Looking for information about Ar 234 pilot Hauptmann Miersch / Mierisch

[Jaap Woortman]

See below the story about the transfer of this Ar 234 and it's landing at Eelde airport near Groningen, written by one who was there.

Jaap

Air Enthousiast Vol.4, Nr.2, pg.73 81.
Viewed from the cockpit by Captain Eric Brown,CBE,DSC,AFC,RN.
"Like greased lightning..."
From Sola to Farnborough.
I was able to gain far more of my Blitz flying experience during ferrying than testing, for our troops had come across a whole squadron of Ar 234B 2s on Sola airfield, Stavanger, and I was assigned the task of getting these aircraft back to the UK. For this I used a Siebel Si 204D as a communications hack and mobile workshop and, having loaded it with all metric tools, oils, greasse, spare tyres, etc, likely to be called for during the ferrying operation, set off from Farnborough with a second pilot who was to shuttle the Siebel between Sola and Schleswig while I flew the Arados between the two bases. Once at Sola I decide that the job called for some expert assistance, so I handpicked two German maintenance NCOs and took on strength the Hauptmann who had served as maintenance test pilot on the airfield. They accepted their new role with a certain inevitability tempered with the knowledge that their fate as my helpmates would be a good deal more agreeable than that of their comrades in the POW cage. It had been my original intention to use the Hauptmann purely in an advisory capacity, then the tempting thought struck me that I might use him actually to fly some of the aircraft on the ferry route. Such a course had its risks as neutral Sweden was invitingly close for a dash for freedom, but I weighed the pros and cons and decided to minimize the risk by always flying on his tail; providing him with a course and altitude at which to fly but ensuring that he had no maps and threatening to ram him if he deviated from course. Knowing the Ar 234B as he did he must have regarded my threat to ram him as pretty hollow since I would be highly exposed in that exten sively glazed nose. On second thoughts, he may really heave believed that I had kamikaze tendencies. In the event, it all worked like a charm and the task was soon completed, though the weather sometimes forced us to make an intermediate stop at Grove. Once all the Arados were assembled at Schleswig the next stage was to get them to Farnborough via, if the weather so dictated, Melsbroek, Brussels. On this leg I reckoned to let my Luftwaffe helpmate fly in formation on my wing, although I still had no intention of providing him with maps.
On such a trip on 3 October 1945 we took off from Schleswig at 1715 hours with a forecast of clear weather en route. As it was late afternoon we planned a low level flight to Brussels which, at fast cruise, would take an hour. Our endurance under such conditions was 1hr 20 min. and dusk at Brussels was 1815 hours. Our route took us down the east bank of the Zuider Zee but as we reached the south bank we ran into sea fog. I switched on my wingtip lights and saw that the Hauptmann was still with me, so I began a gentle turn to reverse course as there was no guarantee that the weather would open up again ahead of us. Furthermore, I was not at all sure that my Teutonic companion was in a good night formation flying practice; uncertainty that was to prove more than justified. On breaking clear of the fog the other Arado was no longer with me. Nor was it anywhere to been seen. I circled a couple of times, vainly searching the sky for my wingman, and it suddenly dawned on me that I had another problem, I had not enough fuel to get back to Schleswig. The only alternative was to try to make Nordholz airfield on the North Sea coast near Cuxhaven.
........The story goes on at October 4th with:
I had made anxious enquiries about the fate of the other Arado but learned nothing until late that afternoon a phone call from a British Army unit in Holland informed me that the aircraft had landed at a small airfield called Eelde, and its pilot being held in custody by the Dutch who seemingly had no intention of giving him up. Next morning I set off in an Oxford for Eelde and could scarcely believe my eyes when I saw the Ar 234B on that small grass field which was liberally pitted with bomb craters. It was obvious that the Blitz would never be flown out of there. The Hauptmann told me, after losing me in the turn over the Zuider Zee, he had headed north in the hope of striking the coast and getting his bearings. He had realised, as I had, that darkness was overtaking him rapidly, and when he spotted the pockmarked airfield at Eelde he had decided to take his chance while it was still daylight and put down there, trying to steer the aircraft in a straight line that he could see existing between the craters and using the emergency braking 'chute. He was far more grateful to me for releasing him from Dutch care than for the congratulations on bringing off a remarkable landing.
There was no change no chance of recovering the ar 234B from Eelde the splendid Dutch were delighted to have an intact example of the aeroplane on their sole and I decided to recover the Arado that I had left at Nordholz after ferrying the rest of the aircraft back to the UK.

[Huib Ottens]

Hi/Hoi Jaap,

This great and entertaining story triggered my interest for, and further research into, this subject.

The story is not totally correct:

• The Ar 234 wasn't handed over to the Dutch, but was transported by road/sea to Farnborough by a British aircraft recovering unit.

• The German Hauptmann was not detained by the Dutch but was detained by the Canadian forces stationed at Eelde.

• Eelde airfield was not covered with bomb craters because the airfield wasn't extensively bombed during the war. It was used by the Canadian forces for storage and repair of hundreds of vehicles, causing great damage to the airfields surface. Only a small strip in the south eastern part of the airfield remained operational for small aircraft.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Interesting thread

What interests me is from where the given names originate.

Huib
From where have you got the name Helmut(h) to connect with Miersch?

Larry/Doug
From where does the name Karl originate? It is clear from Doug's answer that it does not originate from any of the second hand sources quoted.
Quite probably there was (or were) one or two Karl Miersch or Mierisch, but what connects him to Arado 234 in Norway?

From Larry's further research the individual Kurt Mierisch sounds like a very plausible candidate.

I checked one other second hand source, Profiles in Norway, No 5, Arado 234B-2. It does not give us any further clues as such but it states that Miersch was a testpilot at Sola with Einsatzkommando 1./FAGr.1 and that it was probably he who had a landing accident on August 1st, 1945. It also said that previous to the flight discussed here, both Eric Brown and Miersch had flown WNr 140356 and 140141 respectively to Grove on September 23rd. Both returned to Sola with a Si 204 that same evening. The British were also rather distrustful (at least initially) about Miersch and had at one time threated him if he tried to escape.

The booklet at all times call him a Hauptmann but it could easily be a corruption of a civil title as stated by Larry.
Using testpilots who were rather old was probably legio, especially with the war now in its 7th callender year. Experience is more worth than youth! So nothing odd with a man appx 45-46 year sold used in such a capacity.

One other thing of interest (to me) is that the Einsatzkommando 1./FAGr 5 was renamed Einsatzkommando 1./FAGr 1 when it arrived in Norway.

Cheers
Stig

[Larry deZeng]

Stig -

MIERISCH, Karl. 01.09.41 promo to Hptm. 03.10.45 Hptm. and POW, assigned to fly an Ar 234 to Farnborough.
MIERISCH, Karl. 16.04.42 Hptm. in Abt. Qu 4/Italuft Rome.

These are the only two I can comment on. All of the above entries, except for the Farnsborough one, are mine and taken from the Luftwaffenpersonalamt's officer assignment (and promotion) orders contained in 27 rolls of NARA WashDC microfilm in RG 242 Microcopy T-77. You can find more information on this in the bibliographic section of the Introduction of our Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries on the Michael Holm website. But here is the rub: it is entirety possible that these two Karl Mierisch officers are one and the same. When working my way through these tens of thousands of pages of material between 1988 and 2010, I would enter a name twice if I was uncertain that a particular assignment, e.g., "in Abt. Qu 4/Italuft Rome", belonged with the first Mierisch that I had previously entered. So the bottom line is that it is entirely possible there is only one Hptm. Karl Mierisch. There just isn't enough assignment information to be certain.

L.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Thanks Larry

Just about what I thought. Thanks BTW for doing such a tremendous job!!

Cheers
Stig

[Huib Ottens]

Hi Larry and Stig,

As far as I know the first time Hauptmann Miersch is mentioned is in the 1978 Putnam book "The Captive Luftwaffe" by Kenneth S. West (Page 13).

In 2001 I was discussing Hauptmann Miersch with Chris Goss and he mentioned that a Hauptmann Helmut MIERSCH flew with 2/FaGR 5.

In his recollections Eric Brown refers to the German pilot as 'the Hauptmann' and according to an eyewitness report the pilot that landed at Eelde was a 'Hauptmann in full uniform'.
Based on these descriptions it is in my opinion more probable that the pilot was an active duty Luftwaffe officer.

[Larry deZeng]

He who lives closest to BA-MA Freiburg needs to go there!

L.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Thanks Huib

I get your points. Odd that Larry cannot find any Helmut.
Seems I was a bit too early to rule out Karl.
Having said that I can mentally find reasons for a civilian to carry a uniform during the transfer to Britain, but there is no need to throw in hypothethesis as well....

Cheers
Stig

[Huib Ottens]

Still digging and exploring possibilities:

Capt. Eric Brown stated in the article in Air Enthousiast about Hauptmann Miersch / Mierisch: "Knowing the Ar 234B as he did". This means that Brown considered Hauptmann Miersch/ Mierisch a very experienced Ar 234 pilot and if anyone could judge a pilot.....

Looking at the information mentioned about his possible postings FaGr.5 is mentioned. This unit was mostly equipped with Ju290's but in January 1945 Einsatzkommando 1./FaGR. 5 is formed at (probably) Quackenbrück equipped with Ar 234's.
As Stig mentioned Einsatzkommando 1./FaGR. 1 is formed/renamed in May 1945 from Einsatzkommando 1./FaGR. 5 and is stationed at Stavanger-Sola equipped with Ar 234's.

It seems therefore plausible that Hauptmann Miersch/Mierisch was an (operational?) Ar 234 pilot serving with Einsatzkommando 1./FaGR. 5 and transferring with this unit to Norway in May 1945 where it was renamed/reformed into Einsatzkommando 1./FaGR. 1 just before the end of the hostilities in Europe.

Still, as Larry already mentioned, the answer lies hopefully in the BA-MA.

[Karoband]

Greetings Huib,

ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/dornier-do335.42696/

I am sorry I cannot add any thing about "Hauptmann Miersch"'s name. However, it seems he was not only an expert about the Ar 234 but the Do 335 as well. From the source above, he apparently made a faultless belly landing in Do 335 AM225 at Merville, France, on 13 December 1945.

Best regards,

Jim Geens