Erich B. I desparately need your help on this one...

Erich, I have been trying to do some research on this but have ended up at deat ends on this.

I have a lady whos brother is wantig to contact a Luftwaffe Airfield Kommodant/pilot. This German Officer, had this lady's brother as his "guest" for about 3 days. This German Officer, even cooked him a breakfast of bacon and Eggs.

Well, this American Officer lived in this German Officers quarters for the time spent there. At first, we both thought that it was Guenther Rall, that had "entertained" this US pilot but now we think its someone else. The Germans name has been forgotten over the years, and we do not have it to go on.

The info I have been told is: Apparently this German Officer flew ME-262's. He was also the CO of Holzkirchen Airfield in 1945. We think it could be Maj Wilhelm Crinius, that was the "entertainer". This German had been captured in Tunisia in 1943, and was released in a POW exchange.

The American pilot had been shot down over the German Airfield and was taken to the CO. After the 3 days, this CO, then took the US pilot to a good German Hospital--keeping him out of the Gestapo's hands.

This US pilot, is wanting to know what the persons name is, that commanded that Airfield in 1945, and wants to get in touch with him if still living. The German Officer is a KC with Oak Leaves Recipient--if they remember correctly.

I've tried all that I can think of in trying to find answers--cept for asking you. I have to ask you as you have much better Luftwaffe contacts than I do. Let me know if you can come up with anything.

 

Hey bud !

First, you must get all your books out of hiding ! They are going to get moldy I can assure you. I remember back in the mid-70's when I was working up at a forest camp within 10 miles of Mt. Hood here in Oregon, and I had about 150 books at the time. All were placed in cardobard boxes in an oversized aluminum shed. Well we were there for about 9 months and we had a pretty severe winter with snow/rain almost everyday. By May when we moved to southern Oregon, about a 1/3rd of those books had some sort of mold/mildew and dampness damage which of course totally peeeeeeeeeed me off , some of those books were out of print at the time, but boy did I learn a lesson quick.......
To your question, yes the woman involved...wife of the pilot I think ? Wrote me a private mail with your helpful information, this concerning the activities at Holzkirchen during 1945 and the thought it would of been Güther Rall in command of the airfield. Actually Rall commanded what was left of JG 300 which was based there and not the airfield itself. The RK mit oakleaves winner really puzzles me. I had made a few suggestions that it may have been the Hauptmann Karl_heinz Dietsche who commanded II.Sturm/JG 300. This gruppe was the only unit based at Holzkirchen of JG 300. IT was equipped with the Fw 190A-8 and A-9. Karl-Heinz Dietsche was in command from April 16th to May 8, 1945. I believe that he was earlier part of JG 302.
Carl, a good bet would be to try www.JG300.de discussion board and www.JG302.de discussion board. If no answer then try me again. Possibly mail Gert Overhoff at www.fliegergeminschaft.de and see if he or others could check on Karl-Heinz for you. I am not sure if he is still alive or not. The traditionsverband representative for JG 300/301 is RK winner Willi Reschke, and he maybe listed in your OdR. listings.......

some thoughts anyway. You have more on this conversation than I do of course. Another possiblity too, is to place a post on 12 o'clock high discussion board. There is of course a ton of knowledge here, and an answer may be found without having to wait another month or so.

E.

 

Dear Erich: many thanks for the links. I posted messages on the JG sites, the third site link didnt open.

You are correct, Reschke IS on the list, and I will write him a letter anyway (Just to help cover as many bases as I can).

I know what you mean about stuff in storage, thankfully mine are stored in a house but its about 30 miles from here and I dont know how to get to it, its my brother-in-laws, future residence. Definately I NEED my books

I once did what you did, but with several boxes of comic books, and the same thing happened I checked on them a few months later and what did I see? Warped and waterlogged comics stuck together, and plenty of mildew, boy I WAS and STILL are, very POed.

I dont know, maybe between the two of us and our sources?????

 

Geez ! I can't spell worth a hoot due to this carperal tunnel crap.....
www.fliegergemeinschaft.de anyway I think Otto has a link to it. another chap is Colonel Willi Göbel who is one of the contacts for the society.
horridoWTG@gmx.de he may be able to help.

Saw your posting on JG 300 seite. Hopefully Burkhard or friend Karl-Heinz Gansel who runs the JG 302 site can help. I do not see that Crinius flew the Me 262. I've checked the JG 7 and JV 44 pilot rosters and nothing comes to mind as a winner of the RK mit oak leaves, that may have been in the area of Holzkirchen.

E

 

Dear Erich, thanks, I checked on some and posted on some-so we will see what happens...

Gotta run-will see you tomorrow--Carl.

 

Carl :

Give it a little time since the time frame you are talking about is late war 1945. There are some big gaps, and much memories of the chaotic times have been lost.

E.

 

Time is definately not a problem, I have plenty.

I'm anxious though to see its outcome. It would be a neat thing to have the whole story told here on this forum, and because of the bits of help that WE have been able to do for them, WE will most likely have the info for this forum, which is what im hopeing for, and possible pictures

 

Oooooh, fotos ? !

That would be great Carl. By the way the Mortain link works fine(Normandy).
The Swedish site with the German OOB is giving me a real headache, but so is the the computer day in general. I posted a reply to Ron about the Hitler death/dismissal and the
article that I am giving information from is from 2 seperate books on Heinrich Müller during and after the war and his secret work with the CIA. Charles Whiting just did a book and the opeing lines say everyone was wondering what ever happened to Heinrich after the war, since he was the # 2 Gestapo man. Well the guy worked for the CIA, that's what happened to him......

more in a few hours when my computer takes a long lunch break.

E

 

Dear Erich, speaking of the pilot deal. I just had two replies and one was from Jorg on his site. He confirmed what you said about thinking it was Hauptmann Karlheinz Dietsche, so I sent a letter to that pilots wife to confirm date he was shot down. If it was the tail end of the war, then it HAS to be this Captain.

I still cant get either site to work, but thats not unusual for the libraries computers.

Im also intereste in what happened to the #2 Gestapo man, and I bet the CIA has all the answers...

 

Carl :

I think Karl-Heinz could be the man ! The problem exists with memories, and during that late stage of the war, everything was going on at once, the US pilot may have even seen Günther Rall visit and may have thought the gent was him that was dining him..... ?
As to Heinrich, the info is in at least 2 long articles that I have had for almost 10 years. Roger James Bender publishing I think did at least one if not two books on this quite mysterious man. From what I have heard the author(s) have really dug up some top-sevret stuff and let the cat out of the bag. wish I had the funds I would buy the volume(s).......I still think that it could of been quite possible for Muller and his cronies to get mr. Hitler out of Germany before the total surrender of Berlin.

E

 

Dear Erich, I think I agree with you, I believe Karlheinz is the man, now to just confirm the date that the US pilot was shotdown and captured.

I sent them an email on that and im waiting to see what I get told. If it was in the dates given to me by another person, then Karlheinz IS their man.

Bender has some great books, I just never can afford to get them-or I see another book to get. I plan to get fellgiebels KC book this month and that will set me back more than I wanna think--especially after just buying 4 multiplace ribbon bars, and too many luft press photos and other items.

Sheesh, I wish I had a better income to keep up with my demand on new info etc.

I don't doubt that ti was a possibility that Hitler could have been whisked away from Berlin--but just doubt it, as he seems to have been intent on not taking any chances on becoming a POW of the Russians--but, maybe someday--we will be allowed to get more answers to our questions.

 

C :

Will we ever really know ? ! I don;t think so except that it will be stated from what has been written over 35 years ago and foggy eye-witness accounts of SS men that are keeping their mouths shut and Soviet soldiers who supposedly buried the reamins. The evidence is clear that there was a cover -up to Stalin, and he took retribution on those later that deceived him.

E.

 

No doubt we we never know what all happened. You can thank the stupid politicians in charge-for that

 

Carl :

You may be very interested in this. I am now in contact with Karl-Heinz Dietsche's son. Karl-Heinz passed away in 1997.....dang !
But his son does have a bit of info on him. He was flying Bf 109's with JG 302 and had 2 night victories and 1 victory in march 1944 during the day. I have asked the son if I may contact him again with regard to more questions about his father next week when I have some more time in the evening hours. As at present I am working hard on our book and a museum catalog for the September 11, 44 battle over the Erzegebirge/Jan Zdiarsky Musum currator. If you ever get a chance to go over again to Deutschland this is definately a museum you do not want to miss. The stuff this town has excavated of German and US aircraft is unreal, plus they have pout out a pretty nice little book in Czech and German but soon to be released English.......I'll let everyone know further.

E.

 

Thats interesting, and speaking of Dietsch, I recieved an email or two from someone by the name of Jorg or Joerg Dietsch, is this one nd the same?? if so, I have his address too. I told him that I would like to send a few Luft photos to him as thanks for helping me on a few questions.

The pilots sister said he died earlier than that according to what she found out-but I guess her source was wrong.

Anyway, he had asked what was my interest in the Luftwaffe, and I told him about my being an honorary member of a few vets orgs (2 German((for now)), 1 American) I had forgotten to mention that I might be lucky enough to become a full-member of the OdR, I know I have Remys vote, and i'm hoping to get the second that I need from either Paul-Albert Kausch, or Prof Dr Bodo Spranz.

That does sound like a good place to visit. If I can ever land a job in Europe, you can bet that my weekends will be filled traveling and touring battlefields--I WILL be in 7th heaven.

I definately am interested in learning all I can on Karlheinz though


You know--this research stuff is starting to get very interesting VERY INTERESTING. I only wish I were recieving some compensation for all my time--I need some cash-flow.

 

Carl :

As much as well all invest of time into research we would become millionares ! Ha!, well it was a happy thought anyway Yes Jörg is the son. Incidently I will be giving a story about my cousins demise and his staffel/gruppe later this year on a new domain......www.JG301.de it is NOT up and running yet, as the web-master is interviewing other members of the unit, but is very interested in what I have to offer. I'll of course put the story on our web-site first then onto this one. Keep in touch with Karl-H.'s son if possible as he sounds to be the best opening yet.



E.

 

ALRRRRRIGHT!!. IF I could afford to give him one of my original photos, I would. I think he will like the ones with Molders, Stukas in formation, and my 2nd Heinrich Hoffmann photo, which is one of an ME-109, on an icy airfield somewhere in Russia.

I normally could care less about photos of aircraft, but this one just stood out, like a red spot on a white sheet and it said "PUHLEEZE BUY MEEEEE" , so I did

Now that I have a real good source for the kinds of photos I want, I pretty much dropped wasting money on all that other crap, the 2x3 photos--even though I have some nice ones in that size too