Lt. Josef Thurner 8./JG-77-Mystery Jadgflieger

[kaki3152]

In Prien's Geschichte of JG-77 (Vol.4), On January 5,1944 two pilots, Lt. Josef Thurner and Ogfr. Werner Dietzsch, are reported missing on a transfer flight from 8./JG-77 to the Stab/JG-77. Josef Thurner is not even in the index for Volume 4.

IN an old thread from 2001, Ciglic reported that Lt. Josef Thurner, who was a Volksdeutscher (German father Slav mother) born near Fiume on November 11,1922 had made an intentional crash landing on September 9,1943 and had joined the Partisans for the rest of the war. Here is a link to the earlier thread
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...hlight=Thurner

Has any more information surfaced since then? It's mentioned that Lt. Thurner is on Mombeek's JG-77 MIA listing. Also what happened to Obegefreiter Werner Dietzsch?

[thenelm]

I suspect if any further information is available it will appear in the next volume of the Prien team's 'Jagdfliegerverbande', the first part of which is supposed to be published this month. Offhand, I can't find anything for 9-Sep-43 for this guy or a III./JG 77 loss with unnamed pilot, assuming, of course, he was flying a Bf 109.