KG51 Losses 22.6.41

[Csaba B. Stenge]

Originally Posted by Reiner

Hi Steve!

I have the diary, many fotos and some awards from Lt. Werner Poppenburg, 7./K.G.51. He flew the first and the second of his 216 missions as a Kampfflieger on 22.6.1944. The first target was airfield Stryj and the second Tarnopol.
The diary describes these two missions very precisely.
Not only in Stanislau, me unknown until today, also in Tarnopol they found several airmen tortured and murdered by NKWD. One, Ofw.Harenburg, was identified by a comrade.
The Bordfunker of the Poppenburg-crew survived the war and told me, that after these founds in Tarnopol many crews not wanted to come lively into Russian captivity.
Also I have copies of all “Namentliche Verlustmeldungen der III./K.G.51“ on the 22.6.1941.

Rene

Rene,

the Hungarians found few tortured and killed German flyers at Kameniez-Podolsk as well in a cellar. At Striy, I don't remember any Luftwaffe victim (altough there is also possible few), but they do found hundreds of butchered civilians: Polish and Ukrainian ones, who were 'unreliable' so they were imprisoned, but the NKVD had no capacity to evacuate the prison, so shot them (but some civilians were burned to death as well)
Many Hungarian soldiers enraged in this inhuman brutality and I guess, if they captured any NKVD members in this area, they were not really warmly welcomed...

By the way, the Hungarian troops could release four German flyers as well from a prison in this area.