Last plane out of Berlin - who was the pilot?

[wartourist]

Albert Speer, Ritter von Greim and Hanna Reitsch were allegedly the last visitors in the Führerbunker who managed to fly in and out of Berlin, using the makeshift runway on the Charlottenburg Chaussee (today Strasse 17 Juni).

1. On 23.4.45, Approx. 16:00, Speer is flown from Gatow into Berlin (East/West Axis), in a Storch (Groehler; Die Neue Reichskanzlei, das Ende, p 38. Speer; Inside the Third Reich, p 638)
2. On 24.4.45, Approx. 03:30, Speer is flown out (Joachimsthaler, The last days of Hitler, p 111. Speer, p 647-48)
3. On 26.4.45, Approx. 04:00, Ritter von Greim and Hanna Reitsch are flown from Rechlin to Gatow airport in a Fw 190 (Reitsch, The Sky, my Kingdom, p 205). They continue, Greim at the controls, in a Storch and Reitsch lands the plane, after Greim was injured, on the East/West Axis.
4. On 27.4.45, evening. Six Storchs are despatched, protected by some 30 fighters, in a vane attempt to haul Greim/Reitsch out of Berlin. Two Storchs crashes (Koller, p 103)
5. On 28.4.45, 24:00 (or probably shortly after midnight and thus on the 29th), Greim and Reitsch are picked up by an Arado 96 and flown to safety (Reitsch, p 208). They land safely at Rechlin 03:00 in the morning (Reitsch, p 213)*

Flights 1, 2, 3 and 5 were allegedly piloted by the same, incredibly courageous and skilled Luftwaffen-Feldwebel; a stunning feat by an outstanding aviator. He may even have been part of the 25.4 party, flight 4. Yet I have not been able to discover his identity, his merits, his fate or other references than the ones mentioned here.

It sounds rather unbelievable to me that such a mans identity is not recorded somewhere, and perhaps somebody in the forum has specific knowledge as to the Luftwaffe or the events concerning the last days of Adolf Hitler.

If anyone here can shed more light on the matter, I would be very interested to hear about it. Thanks.
Dan

[Larry D.]

It's astounding that Hanna Reitsch didn't record his name in her book or her biographer didn't include it. It's not in the Luftwaffe records. I suggest you look for the postwar interrogations of Reitsch, von Greim and Speer. Perhaps they still remembered the pilot's name when they were interviewed a few weeks or months after the flights.

[phylo_roadking]

Hi Dan - well, you're missing another flight...

5. On 28.4.45, 24:00 (or probably shortly after midnight and thus on the 29th), Greim and Reitsch are picked up by an Arado 96 and flown to safety (Reitsch, p 208). They land safely at Rechlin 03:00 in the morning (Reitsch, p 213)*

The Arado didn't fly in on its own! It had landed on the East-West Axis accompanied by at least one (and possibly several???) Ju52! From FalkeEins' very useful blog...http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Berlin

The Ju 52 that had 'successfully managed to land' on the Ost-West-Achse that night and then take-off again was apparently flown by one Oberfeldwebel Böhm from II./TGr 3. This was reported by another young Ju 52 pilot from this unit, Uffz. Johannes Lachmund who described events in his 2009 memoir. Although a pilot Lachmund flew on this sortie as a gunner. Lachmund records that this mission was flown from Güstrow to Berlin with five aircraft to evacuate high-ranking personnel from Berlin, including Ritter von Greim. As Lachmund reports, three of the five Ju 52s had to return after missed approaches, chiefly because the visibility was so poor from the heavy smoke from the fires everywhere on the ground. One Ju-52 was shot-down by the Soviets during the approach.
Lachmund mentions discussions via telephone from the 'air traffic control' command-post at the Siegessäule (Berlin's Victory column) between Ofw Böhm and the Bunker in the Reichskanzlei. There was apparently some dispute over the passengers to be flown-out, chiefly because Hanna Reitsch wanted to fly out the Ritter von Greim herself at the controls of the Arado Ar-96, and not leave Berlin as a passenger on this Ju-52 flight. Eventually, the Ju 52 boarded only a few other wounded passengers but not the VIPs. Because of damage to the 'runway' from shelling, the Junkers transport had only 400 metres in which to get airborne. It is worth noting perhaps that Deutsche Lufthansa record the minimum take-off distance for their lighter (unarmoured and unarmed) Ju 52/3m as 500 metres..
( Johannes Lachmund : « Fliegen ; Mein Traumberuf – bis zu den bitteren Erlebnissen des Krieges », Verlagshaus Monsenstein und Vannerdat OHG Münster, 2009.)

Might be worth getting a look at that if you can read German? It's not impossible he mentions the feldwebel in passing...

[Larry D.]

Isn't the 28/29 April 1945 Ju 52 landings on the Ost-West-Achse an item of considerable contention on another thread on this same sub-forum? With some patient searching, you can probably find it. All of the posting are from 2011 and 2012. You will have a lot of reading to do when you find it. The findings, IIRC, totally refute Uffz. Lachmund's claims.

L.

[wartourist]

Many good reflections, thanks guys!

I have found the Lachmund book as a pdf on the net (http://www.archiv-der-zeitzeugen.com/Fi ... gen_22.pdf), but it does not mention the name of the flyer in connection with the Greim/Reitsch flight (p 241-2). There is another book, about the Jagd-Geschwader 4 (Storming the Bombers by Erik Mombeek), that might be interesting (apparently JG4 was the fighter wing that provided cover both for the Speer flight of April 24th and the Greim/Reitsch flight from Rechlin to Gatow on the 26th). Could be that the pilot in question was recruited from that wing? Luckily my local library has it, so we’ll se

And I’ll try to do a search on the forum – just not sure how to as I am a newbie, but will find out…

Will keep you posted

Dan

[wartourist]

Found what seems to be the original interrogation papers of Hanna Reitsch (http://www.paperlessarchives.com/FreeTi ... eitsch.pdf). Interestingly, they mention Hanna herself as the Arado pilot (p 18) - a view she herself contradicts in her memoir??

Dan

[Larry D.]

I am please and surprised you found the Hanna R. interrogation on-line. She and von Greim undoubtedly were interrogated/questioned/interviewed a half-dozen times or more, and if they were flown back to the U.K. then there may be a dozen PIRs, IIRs and FIRs for each of them because there could be no limit to the IIRs (Intermediate Interrogation Report). They were both VIPs of major interest to Allied intelligence. There are only two repositories with copies of all the tens of thousands of reports, and they are the British National Archives in London and the U.S. National Archives in Washington.

L.

[ian the englander]

In The Fall Of Berlin by Anthony Read and David Fisher on page 418 it says that the Luftwaffe pilot who flew Greim and Reitsch from Rechlin to Gatow was the same pilot who had flown Albert Speer to Berlin for his final visit.The 3 of them flew in a FW 190 so i assume that it was the 2 seat trainer version ?, as it says "the FW190 had only one passenger seat,but the diminutive Hanna,who stood barely five feet tall,squeezed into the space in the fuselage behiend it".
On page 440 it says that the same "warrant officer pilot " landed an Arado 96 training aircraft on the "East-West" axis to fly Greim and Reitsch out again,then on page 441 "setting course for Rechlin air base they flew safely on their way" it does not say who was flying the aircraft Reitsch or the nco pilot.

[wartourist]

What is bothering me here is that I am beginning to feel some disturbance in my previous steadfast conviction that the pilot, who flew the Arado out of Berlin, was the same who flew it in, namely the unknown Luftwaffe Feldwebel, whom I will henceforth refer to as “X”.

Re-reading Hanna Reitsch (The Sky, My Kingdom), I must admit, that she does not unambiguously state who was the pilot. She acknowledges that X did bring the Arado into Berlin, but says “we”, when she refers to the flight out from the besieged capital. That might as well refer to just Ritter von Greim and herself as could it embrace X too.

Furthermore, the 1945 interrogation seems to conclude that Hanna Reitsch indeed was the pilot, which is also confirmed in the Lachmund book. I have not been able to locate any interrogation report regarding Ritter von Greim, but as he committed suicide on May 24th, 1945, maybe they did not get round to that in length before he was a goner?

The notion that X was the pilot is, as far as I can tell, only purported by some historians, notable and distinguished ones yes, but none the less not eyewitnesses.

The question whether X was actually in the machine or left behind, as well as his identity and fate is thus still an open one.

Dan

[ian the englander]

I have always thought that the nco was the pilot on the last flight out of Berlin,however looking at a picture of an Arado trainer (Ar 96) and remembering that Greim had been shot in the foot (so it would have been difficult for Reitsch to have sat on his lap during the flight ?) i now wonder if the nco was left behiend and Reitsch flew the aircraft.
I am sorry not to be able to help in this matter as i find it interesting.

[ian the englander]

I have just looked at Beevor "Berlin the downfall 1945" page 342 he says that the aircraft was an Ar 96 but he just tells us that "Ritter von Greim and Hanna Reitsch escaped"....no help there.
However Earl F Ziemke in "battle for Berlin end of the Third Reich" page 118 says "Greim and Hanna Reitsch flew out that night in an old Arado trainer a Luftwaffe pilot managed somehow to land and get off the ground again".
So i go from not sure to dont know !

[Larry D.]

I have not been able to locate any interrogation report regarding Ritter von Greim, but as he committed suicide on May 24th, 1945, maybe they did not get round to that in length before he was a goner?

My apologies, Dan. I did not bother to check von Greim. You are 100% correct in suggesting that any questioning of von Greim would have been superficial at best. Injured, in hospital and then suicide with no forewarning would have precluded much past name, rank and serial number. So we are probably left with Hanna's word alone. Unless - and this is a long shot - Pilot "X" was captured right after he and H.R. made their way from Rechlin to the West before the Russians captured it on 2 May. Given that he was one of the last people out of the Bunker, there may be some interrogation reports on him provided the Allied intelligence knew who he was.

Larry

GREIM, Robert Ritter von. (DOB: 22.06.92 in Bayreuth). (PleM, BMJ, RES). WWI served with the Fliegertruppe. 14.10.18 awarded Pour le Mérite. 23.10.18 awarded Bayerischer Militär-Max-Joseph-Orden, verbunden mit dem Persönalichen Adel. 30.12.18 appt Leiter Luftpoststation München (to 14.10.19). 25.02.21 promo to acting Hptm. (RDA 31.03.20). (n.d.) left the army and studied law at München University, then later became a bank clerk. 08.24 went to China and helped Chiang Kai-shek form an air force (to 05.27). 01.10.27 Maj., appt Leiter Deutsche Luftfahrt G.m.b.H. (to 11.33). 12.33 Maj., appt Leiter DVS Würzburg (to 31.03.34). 01.04.34 trf to the Luftwaffe from the Heer with a rank of Maj. (RDA 01.01.34); appt Kdr. Fl.Gr. Döberitz I./JG 132 “Richtofen”. 01.07.34 appt Kommodore JG 132 “Richtofen” and Kdt. Fl.H. Döberitz. 01.04.35 appt provisional Inspekteur der Jagd- und Sturzkampfflieger/Fl.In. 3. 01.08.35 appt Inspekteur der Jagd-und Sturzkampfflieger/Fl. In 3 . 01.09.35 promo to Obstlt. 10.02.36 appt Inspekteur für Flugsicherung und Gerät. 20.04.36 promo to Oberst. 01.06.37 appt provisional Chef des Luftwaffen-Personalamt/RLM. 01.08.37 RDA received and appt permanent Chef des Lw.–Personalamt/RLM. 01.02.38 promo to Gen.Maj. 27.07.38 received RDA of 01.08.38. 01.02.39 appt Kdr. Fl.-Div.31, renamed 5. Fl.-Div. on 06.02.39. 03.10.39 appt Kommandierender Gen. V. Fl.Korps. 01.01.40 promo to Gen.Lt. 24.06.40 awarded Ritterkreuz. 19.07.40 promo to Gen.d.Fl. 01.04.42 appt Oberbefehlshaber Lw.-Kdo. Ost. 16.02.43 promo to Gen.Oberst. 02.04.43 awarded Eichenlaub. 05.05.43 appt Chef, and then from Summer 1944, Oberbefehlshaber Luftflotte 6. 28.08.44 awarded Schwerter. 25.04.45 promo to Generalfeldmarschall and appt Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe. 08.05.45 into U.S. captivity and hospitalized. †24.05.45 in Salzburg (suicide). Credited with 28 victories (WWI).

[Larry D.]

Dan - here is the thread that I was trying to direct you to: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... h&start=60 . A total of 5 pages and 60 posts running from June 2010 to June 2012. Excellent discussion with many unpublished and published references.

Larry

[wartourist]

A very comprehensive and interesting thread, thanks Larry! Especially one contributor has a lot of lenghty input that requires close reading. Thanks to you, Ian and Phylo for valuable comments! I now have a lot of reading to do - I have some special hopes to the book regarding JG4 as the pilot in question may have come from that unit - and I will revert in a few days summing up my findings.

One appaling possibility is of course that Hanna Reitsch did in fact fly the Arado out and the pilot was simply left behind - and then likely killed during the last days of battle. Poor chap...

Dan

[Larry D.]

Good luck, Dan, and let us know what you find out.