Stijn David

Hello Glenn,

And here for your reference a image of "papa" Reeps , image taken at arround mid 1942.

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

I can already exclude 4 officers from the list:

* Jacobs, Josef - Lt.

=> has won the 'Pour Le Merite', so not the person i am seraching.

* Wolff, Joachim - Lt.

=> was KIA on 16.05.1918

* Wolff, Jakob - Lt.

He had 4 claims but was wounded during 1917 while acting with Jasta 17 + never returned again towards a frontline unit. He died 04.12.1926. (Therefore he could not have been a DLV member - as the DLV was first grounded 1933)

* B?low (Freiherr von), Hilmer - Hptm.

=> He did get the HOHX + was later a General / no long service awards etc .... , so no match on this one.

So a few more to check, thanks for helping out

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

Well a bit a large question this time, but lets get it started anyway => wich one of the named officers does show the following award combo in the ranklists:

* EK 2

* EK 1

* Sachsen-Weimar : White Falcon 2 nd. X

* Mecklenburg : War Merit cross 2 nd.

* Hamburg : Hanseatic

* Hindenburgcross

The following name scome into vieuw (source: Neil W.O.Connor)

* Appel (von) - Olt.

* B?low (Freiherr von), Hilmer - Hptm.

* Crienitz - Hptm.

* Edler, Alfred - Olt. z. See

* Engel, Hans - Lt.

* Fraunberg (Freiherr von und zu), Hans - Lt.

* Freytag, Georg - Hptm.

* Goltz (von der) - Lt.

* Haeseler (von), Kurt - Lt.

* Hagen (von dem), Oswald - Hptm.

* H?ussler, Willi - Lt.

* Heyden (von), Helmuth - Lt.

* Ihn, Max - Olt.

* Jacobs, Josef - Lt.

* Mardersteig, Georg - Hptm.

* Neumann - Hptm.

* Peters, Emil - Olt.

* Pfeiffer, Leo - Hptm.

* Plagemann - Lt.

* Wencher, Konrad - Lt.

* Werder (von), Claus - Hptm.

* Wolff, Joachim - Lt.

* Wolff, Jakob - Lt.

Thanks in advance, the person who is searched did survive WWI - so any casualty of WWI does not fit in.

Cordial greetings + thanks for the help

Hi David,

You are absolutely correct, uniting in this is the best way and i will drop some mails in order to get us in one line to do this properly.

Please David M and Ulsterman send me your mailadress through PM, so we can discuss this all in once and easy. Bernd i already hvae yours ;-)

Cordial greetings,

Hi David,

I have sent you a PM about this => i would do the L?beck ones, will be enough work on that one alone for the time being

Cordial greetings,

Hello David,

I would be able to do the Lubeck ones and would be willing to pay that ammount and transcribe them for publication in the format that is needed.

Please feel free to contact me on that as how to order the copies of the lubeck rolls.

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

I was browsing through this wonderfull forum and came across a old thread on white falcons where i did see a very nice picture posted by Stogie.

Is that person known by name? (se attachement)

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

In regards towards the above mentioned award, is it known howmuch where awarded for service during WWI?

It was the EK 2 equivalent from Mecklenburg, was it awarded purely towards Mecklenburg citizens or also towards citizens of other German states?

Cordial greetings + thank you in advance

Hello,

Interesting, and are you certain that these 12 planes are sold? Wich source does confirm that officially? And iff such things are done that is documented for certain. A plane is not something you do sell quick / quick behind the curtains.

Are these 12 simply not placed elsewhere? Also it is not uncommon that duplicate pieces are sold to get funds for new pieces, etc ...

Anyway, i think that before overreacting it is better to wait, see and listen to official sources.

Cordial greetings,

Hi glenn,

Thank you for the information, 'Pappa' Reeps was indeed a bit older during WWII. All his former soldiers are talking with great respect about them.

He has been also a flyer during WWI, i will see iff i can find a good picture of him for inclusion in this thread.

I know that he did hold at leats the following awards:

* EK 2

* EK 1

Are there any other awards known from him?

COrdial greetings,

Hello,

I think there are quite some misunderstandings one this subject. As far as i do know it the planes etc ... will not dissapear.

The hall will be restored and therefore these rare artifacts need to be removed and will be kept safe elswewhere. These will not be sold etc .... simply moved elswehere and then once the hall is restored they will return.

So please do not overreact. The future persons who are working in the museum are all very enthusiastic persons and it would be very wrong to mark these persons as persons with zero interest in history.

I think the KLM-MRA is very well aware of its heritage and they will do the right thing for certain.

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

Is there anyone who can tell me something on the WWI officer (should have been Leutnant or Oberleutnant) Ludwig Reeps during WWI ?

He was during WWII a Luftwaffe Oberst and head of the Lw. training school for gliders (Erg.Gr. (S) 1)

COrdial greetings and thanks for helping,

Hello,

And sonce again another one comes to mind :

Czezcatka/ Uffz.

He was Uffz. during the period 1907/1908. I have seen a internet source that does mendtion him as a officer during the 1920's.

Is this one researchable?

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

Would it be possible to show the soc alled 'Komturkreuz' also?

Cordial greetings + thanks in advance

Hello,

Thank you for the comments, i also have the first hand report on the crash from a glider friend (who sadly passed away 2 years ago) who was also in that unit in those days.

He reports:

? Due to a special occasion there was a moment of complete inactivity on the Airfield, for the gliding world it was a very black day. On the 28 th of april 1941, something bad did happen.

On that very day, the Me 321 (Gigant) was to be tested for the first time in a flight with a complete load. The weather was mixed, some clouds and the weatherforecast did count with unweatehr in the evening. In the Me 321 3 Watertanks where built in and tightly fixed. (this to test the plane under maximum load capactity).

A total of 24 Tons was reached, the exact weight was unkown.

The testing flight was flewn by the testpilot mr. Flinsch, frau Hanna Reitsch could not participate into this flight due to a urgent matter. Other participants in this testflight where Brautigam, Schwarz and Engel (who was a close friend of Flinsch) . All where highly skilled glider pilots and of the best one could find at that time.

I had a day free and went with a friend towards Regensburg.

Iff we returned in the evening (at around 22 hours), we where suprised. In the area of the airfield we did see a spot that was fully lighted (and this while it should be dark !!! ). Offcoarse we became curious and went to look what was wrong or did happen.

We did see a crashed Me 321, in wich rescue workers searched for survivors but did only only find dead body?s.

What did happen? During this evening flight a unweather did come in. Above the Walhalla near Donaustauf on the northern side of the Donau the large glider did catch a so called ?aufwind?. While preparing to land a piece came loose and destroyed or damaged the tail section. The Me 321 did dive directly towards the ground after this and crashed. A constructionfailure was discovered, however due to this construction failure 5 persons did loose their lives. The exact cause will never be known as there was a lot of speculation around this crash. The crash however had a large impact on the flying activity.

Cordial greetings,

According towards his WP he only belonged for a short time ( a mere 27 days) towards this unit before he met his faith and was killed in a plane crash.

On page 34 of his WP we can read the following about the crash:

durch Fl?gzeugabsturz ohne eigenes Verschulden T?dlich verungl?ckt.

Or transliterated:

? Killed in action within a plane crash without own responsibility.?

And now the secret on this WP is the following:

This unit (Sonderkommando XI) was a training and testing unit based at Leipheim. It was directly related to test and establisch the training of the famous Giant glider plane the Me 321

The known literature does give us the following raport on that day, the 28.05.1941 :

On the 28 the Mai 1941 the first Gigant (Me 321) crashed in the close vintage of Obertraubling. The Me 321 was towed from 3 Me 110 destroyer planes from Leipheim towards Obertraubling and landed at the airfield of Obertraublling without a problem. After this transport the Watertanks (to provide stability iff not loaded) where filled with 5000 liters water (per tank)

The start of this towing tug (3 me 111 and the Me 321 glider plane) started at the 1200 meter long grassfield. These starts where helped a bit through launching rockets underneath the wings. This start was successfully and did not provide any problems. The flight on its own went on without any problems. While flying in to land a sudden storm did surprise the plane, this probably did cause a damage on the stearingdevice of the Me 321.

The result of this damage was that the ?Gigant? did crash into the ground from a height of 120 meter between Barbing and the airfield of Obertraubling.

The complete crew, existing out of:

* Glider pilot: Leutnant Otto Br?utigam, Co-Pilot Ingenieur Bernhard Flinsch from the E-Stelle Rechlin, Leutnant Fritz Schwarz, Gefreiter Adolf Engel und Messerschmitt ? Ingenieur Josef Sinz, where killed in this crash at 20.55.

The famous Hanna Reitsch had the luck on here side on that very day, she was also to be inside the plane. Thorugh some luck she was forced to visit the toilet shortly before the start. The crew was not wanting to wait any longer and the towing tug did start without Hanna Reitsch.

Directly afterwards the crash a specialized team investigated the crash, consisting out of:

* prof. Messerschmidt, Dipl.Ing. Fuchs from the RLM andHauptmann Bachmeier from the Abwehrstelle in N?rberg.

This resulted into the constatation that the Me 321 crashed through the change in weather conditions and bad luck, on 16 juni 1941 the testflights did start again and so the history did continue.

With this we know directly that the former owner of the WP; Obergefreiter A.Engel was one of the crewmembers who got KIA during this accident.

As we can see, iff you specialize and do your research properly, a at first hand not so spectacular WP can become a very nice researched piece on a soldiers (tragic) life.

Thank you for reading + cordial collecting greetings

Hi,

And a second image from the same series during the training, we can recognize A.Engel as the person in the middle who os sitting down and holding his K98 riffle.

After he successfully ended his training he was now a fully trained glider pilot. He was the transferred at the date of 01.05.1941 towards a new unit, namely the

:Sonderkommando XI - Leipheim.

....

The life and dead of Obergerfreiter Adolf Engel

* Born : 16.03.1919 ? Raspenau / Reichenberg

A.Engel was already bussy with glider planes and the gliding sports, he did fly his glider qualifications as a youngster and absolved , A ? Profiency , B ? Profiency and in 1935 the C ? Profiency. From that date on he was allowed to fly civil glider planes.

In the year 1937 he then did perform a extraordinary deed, he did gather the needed points for the Silver C (Silbernes Leistungsabzeichen f?r Segelflug). At that time this was a very hard to obtain glider proficiency award and only a small few (no more then approx. 2.000 glider pilots from all over the world between 1931 and 1943) did obtain this rare award.

We do find for A.Engel as 18 year old youngster:

Silver C : Silberne Leistungsabzeichen f?r Segelflug nr. 500 - 25.08.1937 / Mittweida

On 01.07.1940 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and he was placed towards the Luftwaffe glider school located at Braunschweig-Waggum.

Here the military glider training was started and A.Engel did belong towards the following units:

01.07.1940 ? 01.09.1940 : Segelflugschule Braunschweig ? Waggum

02.09.1940 ? 30.04.1941 : 6./ L.L.G. 1 (Luftlandegeschwader)

From his training days several original pictures are known where A.Engel is portraited. (legacy of a former friend and glider pilot)

As we can see A.Engel in this first picture, he is the large person in the frontrow / right.

It is a fact that A.Engel did absolve the training successfully and was attached for a short time towards the 6./L.L.G.1 as a glider pilot.

And the story does continue.

Wp nr. 7

Wp nr. 6

Wp nr. 5

Wp nr. 4

Wp nr. 3

Wp nr. 2

Hallo,

With this thread I would like to present one of the pieces from my collection, a small legacy belonging towards a former German glider pilot.

The entry?s in the following Wehrpass (WP) do not look that impressive, not a warhero or very well decorated soldier. But what is then interesting on this apparently normal WP?

?.

The life and dead of Obergerfreiter Adolf Engel