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Old 21st September 2019, 19:56
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Walter Nowotny's 262

Sorry if this has been asked before.

In the book 'German Fighter Ace Walter Nowotny an Illustrated Biography', page 151. Author Werner Held describs the events of 8th November 1944 as quote "Shortly thereafter the Rotte Schall in Hesepe and the Rotte Wegmann in Achmer took off. Each Rotte reported shootdowns after the first contact with the enemy. Lt Schall reported that his Rotte comrade, Fw Daudach, was shot down. Then a new announcement came from Schall: "My plane is on fire! bale out!". Anger and despair came over Nowotny. He called his driver and told Schnörrer: "Come with me Quax, I'm taking off!". Galland's cry, "Stay here, Nowotny!" remained unheard.
In Achmer, "Weifle 8" was ready for take-off. Nowotny's "Weifle 1" was in the hanger for reconditioning!

Now I'm confused. Most people assume Nowotny's aircraft was White 8 because that was the aircraft he was flying when he was killed. But Werner Held clearly states Nowotny's aircraft was actually white 1, which was in the hanger and couldn't be flown that day.

To confuse things further, it appears White 1 was the aircraft of Lt. Franz Schall.

Thoughts?
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Old 22nd September 2019, 19:31
Richard Aigner Richard Aigner is offline
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Re: Walter Nowotny's 262

for "Weifle 8" read "Weisse 8". The German letter "ß"easily beats any machine reading, let alone automatic spelling function.
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Old 22nd September 2019, 20:00
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Re: Walter Nowotny's 262

In the book 'German Fighter Ace Walter Nowotny an Illustrated Biography', page 151. Author Werner Held describes the events of 8th November 1944
What we really need to know is where Held got his information about the conversations he quotes. It sounds more like people's memories than documents, so I wonder who he spoke to?
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Old 23rd September 2019, 23:01
Adriano Baumgartner Adriano Baumgartner is offline
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Re: Walter Nowotny's 262

Dear Srob48,

I guess your own quoting do answer your question:

White 8, werk 110400 was the aircraft actually flown by Nowotny on his last mission
White 1, werk unknown 110??? was in the Hangar being repaired.

What actually happened may be never known...Cajus Bekker do quote a similar passage onto his book "The Luftwaffe War Diaries"; General Adolf Galland also do mention the visit to the Kommando Nowotny.

This book of Held about Nowotny (English version) is on my wish list for years....and sadly I have not read it yet...it seems a wonderful work and at least from what I have seen, may do have some of Nowotny's Flugbuchs (have seen one page)...so he got some kind of help from Nowotny's relatives or other sources.

"The Me 262 Combat Diary" book (Foreman, etc.) do have a lot of information about those combat sorties on the 8th November 1944...and some years ago, I saw pieces of the supposed Me 262 A-1a werknummer 110400 being sold (I bid, believe me!) at huges quantities at Ebay...so, at least part of the wreck may be near where Nowotny do have a memorial.

One may remember that:
a) He was at least 1 year (when he assumed the Kommando Nowotny) without combating (acting as Kommodore of JG 101 at Pau);
b) His career and successes (highly inflated...) were obtained on the Russian Front (not flown against the RAF or USAAF);
c) The Me 262 A-1a were still suffering from technical troubles and a lot of failures (T.B.O. of Jumo 004, etc.);
d) The Training of the Kommando Nowotny airmen may have been not totally suited to transform them (or most of them - at least the non ZG 26 airmen) from single seaters to a twin-engined fighter with a high speed landing, poor slow speed characteristics, heavy weight, etc...
e ) Much was expected from his Kommando...and the losses were similar to the combat claims or successess...so he may have been, during the night of 7th November 1944, very well pressed (by Galland and the other General present) to obtain results! This may have been a burden to a young with the highest medals and a lot on his shoulders (to prove the new machine was a success, etc.). What was recorded of this meeting? There are no clues....no testimony told much about this...

Anyway...I guess that this answers you, sir.

Adriano




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