Luftwaffe rescue buoys

[edwest]

I hope this will be the start of a more in depth investigation.


http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/t...scue-buoy.html




Ed

[edwest]

Some photos:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirk_br...7602180011317/



Ed

[Peter Spoden]

Hello Ed,
thanks for the nice pictures. It should be noted here that these buoys helped also a certain number of RAF Flyers to survive. At that time of the war there was still a kind of chivalry. Udet was a famous pilot in WWI and later on. he killled himself in the war. ( "Des Teufels General!")
Peter

[Brian]

Hi guys

Most interesting!

I've only vaguely known of these. Do we know of any specific ultimate rescues from the bouys - Luftwaffe and RAF?

Cheers
Brian

[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by Peter Spoden

At that time of the war there was still a kind of chivalry.

I do not think so.

[FalkeEins]

"..The famous ‘Udet-Seenotbojen’ (rescue buoys) were unfortunately not as useful as they had promised to be...although marked very obviously with a red cross, they were immediately shot up by the Tommies..."

Uffz. Rothenfelder (9./JG 2) in 'Dans le ciel de France' (Erik Mombeeck)

[Peter]

Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski

I do not think so.

A statment from the horses mouth, why do you not belive in it?

Peter

[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by Peter

A statment from the horses mouth, why do you not belive in it?

I do not say I do not believe it, I do say it is not true. Anyone can verify it by reading documents and accounts. Most of the 'chivalry' stories were born years after the war ended, most probably because such stories 'sell' well.

[Jan vd Heuvel]

Although it is true that the Udet-buoys were shot at by the British, they still saved a lot of lives (Germans and British airmen).

The RAF used similar floating rescue stations and were they left alone by the Germans ? I have no data for that but I am sure the Germans also attacked the British floating stations.

To my knowledge the "chivalry" in airwarfare was blown away by the Germans when they used He-59s with Red Cross markings to shadow British convoys and subsequently sent information about these convoys to the German U-boat wolfpacks.

Regards,
Jan

Regards,
Jan

[Franek Grabowski]

Sorry, but you would not find a nice Nazi or Commie.
Certainly there were some decent people worth to remember, but their air force was not, and the air war was just a brute massacre.
Most of the stories originate from 1950s or 1960s and I would guess they were part of propaganda policy trying to explain why Western Germany was an ally of NATO. Here, we had stories of brave German anti-faschists fighting arm in arm with the Red Army. The truth is less chivalrous, more complicated but nonetheless still fascinating.