Eagle monument - Hildesheim?

[SpikeCov]

Hi all

I am looking for information with regards to a picture of my granddad sitting on a plinth below an eagle topped column.

Attachment 10500

On the column there is an inscription in a Germanic/Gothic style, its slightly blurred as well. I can read the last word is Fatherland in German and I am sure it states Hildesheim. I am confident his last unit was there (2814 Squadron RAF Regiment) before they were disbanded.

I also know that the photo was taken between February 1946 and July 1946.

I wonder if someone confirm:

1. Where it is exactly, is it in Hildesheim?
2. What the monument is for and what it represents?
3. Does the monument exists today?
4. When was the monument erected?
5. What the inscription is word for word in German and its English translation.
6. Any other facts about it, ie was the eagle bronze?

I have been searching for a picture of it on the internet to no avail and cannot find anything else.

Thank you.

Spike

[Nordpol54]

@ Spike,

in German it reads:

"Den toten Kameraden des Fliegerhorstes Hildesheim. Sie starben den Fliegertod für Volk und Vaterland."

Best Regards
Norbert

[Chris Goss]

The dead comrades of Hildesheim airbase. They died a fliers death for people and Fatherland. I know this is in German but this might help:
http://www.flugplatz-hildesheim.de/index.php?iCID=27

[John Manrho]

If you go to Google Maps and click on "pictures" you will discover that it still stands.....at Hildesheim airfield.

[SpikeCov]

Hi Norbert, Chris and John

Thank you very much for the information you have all provided.

Its great to think that the photograph is starting to come alive again with information.

Its nice to know it still exists.

Spike

[Zippy1]

A - Yes it is at the airfield on Lave straße opposite the football pitch next to the old paratroop barracks.

B - It is, as already pointed out, a general monument to all those from the airbase KIA, but in particular it is a monument to the paratroops (Sturmregiment and later Brigade Ramcke), who were based there before Eben Emael, Crete and North Africa/Tunisia. There is another plaque on the base from the Fallschirmjäger kameradschaft and the monument is known here as the "Fallschirmjäger Denkmal".

C - Yes it still exists. It has been ignored by the local council and was getting overgrown so once a month I go down there and clean and tidy it up.

D - It was erected during the war, the original inscription said "Führer, Volk und Vaterland", the word Führer being removed after the war's end, it has already been removed in the photo of your Granddad.

E - The translation has already been addressed in a previous post.

F - Bronze or copper I think.

I have several recent pictures but no idea how to put them on this site as for some reason it asks for a URL rather than just letting you load one up.

[Snautzer]

for pic upload see here http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=886