Wollenweber and the He 162 ferry flights to Lechfeld

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hello,

In Wollenweber's book 'Thunder over the Reich', he describes several attempts by pilots of his detachment at Junkers Bernburg to ferry He 162s to Lechfeld. However, there are several inconsistencies and I am therefore trying to find some other sources that would confirm his recollections:

(1) The first 3 He 162 were transferred on 1 April 1945 via Unterschlauersbach:

- Fw. Strauss made it to Lechfeld, but made a crash landing at Lechfeld. Strauss was severely injured --> I believe he may have landed at Riem and not at Lechfeld. Is there any other source than Wollenweber's recollection that would confirm this crash landing?

- Uffz. Dobrath made it to Unterschlauersbach, but could - according to Wollenweber - not land there as the airfield had been occupied by US forces already and made a belly landing near Nürnberg. --> Unterschlauersbach was only occupied roughly two weeks later on 17 April and hence either Wollenweber's recollection or Dobrath's claim is wrong.

- Lt. Büttner disappeared en route.

(2) The next 4 He 162 were ready on 6 April. This time the intermediate stop was planned at Eger:

- Wollenweber claims that the reason was that Unterschlauersbach had already been occupied, which - as explained above - was not the case. He then claims that he found out after the 4 took off that Eger had just been bombarded in the morning. However, Eger was only attacked two days later, on 8 April. --> Did they only take off on 8 April insteady of 6 April as claimed by Wollenweber?

- He never found out if the 4 landed successfully at Eger or Lechfeld, but I have never seen photos of captured He 162s at Eger and the photos and documents I have at hand do not indicate that there were more than one Bernburg He 162 on airfields in the South. --> Does anybody have any other source about this alleged transfer flight on 6 (or 8) April by 4 of Wollenweber's pilots (Lt. Finner, Fw. Häusl, Fw. Seeling, Uffz. Dobrath)?

Thanks,
Roger

[canonne]

Roger,

Interesting field of history.
According to Roger A. Freeman, Mighty Eight War Diary (p.483), Eger area was bombed by 111 B-17 from the 3AD on 8 April 1945. Their primary target was Eger M/Y (Marshalling Yard) ... Are the airdrome or dispersal areas far from this target ? Recon photos (A/D) could reveal that. I do not know if this German town was bombed the days before.
No grave (?) for these pilots.
Regards
Philippe

[Karoband]

Hello Roger,

Just two comments that may not be particularly useful.

First, there is an entry by deZeng & Stankey for a Lt. Manfred Büttner of JG 1 who "03.04.45 supposedly crashed an Me 262".

Second, in the TOCH archives there is a thread on Fw. Wolfgang Seeling in which a post indicates he survived the war and was alive in 1995. Also, there is a thread on the "militaria-fundforum.de" site by a contributor whose user-name is 'Medica' and signs himself as Oliver. In December 2018 he posted pages of what he says is Seeling's flugbuch, a copy of which he obtained from the son of Seeling's neighbour. He mentions flights in the He 162 and posted the page for April 1945. I registered on that site but am still not allowed to view them.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Jim

[Roger Gaemperle]

Thank you Philippe and Jim for your replies.

Attack on Eger 8 April:
Wollenweber only mentioned that he heard over radio that Eger was attacked shortly after his 4 pilots took off. So, it may well be that the airfield was not affected at all. I am very careful with dated and names in Wollenweber's recollections. No wartime source is indicated and he wrote his book almost 70 years after the war. So unless he had personal notes/diary or other sources, it is very likely that the information may be generally true, but not very accurate.

Lt. Manfred Büttner:
Thank you for that information. I found some information about Büttner at TOCH and it seems the information about the date came from Jager Blatt 1/2001, where Büttner stated that he crashed a jet aircraft on 3 April, 1945. While I am careful with the date (unless it is based on his flight log or other wartime records), we now know that Büttner indeed flew the He 162 and crash landed.

Fw. Wolfgang Seeling:
I know Oliver and have seen that logbook. It belonged to an E-Stelle pilot, not JG 1, but I agree with you, when I saw the name Seeling I was wondeirng if they were one and the same person or if ther was also a Seeling in JG 1 who was part of Wollenweber's detachment. He flew from Lärz in spring 1945 until 19 March. Then there are now flights for roughly one month in his logbook until 24 April when he flew from Lechfeld. The flight numbers are consecutive without gaps, but it may well be that he was assigned to Wollenweber's detachment as he had already flown the He 162 in January 1945. I just wonder why he did not indicate his transfer flight from Bernburg in his logbook. One possiblity is that he never had a transfer flight from Bernburg and got to Lechfeld by road (in which case Wollenweber's recollections are wrong).

So, Wollenweber claimed the flight was on 6 April, Eger was bombarded on 8 April and Büttner apparently crashed on 3 April. Which date was the actual one? Difficult to figure out...

Thanks,
Roger