1944 Toplet, Romania, Ju52 crash near Orsova

[RT]

Probably if place, in desolated area, some parts remain ...I mean from the Ju !

Rémi

[egbert]

Originally Posted by researcher111

Egbert

...... No I reffered in fact to the JU 52 of your uncle which crashed on May 5th,44. ..

Probably you mean 10.5.44 as this was the date of death for all the buried passengers.

[egbert]

Originally Posted by RT

Probably if place, in desolated area, some parts remain ...I mean from the Ju !

Rémi

That's what I would think as well. My friend who visited the Orsova graves last November though told me nobody there speaks English or French......it is rural Romania.....

[researcher111]

Ja bestimmt 10 Mai meinte ich, erbitte um entschuldigung. Werde den Email folge leisten. Schoenes Wochenend. Its pitty that no color
shots of the grave was taken. Is there any reason on why the grave was not reinterred in Germany ?

[egbert]

Originally Posted by researcher111

Ja bestimmt 10 Mai meinte ich, erbitte um entschuldigung. Werde den Email folge leisten. Schoenes Wochenend. Its pitty that no color
shots of the grave was taken. Is there any reason on why the grave was not reinterred in Germany ?

Alex, I do have a whole bunch of modern day color pictures from the cemetery, taken November 2014. Unfortunately due to the withered state of my uncle's headstone (but also the headstones of all the other 77 German interred) could not be found/identified. Please see also my link to another forum (the link works fine by now) and read about the cemetery and German war graves situation in Orsova. The situation applies to the buried of both Ju52 crash near Toplet, that of 16.4.44 and that of my uncle 10.5.44.

[researcher111]

Egbert viewing the posted photos require membership . Despite the issue with the graves would appreciate those shots through email.

Also
====
Spanish Bronze Cross June 6,1939 ( any details ? )

By sinking the British Aircraft Carrier " Eagle " on Aug 11,1942 was awarded the Knight to Iron Cross
Kapt.Lt. Rosenbaum CO U-73 sank the British aircraft carrier "EAGLE" from amongst a heavily secured convoy
with four torpedo hits on 11 August in the western Mediterranean. Do you have more details ?

April 4,1941 Kapt.Lt. Rosenbaum and Lt.zur See Endrass particularly distinguished themselves in success against
British Merchant Navy

On Sept 17,1944 was posth.awrded the Argentinian military valour order in silver ( details ? )


Thanks in advance

[researcher111]

Here what I was able to translate from Ruddy Klemm notes, pse note that there were 7 survivors rather than one . Also the route of the JU-52 was rather unusual ,flying
West from Mamaia to BUC ,then further West to Arad and rather continue NNW to destination it headed SE which make me conclude was tasked to first fly to Bulgaria to
drop or collect post or Naval personnel at Varna ( Kriegsmarine Base ) then from there continue to its planned destination .

On May 1944, Rosenbaum was the head of the 30 U- Flotilla for over a year and a half . A month earlier, he tried to organize a flight back home to celebrate his 31st birthday on 11 May.

On the evening of May 9 ,1944 Rosenbaum learns he can board a Ju 52 connecting from Mamaia to Berlin the next day. Despite the mext day schedule he still had the time to organize a small birthday
party with his men. On May 10, as planned he boarded the Ju 52 (PH + OI Werk Nr . 3225 ) which was attached to the postal & transport squadron of the Kriegsmarine.

In total, 15 people boarded the aircraft plus the two pilots of JU-52 bound for Germany. The aircraft took off from Mamaia Suitighol airfield aprox 5:30 am . The weather conditions were CAVOK .
After a refueling stop at Pipera and new briefing , the Ju 52 headed to Arad Delta Airfield for next stop . Here was refueled again and then took off again aprox at 11:00 am.

Most passengers red or slept when tree limbs suddenly scratched the corrugated fuselage of the aircraft . The noise woke up Oblt.z.S . Mertineit who was seated just near Rosenbaum .
Before he could really determine what was going on , the plane hit the ground and exploded . Appearently the Ju 52 penetrated fog and hit the top of a mountain 9 km northwest of
Poletz north of Turnul Severin.

At the impact Olt.z.S. Mertineit was blown clear of the aircraft , wounded but survived along with other six other passengers. Seated on the left, just behind the cockpit was Korvt.Kapt.Helmut
Rosenbaum who was not among the survivors.

Having survived so many dangers at sea, he just died in the wreckage of that plane. A total of 10 soldiers perished in the crash , including the two crew members . When the fog dissipated
it was determined that aircraft missed just by 20 meters the safe altitude in order to clear the mountain’s peak . Two days later , the six sailors killed in that accident were buried in the military
cemetery of Orsova , about 38 km from the crash site . This where Helmut Rosenbaum is burried , far from the sea
which had such influenence on his life.

[egbert]

Alright- thanks again for the next batch of information from Alex. It all sheds more light on the final day in the life of H.Rosenbaum.

I have the big dilemma now to have 2 conflicting information about the crash site and the plane identifyer:

1a. from Matti, whose primary source is the WAST: (Wehrmachtauskunftsstelle) the plane crash occurred at 9 km nn/w of Toplet (German: Töplitz) at an altitude of 1052m. Indeed there is a one mountain that reaches up to 1070ish meters.
Also the WAST says the identification of the JU52 involved is WerkNr. 501326, PO + GO
Flugzeugführer Ofw Brunnhuber, Georg, +
Bordfunker Ofw Kunkel, Josef, +
Bordwart Uffz Striebing, Willi, verletzt
Uffz Striebing am 1944-05-20 seinen Verletzungen erlegen.


1b. from Alex: it is correct that your primary source is Rudy Klemm?=
the plane crash was 9km n/w of Poletz. Poletz village/town I cannot find unfortunately, maybe it is Toplet?
The identification of the JU52 is different and conveyed as Werk Nr. 3225,PH + OI
Is anybody able to shed light on the differing Werknummern and identification letters?

P.S. I have no whatsoever info on the Spanish and Argentinian decorations. All of my uncles naval documentation I suppose to be archived with the UBoot-Archiv in Cuxhaven?

[egbert]

A possible flight route discrepancy :

I have depicted below the suggested flight path. From the last fueling stop in Arad the general flight path to Berlin should be direction North and here we see a Southern flight path from Arad towards Toplet/Orsova. Could it be that they actually did not reach Arad but were on their way from Bucharest-Pipera towards Arad and before landing in Arad crashed near Toplet?

[researcher111]

Egebert

Your hypothesis sounds reasonable to me and thanks for making the sketch , though according some publications I have at my end ,one of which is called " Rettung Zwischen Den Fronten " the courier flights of the Kriegsmarine had to shuttle between Naval bases in Romania and Bulgaria even Greece before getting to Berlin to collect / drop personnel & post . According Klemm's notes the flight refuelled at Arad Delta after a stopover at Pipera ( Baneasa) then was headed for Varna Bulgaria . What does not make sense to me is why they didn't fly directly from Pipera to Varna which possibly lays the key question, other than intending to collect/drop Luftwaffe personnel from Arad and then to Varna.

PS : On May 10,1944 the 15th AF out of Italy was conducting high alt.recon flights over Romania , no bombings or intrussions of Allied fighter or bomber aircrafts . The 2nd Ukrainian Front was conducting air to ground ops in Moldavia , I therefore exclude contact with the enemy on the crash perimeter area or SE of Bucharest.