A "defecting" Jagdwaffe pilot...?

[kaki3152]

Interesting story. Kinda on the same topic is this account from "Senta a Pua" by Rui Moreira Lima on two interesting members of a partisan band. The book is the history of the 1st Brazilian Fighter Squadron in WWII. This squadron flew with the 350th FG as a fourth squadron. One of its pilots, Lt. Theobaldo Kopp, was shot down on March 7,1945 and evaded German soldiers to join a partisan band. He described two members of the partisan band. My own translation from Portuguese.

"It was on this ocasion that two important personalities appear in this narrative. One was a German captain,who had deserted from the Wehrmacht and the other was a Russian Lt. fighter pilot who had evaded the Germans after having been shot down in aerial combat. The German captain had served on the Russian front, was evacuated to France and after being sent to Italy for combat duty,voted with his feet [deu no pe] The Russian pilot bailed out over the Eastern Front, crossed the Balkans and arrived in Italy as a fugitive. Both not having where to go they resolved to join the partisans. According to Kopp, he[Russian] had a combative personality and had a pair of red balls. He was involved in everything. Kopp never knew his name. They conversed in Italian and French on some ocasions.
Karl [the German Captain] was used to retrieve partisans from hospitals or prisons. He would put on a German captain's uniform and form a group of six partisans using German uniforms. They would steal a German car and go to the place where the partisans where, either a hopital or a prison. With forged documents, they would pick up the partisan prisoners and leave immediately. After they retrieved the prisoners, they would torch the car far way from the locale and return to a feast with large quantities of wine. Karl, after one of these sorties, would revert to a state of layabout/lazyness. This was his only participation in a fighting role with the partisans. Still it was a brave action.

[ouidjat]

Hello,

... Interesting story Kaki, but not what is told but, yes, what is not told!
In effect the story is talking about TWO german guys:
one who was Wermacht captain and the second who was fighter pilot and who reached the same partisan band; I'm talking about the BRAZILIAN pilot KOPP; most probably (100% I would say) issued from brazilian german community, south Brazil (Minas Gerais if I'm right) settled down there well before WWII.
In effect there is no popular rumour neither urban myth. Simply memories mixed the two guys; And truly there has been a "german" pilot who reached a partisan after having been shot down. And the memory just recalled about the Captain who spoke just german ... the other one whose first name was Karl actually!

Think about that Ferdinando that's much more than some bits of true, isn't it?

Cheers, Franck.