Looking for information about Ar 234 pilot Hauptmann Miersch / Mierisch

[Huib Ottens]

Dear Gruppe,

After the end of the war, on the 3rd of October 1945, an Arado 234 made an emergency landing at Eelde airfield in the Netherlands. This Ar 234 was on a transfer flight from Sola Norway, via Denmark to Farnborough. It was accompanied by another Ar 234 flown by (the late) Capt. Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown.

The aircraft became separated over the IJsselmeer due to heavy fog and Brown made an emergency landing at Nordholz (Germany) in failing light.

The other Arado was flown by a German pilot. Up until now it was assumed that this was Hauptmann Helmut(h?) MIERSCH. It was reported that he originated from I./FaGR 5 and that he was presumably a “maintenance test pilot”. Nothing further is known about Hauptmann Miersch other than that he was working for Capt. Brown for two years afterwards.

Triggered by the current 'Werner Altrogge' thread on this great forum, I wondered if Hauptmann Miersch could have been a Hauptmann (Ing.) and that he was attached to I./FaGR 5 in a technical role.
I contacted Chris Goss because we had discussed Hauptmann Miersch some 15 years ago. He pointed me to the “Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries” and mentioned that (now) a Hauptmann Karl MIERISCH (with an ‘I’ between the ‘R’ and the ‘S’) was mentioned as the pilot of the Ar 234. (Thanks for this important pointer Chris!)

I checked the Summaries I found the following entries:

A. MIERISCH, Karl. 01.09.41 promo to Hptm. 03.10.45 Hptm. and POW, assigned to fly an Ar 234 to Farnborough.
B. MIERISCH, Karl. 16.04.42 Hptm. in Abt. Qu 4/Italuft Rome.
C. MIERSCH, ? . Summer 1941 Lt., 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 22 MIA - Ju 88 shot down behind the lines but evaded capture for 14 days and escaped.

Regarding these entries I have a number of questions partly based on some (wrong or bold) assumptions:
1) Where does the information come from that Hauptmann Karl MIERISCH was the pilot of the Ar 234?
2) Could the entries A and B be referring to the same officer?
3) If A and B are referring to the same officer, what does the posting to Abt. Qu 4/Italuft Rome entail? Could this be a posting in a technical role?
4) Is there additional information available regarding the activities, roles and postings of Karl Mierisch? How did he end up in Norway?
5) Could the entries A, B and C be referring to the same officer? In entry C a posting to 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 22 is mentioned and that could be a qualification to fly an Ar 234 later in the war?
6) Could Karl Mierisch have been a Hauptmann (Ing.)?
7) Is there any information available about Hauptmann (Ing.?) Helmut(h) Miersch?

I hope that these questions make sense and that someone has some additional information available that might shed some light.

TIA,

[Matti Salonen]

The entry C is probably the following:
1941-07-12, 1.(F)/22, Ju 88 D-2, 0880799, 4N+FH, (Newel - Welikie Luki - Toropez - Ostaschkow - Bologoje - Tschudowo - Tosno - Luga - Pleskau)
Flugzeugführer Uffz Müller, Karl, vermißt
Beobachter Lt Franke, Helmut, vermißt
Bordfunker Uffz Miersch, Herbert
Bordschütze Gefr Schulze, Gottwald, vermißt
1942-03-23, 1.(F)/22, Ju 88 A-5, 0880601,4N+HH, Beahcegeal-háldi bei Tromso
Flugzeugführer Olt Braun, Oskar, +
Beobachter Hptm Beuter, August, +
Bordfunker Fw Miersch, Herbert, +
Bordschütze Uffz Höhner, Heinz, +
Bodenberührung. Bruch 100 %.
Unbekannt. Bruch 100 %.

Matti

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Huib,

Wow, this is going to take a couple of hours of research in my 18 rolls of Smithsonian/National Air and Space Museum’s Captured German & Japanese Air Technical Documents collection, NASM Archives Accession No. 0431, and even that will not turn up much in the way of helpful information.

However, some of your questions I can answer or attempt to answer now.

1) Where does the information come from that Hauptmann Karl MIERISCH was the pilot of the Ar 234?

This October 1945 Farnsborough transfer question would have been something found by my colleague, Doug. I will contact him and see if he can find the source he used.

2) Could the entries A and B be referring to the same officer?

Yes, that is entirely possible.

3) If A and B are referring to the same officer, what does the posting to Abt. Qu 4/Italuft Rome entail? Could this be a posting in a technical role?

No, Abt. Qu.4 was Flakgerät und Munition. He would have been the Abteilung-Chef of this department or office and he would have belonged to the Flak Branch of the Luftwaffe rather than to the Flieger Branch.

4) Is there additional information available regarding the activities, roles and postings of Karl Mierisch? How did he end up in Norway?

A full answer to this set of questions would have to come from his personnel records at BA-MA Freiburg.

5) Could the entries A, B and C be referring to the same officer? In entry C a posting to 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 22 is mentioned and that could be a qualification to fly an Ar 234 later in the war?

Quite doubtful. I see no correlation between a Feldwebel radio operator in a Fernaufklärungs unit in summer 1941-42 and an Ar 234 pilot in 1944-45. Besides, you would have to assign a higher probability to his name being spelled wrong and his first name being incorrect than not.

6) Could Karl Mierisch have been a Hauptmann (Ing.)?

Yes, and that is what I will check the microfilms for.

7) Is there any information available about Hauptmann (Ing.?) Helmut(h) Miersch?

Other than what I may come across in the microfilm, you will probably have to contact BA-MA for his full career information.

L.

[Larry deZeng]

Making progress, Huib. I have some information on him and I still have one more roll of microfilm to look through.

L.

[Huib Ottens]

Hi Larry, Thanks for all your time and effort. Looking foward to the results of your research.

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Huib,

Well, I found a little in the 4 rolls that I have that had any possibility at all of finding something, and I guess a little is better than none, so here we go:

MIERISCH, Kurt
Date of Birth: 29.11.1899.
01.04.42: promoted to Flieger-Ingenieur.
01.11.42: promoted to Flieger-Oberingenieur.
01.08.43: promoted to Flieger-Hauptingenieur.

[Source: Luftwaffenpersonalamt (LPA) File 1P-1; in: NASM/Smithsonian roll 7015 frame 18152.]

Sadly, that's it. No career information found. It looks like you will have to get copies of his records from BA-MA. It is also possible that his records may be on a roll of NARA WashDC microfilm, but it may be less costly to get them from Freiburg.

According to LPA documents dated 1 January 1945, there were 687 Aktiv Hauptingenieur and 738 Inaktiv Hauptingenieur in the Luftwaffe and at least 6 years of continuous service in this career field (Laufbahn) was required for promotion to Flieger-Hauptingenieur.

L.

[Huib Ottens]

Hi Larry (and Matti),

Thanks very much for this additional info and the time and effort you put into this. Highly appreciated.

I see that the surname is now 'Kurt' and not 'Karl' as mentioned in the Summary. Is this the same person?

He is rather an old guy in 1945 (45, almost 46) so he would probably not have flown operational during the war, but I geuss he was very experienced based on the fact (you mentioned) that he should have been in active service from 1937 to become a Flieger-Hauptingenieur in 1943. He must also have been an experienced Ar 234 pilot, so he would probably have been connected to the (production) testing of the Ar 234. That is the only way I think he would be qualified and allowed to fly an Ar 234 for the British?

I wonder if his promotion to Flieger-Hauptingenieur in 1943 would automatically lead to a promotion to Hauptmann (Ing.)?

Karl Mierisch was already promoted to Hauptmann om 01-09-1941, so are we talking about the same person?

Hope Doug is able to shed some light on the link between Karl / Kurt Mierisch and the 03-10-1945 flight.

Again many thanks and I hope we can positively identify the pilot.

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Huib,

Kurt vs Karl: I am as mystified as you are on this. There may be no way of knowing without getting copies of all Lw. officer records from BA-MA who have the last name MIERISCH. We may be talking about 3 with this name now, 2 Karl and 1 Kurt.

Age: that struck me, too. In the lists of all Fl.-Hauptingenieure, very few of them were older than Jahrgang 1908. Hence, I fully agree with you that it is unlikely he flew operationally, provided this is the right MIERISCH.

Flieger-Hauptingenieur vs Hauptmann (Ing.): it was very clear to me from looking through the thousands of pages of documents again that these are two separate and unrelated ranks. The former belonged to the TSD (Truppensonderdienst) while the latter were active duty Luftwaffe officers. The former were civilians working for the Luftwaffe while the latter were active duty military personnel. They were not interchangeable one with the other.

Doug: I have notified him and I will let you know as soon as I hear back from him. I am guessing that he got this information about the flight from Norway to Farnsborough from one of the several English language books on the Ar 234 by authors such as J. Richard Smith, Eddie Creek, etc.

L.

[Huib Ottens]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for your reply and the Flieger-Hauptingenieur vs Hauptmann (Ing.) explanation.

Let's wait what Doug can add to this and if, with his information, a BA-MA investigation is the best way to proceed.

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Huib,

Doug investigated and here are his findings:

I checked the Ar 234 related books I have on hand. Of these 6 books only three had relevant data:

Smith, J.Richard; Eddie J. Creek. Arado Ar 234 Blitz (Sturbridge: Monogram Aviation Publications, 1992). ISBN: 0-914144-51-0.

- This book mentions "test pilot Hptm. Miersch" but gives no first name. Otherwise the circumstantial info is the same.

Smith J.Richard ; Eddie J.Creek. Jet Planes of the Third Reich (Bolston, Mass/USA, 1982) ISBN: 0-914144-27-8.

- Mentions "Miersch" but no other data.

Smith, J. Richard; Eddie J. Creek. Arado Ar 234 B; Monogram Close-Up 23 (Bolston, Mass/USA, 1983). ISBN: 0-914144-23-5.

This book contains no more than the 1982 Smith "Jet Planes" book noted above.

Conclusion: this guy's entry came from the Smith Ar 234 book.

So that is where we stand right now, Huib. I guess a search for the personnel records at BA-MA Freiburg will now be necessary.

Good luck and best wishes,

L.

P.S. In the event J.R. Smith was using the term "test pilot" accurately, then Mierisch or Miersch may not have been a Hptm. or Fl.-Hauptingenieur at all but rather a civilian test pilot working for the Arado firm?