continued …

It was on 22 April that the American 12th Armored Division had seized an intact bridge over the Danube at Dillingen, east of Ulm and another three bridges were taken next day. This was the context of Ofw. Nitschke’s first operation, a visual reconnaissance of the state of the bridges between Ulm and Ingolstadt. He took off from Lechfeld on the afternoon of the 24th, landing in Riem. He was flying T5+BH (W.Nr. 140611, ferried down from Burg by Obltn. Schelberg). The Allies picked up a report of the results of Nitschke’s flight as well as another that morning covering roads and airfields in the area of Erlangen, Nürnberg and Herzogenaurach.

On the afternoon of the 24th, Lechfeld’s Station Command gave out orders for the evacuation of workshop staff to Erding once any Me 262s and Jumo 004 engines had been got away; special tools for jet aircraft were to go by road. Although Luftflotte 6’s table of organisation for 21 April had given the Staffel’s location as Lechfeld, there are indications that elements remained in Riem. A signal timed at 07.00 hrs. on the 25th stated that 1.(F)/100’s Fw. Lippmann had taken off 25 minutes earlier in EH to carry out “Task B”; meanwhile “Task A” would be flown from München but the departure time was not yet to hand. It may have been this second aircraft which fell foul of P-51s of the 434th FS/479th FG in the vicinity of Traunstein, Bavaria.

Circling over the target at 24,000 ft., Lt. Hilton O. Thompson spotted an enemy jet 2,000 ft. higher and climbed toward it. The hostile turned to the south east and Thompson was able to close to 800 yards where, with the aid of a K-14 gyro gunsight, he opened fire, hitting the Arado’s port engine. Closing further from 7 o’clock, he saw strikes on the port fuselage and pieces flying off. First Lieutenant Harold B. Stotts also got hits and the Ar 234 spiralled down until the pilot bailed out below 10,000 ft. Thompson believed that the Arado had crashed near Berchtesgaden (about 35 km. from the initial encounter). The wreckage of W.Nr. 140611, T5+BH was photographed in woods near Berchtesgaden and David E. Brown has made a persuasive case that this was the aircraft shot down by Hilton Thompson. Karl Nitschke was also flying on the 25th in T5+JH (see Appendix 4) on a P/R of the Regensburg – Amberg area.

Next day, 7. Jagddivision’s list of subordinated units placed 1.(F)/100 at München-Riem and two Ar 234s flew reconnaissances of the area Ulm - Regensburg - Dillingen - Passau. Luftflotte 6 files contain a note of a telephone conversation on 28 April:

Renewed advice that, for reasons of the enemy’s situation, the transfer of 1.(F)/100 from München-Riem to Hörsching is to be carried out if the weather makes it at all possible.

Although the Staffel was assigned missions to Bavarian targets on the 29th, it is not known whether they were actually flown. The Americans had crossed the Danube on the 26th, reaching the River Lech south of Lechfeld by the evening of 27 April, while the Augsburg–Lechfeld area itself was in their hands by the following evening and München was taken on the 30th. The bomber operational training unit, III./EKG 1, was ordered to disband on 29 April, a detachment of its technical echelon going to support a composite Me 262/Ar 234 reconnaissance Staffel which it was hoped to form at Zeltweg or in "the southern Alpine area." At the same time III./EKG 1’s Ar 234 B and C-models were assigned to 1.(F)/100 in Hörsching.

Luftflotte 6 decided on the 1st that, in view of the war situation, Lw.Kdo. West should be reorganised as Lw.Div. Nordalpen (Luftwaffe Division Northern Alps) and that as part of this change 1.(F)/100’s base would be Zeltweg, Austria (about 55 km NNW Graz). The following day, Lfl. 6 recorded 1.(F)/100’s location as Salzburg-Maxglan and at noon on the 3rd as Hörsching, both Austrian airfields. Karl Nitschke, had evacuated T9+NL, a partially-equipped Ar 234 night fighter, to Hörsching from Riem on 29 April before carrying on to Praha-Ruzyne and thence to Zateč. It is not clear whether this was part of a general move by the Staffel or an individual task. Walter Carlein recounted to Adam Thompson that as 1.(F)/100’s last Staffelführer he disbanded his unit on the Czech/Bavarian border on 8 or 9 May before making his way home.

Although I believe this is a more extensive account of 1.(F)/100’s time with the Ar 234 than has been available so far, it is still patchy by virtue of the fragmentary source material. The picture that emerges is of a unit whose effectiveness was hampered by a run of bad weather and by declining rates of serviceability. The progress of the war was such that longer-range “strategic” reconnaissance soon gave way to shorter missions to establish the whereabouts of both hostile and friendly forces and to spot imminent threats to the Staffel’s own airfields.

1. Sources.

2. Hptm. Holert shot down?

3. Order of battle.

4. Aircraft and pilots.

PART SEVEN AND FINAL