Death of Hptm. Joachim Kirschner IV./JG 27

[Csaba B. Stenge]

Thanks, Boris, this is exactly, what I wanted to know.

Regarding his torture: yes, I guess, the German or Croat soldiers did not see his body, but probably they heard about it from somebody in that area. And you have right, that war was extremely cruel in Yugoslavia (I have many first hand accounts about the pogroms and gruesome tortures as well). So I am sure, that if they executed Kirschner, they tortured him before as well.

Joachim Kirschner was an excellent pilot and a very nice man, his death was a really serious blow to his comrades (Jochen was very popular among the Hungarian fighter pilots as well).
It would be nice to find his body to re-bury him with full military honour (but sadly it sounds close to impossible, because of the circumstances...)

Interesting to mention, that a Hungarian Messer pilot baled out over Bosnia-Hercegovina as well in 1944 (lost the orientation). He was grabbed by a partisan group and they just started to hanging him, when a German searching group saved him (the Germans tought, that the Messer's pilot must be German).