Arado Ar234 at Neubiberg?

[RolandF]

As far as I am aware 1.(F)/100 did not have any direct links with Kommando Sperling.

My information comes from here:

http://www.ww2.dk/air/recon/aufkl100.htm

In fact, everything I´ve read about the 1944/45 activities of the T9 unit seems to be contradictory the more it´s coming to war´s end.

Concerning the airfields well-hidden deep in the Austrian Alps I´d like to quote the airfield near St.Leonhard/Pitztal situated in a small valley in the middle of nowhere. Ba 349 units arrived here in May ´45. Saalbach is situated in a narrow secondary valley, too (I know it well from skiing) and seems strange to me providing sufficient airstrip length for a jet. I remember an information about additional 1.(F)/100 activities from an airfield between Linz and Passau in Lower Austria.

Saalbach is not far from Zell am See with an airfield situated in a wide valley. I doubt Saalbach as base for a jet unit.

Regards

Roland

[ianatheling]

Hi Roland

I think that such contradictions are unfortunately common, especially in this period. Part of this is however a modern error. There are a couple of probably related mix ups on the T9+ related units on the Michael Holm website , most notably the info on Sonderkommando Hecht/Sommer.
The Austrian airfield you refer to is Hörsching, south west of Linz (Upper Austria) and 1.(F)/100 were operational there.

[Martin388]

[quote=Nick Beale;102246]Looking at Saalbach on Google Earth, it's not obvious where you'd put a runway, especially for a jet to take off or land. I wonder whether they abandoned their remaining aircraft at Riem and the personnel retreated to Saalbach to wait out the end of the war (as elements of NSG 9 did at Kufstein).

Dear Nick,
You and RolandF are correct; 1.(F)100 was in Austria but alpine Saalbach was only a place for Stab and non flying parts to wait for the end of hostilities, or "officially" to "regroup" for the final operational chapter of the Luftwaffe in southern Germany, the Luftwaffen Division Nordalpen, for which (F)100 parts should form a mixed jet recon unit.
Actually parts of (F)100 were located at FlPl Hoersching and FlPl Zeltweg. The Hoersching airbase was actually prepared for jets as there was J2 jet fuel for serveral week of operation available for other operational reasons (to continue jet operations at Prague and Salzburg Area). Besides one of the large underground Me 262 manufacturing was established in Upper Austria (Gusen).
If Ar 234 were operational at Hoersching is not jet confirmed.
I am preparing a (2nd) book on the Luftwaffe in Austria (see www.oefh.at ) therefore these information may be regarded as relayable and confirmed by several sources.

Martin

[ianatheling]

Hi Martin

Thank you for this information (even though I seem to have been ignored in the last post!). Unless anyone else has unexpected info on the München-Riem Ar234B, I think that it may be safe to suggest that 1(F)./100 was its unit.
Good luck on the book.
Ian

[RolandF]

To complete this I´d like to add information about two photographs on p.189 in Smith + Creek: Arado 234 Blitz (Monogram 1992), depicting the "wrecked fuselage of an Ar 234 photographed in Southern Germany...thought to have belonged to...1.(F)/100." The code is + (white) HH, without the Geschwader code T5 being applied.
Size and position of the letters are identical to München-Riem´s Ar 234 but without the white portions being obscured.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Roland

[ianatheling]

Originally Posted by Martin388

If Ar 234 were operational at Hoersching is not jet confirmed.

There is evidence of Lt. Helmut Reinert transferring T5+BH W.Nr. 140 611 to Hörsching on the 1st April 1945. This was the aircraft that was shot down by Lt. Hilton O. Thompson in a Mustang on 25th April (Luftwaffe pilot unknown).