April 45: Dillingen, Bridge over Danube

[Pinback]

Hi all,

found an interesting link about "little Remagen", the bridge over the Danube which the US Army captured intact by a surprise attack on April 22nd and which was subsequently bombed by the GAF:
http://www.albertus-gymnasium.de/sch...egsende/10.htm

A translation:
Figure Legend:
Smoking debris of a shot-down german plane. Deep crater is the result of impact with bomb in rack. 10 GAF planes were claimed by american AAA.

Text:
On 24th the Sturmgruppe II of JG300 tried to destroy the bridge with Me-109, Me-110, FW-190 and Me-262s. Floater-bombs, dropped from the west, were caught by a pontoon-bridge erected upstream, leaving the main concrete brigde intact.
Later 5 Fieseler Storch delivered two-man demolishion-teams close to the city, with no success.

I think I read something about this action years ago in Dahls "Rammjäger", who knows more details?

- Me-110s? Surprise, converted Nightfighters?
- Floater Bombs? They were tried at the same time on the Oder, what are these contraptions?
- Me-262: which unit?
- Covered-Action Fieseler Storchs: do they belong to the infamous "Kommando Bienenstock"? What happened to the aircraft and teams?

60 years ago, my dad crossed that bridge, Shermans on his heels, only to be captured some days later in the alpine redoubt...

thx, P.

[edwest]

Here is the web site for the Dillingen History Group:


http://hometown.aol.de/stefanhist/gws_e.html





Hope this helps,
Ed

[Pinback]

Thanks Ed,

sorry to say but thats another Dillingen, on the Saar river, hundreds of klicks away.

regards, P.

[FalkeEins]

Pinback,


knowing how thoroughly the authors have researched the subject, the series of sorties flown against Dillingen will undoubtedly be covered in detail in Vol II of the forthcoming JG 300 history from Eagle Editions...Vol 1 due anytime soon, with Vol II close behind..

[Jabo]

Hi Pinback,

some Info to Fieseler-Action:

At april 27,1945 in the morning two Fieseler from the "Sonderkommando Bienenstock" started from A/F Mammendorf near Fürstenfeldbruck.One was flown by Feldwebel Helmut Hecht the other one by Unteroffizier Wolfgang Schippke.In both A/C two engineers with 15 Kg explosive.At 02:10 the A/Cs landed on a meadow south of Dillingen behind the lines of the US Army.The landing gears broken down.After the engineers left the landing area Hecht and Schippke met at a crossing.They don´t heard an explosion.Three days later they arrived at Mammendorf by foot !!!
But Mammendorf was now 20 Km behind the US lines.After another three days in Mammendorf Hecht and Schippke changed her uniforms with civil clothes and tryed to reach her familys.

Source: Ulricht Saft, Das bittere Ende der Luftwaffe.

Regards Jabo