For He 162 Experts: He 162 that went to the US

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Most of those smaller airplanes which came by trains and many spare parts were loaded aboard of the liberty ship 0419 ‘Richard J. Gatling’. From the 26th of June 1945, ‘Richard J. Gatling’ load list we found: three complete but dismounted He 162 + one not complete + many tails and BMW 003 jet engines shipped aboard. This ship was planed to left Cherbourg for Le Havre to load-up troops on the 12th of July and then to reach New-York around 1st of August.
At Cherbourg there was also the British air carrier ‘HMS Reaper’ that left the French harbor for the U.S.A. on 19th July 1945 loaded with 41 German airplanes and helicopters, most of them airworthy under a protective "shrink wrap" made of “eronel” to protect them from the sea spray on the deck. The ‘HMS Reaper’ inventory shows only one He 162, which made the travel very probably inside the boat since it is not visible on the deck’s pictures. (Cf 39/45 N°261)


The three clearly pictured He162 in the U.S. are ‘w 23’, ‘w7’ and ‘red 1’. Strangely we don’t have any photos showing any of them at Kassel, probably simply because they don’t stop long enough at Kassel on their way to Cherbourg. It is believed that the fourth one (W.Nr.120017?) left not pictured in the U.S. cause of it’s use as spare parts. Got no information about the fifth not complete one (fuselage only ?).

IMHO it's very doubtful that yellow 6 found it's way to the USA since we have some pictures showing it partly disable so at a pretty late time to what be believed to be Kassel area.