The end of airfield Oberschleissheim in 1945

[Peter Spoden]

Dear friends,

maybe it is of interest how this old airfield ended 1945. To-day Oberschleissheim, an old Royal Bavarian airfield of 1912 rich with tradition, is a jewel of Aviation with the old stone-buildings and old aircraft of the "Deutsche Museum Muenchen", and a beautiful castle and small town nearby.

Peter Hinchlife the author of excellent Nachtjagd-books like "The Other Battle", Schnaufer "Ace of Diamonds" and Lent "The Lent-Papers" translated from my booklet which I wrote for my grandchildren:

"On 27 April 1945 I was summoned as a young Gruppen-Kommandeur to the Kommodore of the Geschwader. ‘Spoden, we have no petrol left. Blow up your aircraft and defend Oberschleissheim on the ground!’ ‘Jawohl, Herr Major!’ That was a nice surprise for me!
I called my men together. There were about two hundred of them, mostly much older than me – young men went to the Eastern Front – and I told them quite unequivocally that if the Americans attacked they were not to open fire recklessly but to wait for me to give the command. They had just as little experience of infantry fighting as I had as a night fighter. Although I was only just twenty-three years of age there was no indiscipline or desertion. Somehow they trusted me.
On 29 April l945, therefore, we took up our positions in trenches that we had swiftly dug on the approaches to Schleissheim, set up on the parapet the two-centimetre cannon from the Ju 88s that we had blown up, together with our few rifles, and waited for the ‘Amis’ to come. In the woods behind our positions Dr. Buschmann, the Medical Officer, had erected field-dressing tents for the injured and the wounded. If necessary he would also be able to carry out emergency operations there.
In the early morning through my binoculars I saw on the streets to the right and left hundreds of tanks rolling past in the direction of Munich. In the entire war we night fighters had never seen so many tanks. Above us were flying yellow American ‘Piper’ aircraft, spotters for the artillery, but so far they had not discovered us. Our camouflage was good - as fliers that was something we were familiar with..
At ten o’clock, just after the Americans’ breakfast break, seven field-grey buses drew up about two thousand metres away from us. Out of them came approximately five hundred US infantrymen, who began to advance on the Oberschleissheim airfield on a broad front. If I had I given the order to open fire at that point a large number of American soldiers would certainly have been killed by our two-centimetre cannons and our rifles. But I knew beyond any doubt that the enemy artillery and the American tanks would then have obliterated us in a frightful fashion.
I called out to my men, ‘Have any of you got a white cloth?’ Never before had I seen so many white cloths at one time. The men had cut up parachutes and made scarves out of them. I didn’t feel very happy as I clambered out of the trench and waved to the advancing Americans. Now I could be shot from in front or behind. But right away the boys from the USA waved back with their helmets. One of them came to me and held his machine pistol to my cheek. ‘You SS?’ – ‘No, no! Ich bin Luftwaffe!’ ‘Luftwaffe kaput,’ he said scornfully, and he went on his way. In the next few days we went via PoW camps at Nördlingen and Heilbronn to the infamous Rhine Meadows, where many of us were destined to die of hunger and disease. But that is another story.
When we met during my time as a prisoner of war, and after the war too, many old men from my former Gruppe, mostly from Swabia and the Allgäu, came up to me and shook my hand. ‘Herr Oberleutant, you did the right thing!’ Their thanks mean more to me than all the medals I was awarded in that crazy war."

[Oxby R]

Dear Peter - Do please forgive my astonishment - I am a new member to the forum and was not expecting to see your name pop up !! What an unexpected pleasure. You see, although we have not met - I feel as if we have something in common (even though I was born some 15 years after the war ended). To begin with, I have your book 'Enemy in the Dark' on my bookshelf. It is a very important work for me - not least because so few accounts exist from nightfighter flyers, and particularly as your book so sensitively gives the German perspective on nightfighters. I can recommend it. Also, you may be interested to know my father was doing the same job as yours, but on the Allied side. Hence the strange feeling that Isomehow know you. I should explain my 'old man' is Wing Commander Doug Oxby (RAF retired - as he's now 85). He served against you guys as a Nightfighter Nav/Rad flying Beaufighters and Mosquitoes (1940-1945). For your interest - I'm including an extract from Rawnsley & Wright's book 'Night Fighter' (Published 1957) which describes him quite well. I'm certain he'd be delighted to meet the former enemy - even after 60 years - I'm quite certain you two would have lots to chat about ! He's alive and well, but now living in Toronto, Canada. Anyway here's the extract :

Extract (Page 358-359 Night Fighter CF Rawnsley & Robert Wright. Collins Publishers 1957)

No. 219 Squadron, which had been transferred to 85 Group, and which had come over to France early in October (1944), was now commanded by Peter Green, promoted to the rank of Wing Commander. He had as his navigator, Grimmy having gone on a rest, Flight Lieutenant D.A. Oxby, one of the most successful navigators in the business. Only recently they had shot down during one patrol three Stukas which had been trying to dive-bomb the bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen.

Douggie Oxby was young, slightly built, with a twinkling, almost roguish eye, and a keen wit that seemed always just about to bubble over. I could well imagine that in the air his commentry would come rippling over in an exuberant but unflurried stream.

I asked Douggie if they had had much trouble with the Stukas over speed. He admitted that they had had to put their wheels and flaps down in order to stay behind the slow and old dive bombers, and that even then had nearly shot past them. And they would have shot down a fourth but for the fact that it fired off a cluster of white regcognition signals right in their faces, dazzling them, and forcing them to turn away.

In his time Douggie had flown with quite a variety of pilots. He had been with a night squadron in the Western Desert, and had seen a lot of activity over Tobruk. He had also served on Malta, again on night operations. "That was a game!" he commented when he told me about it. "We were equipped with Mark VIII A.I. (radar) while we were there, and we were so short of juice that every operator was considered to be operational after one twenty minute practice." I thought of the long weeks we had spent struggling with the stuff, and I remarked that they could not have been of much use after only that much practice. Douggie laughed. "We did four sorties from Luqa the same night," he said. More cautiously I asked what luck they had had. "One destroyed and one probable," he said. "Both Heinkels. The probable was one of those annoying blighters that won't burn. We chased it down from twelve to one thousand feet, and used all our ammo on it, too." It did not seem to strike him as anything of an achievement to get two visuals and combats straight off the reel with completely strange equipment. There was only a vague regret that they had not properly fixed the probable.

Douggie went on, flying now with Peter Green, to pile up what was I believe, the record score by any (Allied) night fighter navigator. He produced thirty-six visuals on enemy aircraft, which resulted in twenty-six combats. Of these, twenty-two were definitely destroyed, two were probably destroyed, and two were damaged. He was given a Permanent Commission in the RAF after the war, and his decorations included a DSO; a DFC and a DFM and Bar. One of the aircraft Peter Green and Douggie destroyed was shot down while they were on only one engine, the other having failed during the chase. And once, when they were close behind a Ju88 over Munchen Gladbach, there had been no response at all from the cannon when Peter tried to open fire. Having had the same thing happen during the time I was flying with John Cunningham, I could sympathise with him.

"It gives one rather a naked feeling, doesn't it ?" Douggie commented.

Peter, the opportunity to chat to you has been a rare pleasure for me. Not quite as nice as meeting you in person, but almost ! Best wishes.

Yours sincerely

Richard Oxby
Contact email richard.oxby@btinternet.com

[Peter Spoden]

Dear Richard,
many thanks for your thread.
Give your father my best wishes, he is in same age like me. My sons are in yours. Thanks God, we both survived.
I write you an e-mail in the next days.
Peter

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

Hi Peter!
Hugs to you, family and specially grandchildren!

[Parabellum]

Thank you to Herr Spoden, for his eye-witness remembrance.
In that occurence a nearly happy-end for a war time...

[Nick Beale]

Attached is another deciphered signal which mentions Peter Spoden - it's a recommendation of his Bordschütze, Obergefreiter Szepaniak for the Iron Cross First Class, in August 1944.

[Oxby R]

Geachte Herr Spoden,

Thank you Peter, for replying so promptly to my post ! Your message mentioned the Lord - I too am grateful to the Almighty that you both survived. Otherwise, I would not be here to write to you today. I will proudly forward your kind thoughts to my father Oxby (senior) later this evening - I know he will be genuinely delighted, tickled pink in fact - that after 60 something years, we can consider Herr Spoden - a former 'Enemy in the Dark' now as a personal friend !! Incidently, you may be interested to know, Doug asked me about a year or so ago to assist him in assembling recollections of his night-time adventures (which is another reason why I was so interested, and impressed by your work). Doug's book is now well advanced, and we're onto draft III. There are one or two snags. Firstly, we have a couple of candidates for the book's title - but it is not as yet agreed. If I have my way, (which is doubtful) it would be called 'Nightfighter Navigator' which describes exactly what the book's about. More likely scenario is that Doug will have his way (ok, I guess it's his story after all !) - so it will probably end up being called 'Back Seat Driver' - which ok, perhaps does describe how he saw his job - as the back-seat Navigator half of the nightfighter team. Anyway, aside of the heated discussion over the book title (!!) - we are in dire need of a reviewer - someone who knows the nightfighter game to review and comment on the draft in due course. I can think of no-one better qualified than yourself. Who better than a fellow nightfighter - and remarkably, someone who was fighting on the other side ??

Would it be improper of me to enquire Sir, if you might be interested ?

Kind regards,

Richard Oxby
richard.oxby@btinternet.com

[Peter Spoden]

@Sergio,
many thanks, but grand-children are no children anymore, they are studying in Frankfurt-regards to Rio, is the old airport still active I landed so often with 1049 G?
Peter

@parabellum
thanks, you will see from time to time more true stories as long as I live-
Peter

@Nick
Szepaniak-polish descent-was a fine fellow-his people emigrated to Ruhr-area in the 19th century-

@Richard
promise, I write you an e-mail on sunday
Peter

[Parabellum]

Originally Posted by Peter Spoden

@Sergio,
@parabellum
thanks, you will see from time to time more true stories as long as I live-
Peter
Peter

Thank you Monsieur!
I wish you long live and good health.

[hihotte]

Lieber Herr Spoden, vielen Dank für die eindrucksvolle Schilderung über das Ende von Oberschleißheim.
Do you still remember the 9C+HN over Berlin? For you and all the other board members I enclose a drawing of this "narrow escape" occasion. Also I would like to thank you for the performance as protagonist in two german-produced documentaries which we could see here in Spain via satellite (ARD, ZDF a.s.o.). Your impressive reports make all the differences from those given by fighter pilots as i.e. Viktor Mölders and others.
Please take care for your health and I wish you many happy returns to this board.

Cheers
hihotte