer comes to Addis Abeba to deliver a Fokker trimotor (ex Swissair CH-192) to the Negus. He remarks "an all metal Junkers machine...piloted by an experienced german pilot" who was certainly Ludwig Weber, a Junkers representative and a future chief pilot of the Negus in 1935 and 1936. Was that Junkers a survivor of the 1929 command, or another Junkers (and which type ?). That's the question and we need photographic evidences.

As to the shooting of Red Cross planes, there are several testimonies (from Dr Junod for example). The Italian said that those planes carry ammunitions and that Red Cross camps were ammunition depot...That old same story which is heard even today (because, alas, it's not always false!!). It is very difficlut to obtain informations, as on the italian side, it seems that there is a curious amnesia among the italian pilots and web sites about the Abyssinian war. We find a lot of photos about Spain campaing, Libya campaing, but before 1937, nothing ! There are of course, and fortunately, some books like the one writted by Vittorio Mussolini (in 1937) but the facts are not very precise.
The search goes on..
Best

Christian