Me 163-related Aircrew

[Col Bruggy]

Originally Posted by udf_00

And not unsurprisingly in Jefffrey L. Ethell & Alfred Price's "The Germans Jets in Combat", JANE'S (1979)
p.107 : "Rudolf Opitz joined the Me 163 test program soon after it begin, and later became chief test pilot for the project. Opitz"
p.127 : "Two of the rocket pilots of JG 400 who fought during the August actions: Feldwebeln Manfred Eisenmann (left) and Rudolf Glogner. Eisenmann was killed when is Me 163 crashed on 24 August. Glogner" .

udf oo,

Manfred Eisenmann was killed on 7 October, 1944, not 24 August, 1944.

Ransom & Cammann's Me 163 Rocket Interceptor Vol Two:

Photo of Eisenmann and wreckage of Me 163 440013 (p.260):

1/Right and far right - Uffz Manfred Eisenmann of 2./JG 400, seen here by the lake at Bad Zwischenahn while training with Erprobungskommando 16 and before he transferred with 2./JG 400 from Venlo to Brandis. He lost his life on returning from an unsuccessful combat sortie on 7 October 1944, while flying a Klemm-built Me 163B, W.Nr. 440013.

2/ Appendix 6 - Me 163 Flight Log - Production Aircraft.

Variant: B
Werk-Nummer: 440013
Call Sign: BQ+UP
Marking -
Date: 07.10.44
Place: Brandis
Company/Unit: 2./JG 400
Pilot: Eisenmann
Mode: C (Conventional take-off)
Remarks: Combat sortie. Aircraft destroyed; Eiesnmann killed - See Note !

Note 1.

Namentliche Verlustmeldung gives the identity of Eisenmann's aircraft at time he was killed as 440 013. BQ+UD. It is assumed that the entry was wrongly transcribed and that BQ+UD should read BQ+UP.

See:
Me 163 Rocket Interceptor - Volume Two.
Ransom,Stephen & Hans-Hermann Cammann.
Hersham:Classic Publications,2003.
pp.260 & 427.

Col.