Bat Out Of Hell / Messerschmitt Me-163 (Website)

[Hans1906]

A few days ago I stumbled across this very interesting website:

Bat Out Of Hell / Messerschmitt Me-163 http://donhollway.com/me-163/

Messerschmitt Me 163 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163

I knew the pilot and veteran Herr Wolfgang Späte personally, and we often talked. Herr Späte died in Edewecht in 1997 and was buried there also.


Hans

[ROLAND1369]

My father was a piliot on B 24 bombers during WW II and flew 28 combat missions over Europe, mainly Germany during WW II. I once asked him about the ME 163s. His comment was that their attacks never hit anything and caused no damage to his Unit, but the Me 262 were very dangerous and scared the hell out of them.

[Hans1906]

ROLAND1369,

Erprobungskommando 16 is the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erprobungskommando

Wolfgang Späte https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Späte

I have a small series of photos from the 1960s, Späte, and Galland, for example, met in a traditional northern German pub for a camaraderie evening.
The photos come from the estate of a local press photographer, I knew very well, the photos were never published.

The location back then was the "Spieker" in my hometown Bad Zwischenahn.

https://www.spieker-gaststaette.de

Hans
P.S. Unfortunately I can't post them here, the pictures are stored in my photographic collections in northern Germany.

I met Späte for the first time in our bookshop in the 1970s, our female bookseller then said to me, this is Wolfgang Späte, the famous
former pilot, dont you know him?
I did not know him, no idea at all...

[ROLAND1369]

Amazingly i failed to see this in the title of this post. Now that you have informed me of the secret title I will be glad to cease commenting within this post.

[Hans1906]

ROLAND1369,

thanks for the memories from your family, it's always good to read something like that.

One's own memory is always doubtful, undisputed. The German Air Force was not my interest at the time.

Looking back, there were few interesting encounters with Wolfgang Späte.
The man pushed a lot in the last phase of his life, not least for many friendships with former opponents.
That distinguished the man, you can find a lot about it on the internet also.

Wolfgang Späte (E) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Späte

Video:
Messerschmitt Me-163B Komet Testing at Zwischenahn Airfield WWII


A well known quote by Adolf Galland was: "It's like an angel pushing" / "Es ist, als wenn ein Engel schiebt"
This it, how it was.


Hans

[von thoma]

Rudolf Opitz, was the best test pilot of the Me 163, but he only managed to break his back in several places with this dangerous aircraft.

[von thoma]

A well known quote by Adolf Galland was: "It's like an angel pushing" / "Es ist, als wenn ein Engel schiebt"
This it, how it was.

This Adolf Galland quote was for the Me 262, since Galland never flew a Me 163.

[Hans1906]

Hi von thoma,

you are right, this was the "famous" quote by Adolf Galland about the Messerschmitt Me-262.
I didn't claim that Galland ever flew the Me-163 himself, did I ?

Messerschmitt Me-262: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_262

Thank you for mentioning Rudolf "Rudi" Opitz, nice photo. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Opitz_(Pilot)

"The Me 163A V4, under the command of Heini Dittmar, reached a speed of 1003.67 km/h on October 2, 1941. The tow pilot in the Me 110, which brought the rocket plane to altitude, was Opitz"

Horrido!


Hans