German aircraft on standby after the war?

[atckyrre]

While the topic is somewhat in between Axis and Allies, I've chosen to post it in the LW forum.

I stumbled upon this picture of a Ju88G at Lech after the war.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johntrathome/4778886521/

What I found really interesting was the caption to the picture.

Ju88s at Lubeck in July 1945. My sister has sent this transcript of Dad's notes.

"One day volunteers were called for, to see in some German aircraft that were being surrendered. I thought it sounded interesting and volunteered, along with about half a dozen others. The aircraft were a squadron of Junkers 88 (bombers) and they were being flown in by Luftwaffe pilots, from Stavanger, Norway. The planes had been told to place on board as many spare parts as possible and then fly, fully armed, at no more than 500 feet, along an air corridor patrolled by Spitfires.

One Luftwaffe pilot landed his aircraft and looked to the sergeant for instructions. Misunderstanding the answer, he switched off. The sergeant yelled at him to turn the engine back on – the aircraft had to be moved. The Junkers were coming in one after the other and the next one was rapidly approaching. The pilot threw up his hands - ‘Battery Kaput’ . It was stuck in the middle of the runway. Everybody jumped from the aircraft – there were about 10 or 12 on board, as the planes were also carrying their ground crews. Divisions were rapidly forgotten as we and the German crew got together and managed to push the bomber to one side of the runway, and the next plane landed safely.

After landing, the German crews had to throw down their sidearms, and were then booked in. The planes were kept in operational order for a while. Then, when the situation regarding the Russians had settled down, the propellers were taken off. Several months later they were all blown up."

From the collection of Gerald Trevor Roberts.

I have not heard about this before, and have not read anything about other aircraft than the Arado 234's being flown out of Stavanger after the war (apart from the Kurland flights).
Can anyone shed some light on the British policies and if these flights have been covered by others?

[Stephen M. Fochuk]

The Germans were under the impression they would continue the fight against the Russians with the allies. I believe this message was relayed by Doenitz.

[Snautzer]

Not quite that alone. I have read some back end pictures stating just that. Not to destroy the planes or detaine the crews but keep them closeby and ready.

[Stephen M. Fochuk]

One of the Fassberg five pilots, Fritz Stehle, mentioned this in a reply about why they flew their 262s to the Allies. Had they known otherwise, they would have destroyed them on the spot.

Stephen

[Franek Grabowski]

At the time it was not clear if there will be a war with the Soviets or not, and German PoWs were considered a natural resource for such case. Quite often stores of capptured weapons were located close to the PoW camps, and otheri weird things happened. Only after the stron Soviet and US pressure, those plans were abandoned.