Me 262 in Italy - photo evidence

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Martin388

… the plane could be disassembled and later "forgotten". Without (wings and) jet engines which could be returned to Germans (as they were considered secret and treated carefully, acc. to reports from Lonate) the remains (fuselage, wings) did not attract the attention of Italians or Alliied staff.
Martin

Allied Technical Intelligence Reports include disassembled airframes, detached wings, engines and other components. I don't think they would have overlooked an Me 262 when they produced detailed reports on Gniesmer's Ar 234.

I also doubt that an aircraft unable to make it to Salzburg or Innsbruck could somehow cross the Alps to Italy, a longer and harder flight.

J2 was in good supply in Italy. To quote from our book:

[April] began with 226 cbm of B4, 125 of C3 and 341 of J2 on hand … At the prevailing consumption rate, J2 would have held out for about eight months.

Dan O'Connell's book mentions this aircraft. As he says, it is by a rail track but he gives no location. The one building you can see between the rail wagons doesn't look obviously dissimilar to others I've seen travelling with Deutsche Bahn.

I think we should consider the possibility that the Brazilian pilots went sightseeing in Germany, Austria or Western Czechoslovakia.