Junkers Ju 52 loss on January 27th, 1944 on Raxalpe, Austria

[Kurtl12]

Looking for details about the Junkers Ju 52 loss on the mountain of Rax, Lower Austria. The pilot managed to do an emergency landing due to ice on the aircraft in mountainous terrain. All of the crew survived.
According the archive of local rescue services the crashlanding happened on January 27th, 1944. Any more details are highly welcome. Thank you in advance. - Kurtl

[lilsis]

Hi

27.January rouond 12.30 o clock Notlandung in Folge von Vereisung

from Vicenza/Italy to Hörsching near Linz/Austria
FF Hptm Wandelt

eyewitnesreport from rescue incl. picture from JU52 pdf pagina 6 (foriginal pagina 95 ff.)

http://www.bergrettung-reichenau-rax...s%C3%A4tze.pdf

regards

[RT]

Anyone has the usual data for this plane, seems there a plane of a regular TG ..

Rémi

[Richard Aigner]

"Die Deutsche Luftwaffe in Oesterreich", by Hans and Martin Handig, p.94,has:
Date: 27. January 1944
Unit: unknown,
Place: crashed at Trinksteinsattel, Rax (NÖ);
Cause: ca. 12:50 Notlandung , 10:33 in Vincenza gestartet, 28.1. Bes. geborgen (i.e. crew rescued on the 28.)
Type: Ju52/3m
Code: L5+GH
grade of damage : ?
Crew: Hptm. Wandelt, Ff Uffz Brechtel, Bw Obgfr Wittwer, Bs Gfr Kregel, Bf Oberzahlmeister Adam, alle unverletzt = all uninjured
Source of information: Bergwacht, Ortsstelle Reichenau a.d. Rax, U 56/43, Archiv Schirer.
The book lists (all?) Luftwaffe losses on the territory of Austria from September 1943 - Mai 1945, in as much detail as above, plus 256 photos of Luftwaffe planes. published by Oesterreichische Flugzeug Historiker, ISBN 978-3-200-02675-9
Hth, Richard

[RT]

Many thks, Richard,

The book lists (all?) Luftwaffe losses on the territory of Austria from September 1943 - Mai 1945,

The question mark seems quite appropriate !

Rémi

[Kurtl12]

Gentlemen, thank you for the link and info.
So with "L5+GH" we can find out the plane's serial and to which unit it belonged to, right? The report of bergrettung claimed that the Junkers had much of rice on board. But was it common to fly rice with an aircraft from Vincenza to Linz during the winter of 1944? What could have been it's mission. A certain "Oberzahlmeister" is mentioned on board...

[Gerhard]

The statement that rice was loaded onto this Ju 52 seems not to be too absurd, as Northern Italy is a well known area where rice is grown in huge quantities, and in 1944 the supply of food certainly had become difficult in Germany and Austria.

Gerhard

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

The code L5+__ was assigned to TGr. 10 during January 1944. But the group had no Ju 52/3m on strength during this month. It was also used by Erg.TG and they had Ju 52/3m on strength in January 1944. So my guess is that it belonged to Erg.TG.

The assumption that with the unit code one can find the serial number is only partially correct. If a serial number got lost the unit code may have been reused for another serial number.

Regards,
Norbert

[Martin388]

Thanks for the mising unit information Norbert.

I confirm the quoting of my book and I like the Italian rice Story, bon appetite for a Risotto!

There are also two nice photos of that emergency landing of Ju 52 L5+GH in the snow in the above mentioned Luftwaffe in Austria book No#217 +#218 which I share here.(Source: Collection Tötschinger)

[RT]

An other possibility concerning the unit is ;


Auffangstab Oberstlt. Kögl, in charge to collect the italian planes..

Rémi