Ar 234 W.Nr. 140154 Reason for loss?

[Karoband]

Hello Roger,

Indeed, Erich Sommer in Luftwaffe Eagle: A WWII German Airman's Story, (2018), pp. 164-167 recounts how "on Christmas Eve 1944" while on final approach and "with little fuel left" his Ar 234 was set on fire by German flak at Wiesbaden/Erbenheim. Unawares he taxied the aircraft into a hangar where the fire brigade eventually doused the fire. "Ground witnesses told me that my Arado trailed a 150-metre-long flame on approach and while landing and taxiing." In this account he does not identify the aircraft.

However, in Smith & Creek, Arado 234 Blitz, (1992), p. 171 giving a similar account, he identified the Ar 234 as "my faithful T9+IH was burning fiercely". On p. 253, Smith & Creek give 140154 as "T9+IH", flown by Oblt. Sommer...destroyed on December 24, 1944.

I too would like a wartime source to confirm this.

best regards,

Jim