Shadow over the Atlantic

by Robert Forsyth

  On 11 July, 4./FAGr 5 was in the process of dissolution; its serviceable aircraft (with the exception of the He 111) were due to be ferried away that day and contingents of personnel were to follow over the course of three days. Any special equipment that could not be taken in the aeroplanes was to be conveyed by land. This information was sent to 6.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.123, the intended recipient. Early on the morning of the 12th, the Heinkel was burned out when Lightnings strafed the landing ground at Varades, 50 km north-east of Nantes aerodrome. That afternoon, the Staffel reported a strength of six (1) crews; two had already been transferred to 6.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.123, three were detached and another was sick. Equipment now consisted of just the one Do 217, with damage to its engine and radio equipment. Ju 88 Wk-Nr 301573 had been ferried to 6.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.123 while Ju 188 Wk-Nr 260251 was in Werneuchen for the installation of ‘special apparatus’.

  A message five days later confirmed that 4./FAGr 5 was disbanding and handing over its equipment to 6.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.123. The transfer of at least one aircraft seems to have been held up, for, on 23 July, 4./FAGr 5 asked 6.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.123 for the earliest possible confirmation that Do 217, 9V+AM had landed. The remaining elements were planning to transfer by road at about 1700 hrs the next day, but the disbandment of the Staffel was not reported as complete until 23 August. Its successor, 6.(F)/Aufkl.Gr.123, was wound up in early September in Deelen, Holland.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  RETURN TO THE REICH

  August–September 1944

  Every kilometre we progressed towards the east, took us closer to the homeland and safety.

  Oskar H. Schmidt, Stabskompanie, FAGr 5

  In the early evening of 16 August, the first heavily laden Ju 290 of FAGr 5, Wk-Nr 0193 9V+FK, left Mont de Marsan for Germany as part of the withdrawal of the Gruppe from France. When it landed at Neuburg/Donau, its right-side landing gear suffered damage. Later that night, five more of the big aircraft were loaded with equipment, a process that required several vehicles, which could therefore not be contributed to the road column. After taking off, their activity was picked up by Allied radio listeners as they routed for Mühldorf am Inn via Dijon (one aircraft) and Clermont-Ferrand (four aircraft).1 Briefly, in the autumn of 1943, Mühldorf had served as the base for LTS 290 and, more recently, for Transportstaffel 5 with its mix of large German and Italian transports.

  Next day, another aircraft, WK-Nr 0173 9V+CK, piloted by Oberfeldwebel Martin Kistler, again heavily loaded with ground personnel, was damaged when it landed at Mühldorf.2

  By this stage, the Gruppenkommandeur, Major Fischer, had banned all daylight flying, the unit’s aircrews now concentrating all their effort on ferrying equipment and supplies back to Germany at night. The aircraft were loaded to take their maximum payloads, making even taxiing a challenge, let alone take-off. Leutnant Hellmut Hetz was a pilot in 1./FAGr 5 and recalled: ‘Only three aircraft were left parked in the woods. By this time, things were getting rather unpleasant in France with the Maquis lurking in the bushes. Major Fischer told us to “get the hell out of there.”’3

  Indeed, Fischer flew one of the unit’s Ju 290s to Mühldorf am Inn; his aircraft was so heavy that when it touched down in Bavaria, it overshot the runway and the undercarriage collapsed.4

  At 0315 hrs on the morning of the 18th, Leutnant Hellmut Nagel of 1.Staffel took off from Mont de Marsan in Ju 290 9V+BH, bound for the Junkers plant at Bernburg, 1400 km away. As the heavy aircraft left the ground, its right side mainwheel impacted with a radio mast, and was left suspended. The Junkers went on to suffer a crash-landing on the grass at Bernburg.5 It was to be the last time he piloted a Ju 290.

  GROUND COLUMN STAGE 1: MONT DE MARSAN–POITIERS, 18–20 AUGUST

  At 1730 hrs that evening (the 18th), the first of a motley column of heavily laden vehicles drove out of Mont de Marsan on the first stage of what would be a long journey across France to southern Germany. The column would carry some 600 men and comprised field cars, buses, signals and radio trucks, field kitchens, tow-tractors, wood-gas-powered vehicles and light and heavy lorries of various types and functions, some with trailers. Most of the vehicles had been adorned with bushes and tree branches for camouflage and some had been rigged up to carry 20 mm MG 151 aircraft cannon on roof mounts, taken from the Ju 290s of the Gruppe, for defence from ground and air attack. After the recent thunderstorms, the summer evening weather was dry, warm and pleasant, and in most cases, the open vehicles had their tarpaulins pulled back in order not to hinder the ability to use the defensive guns quickly if the need arose.

  The column began its drive west towards Morcenx, after which it would take the main road north to Bordeaux. But after Morcenx, it grew dark, and, acting on little more than a hunch, Oberleutnant Schmidt decided to change the planned route and to take another road. By taking such a measure, the FAGr 5 column had the good fortune to avoid an ambush by the Maquis, which had attacked a German fuel column on the intended road.

  After Morcenx, the column pulled over to stop for the night and also to wait for a team of civilian German administration workers as well as a group from the Mont de Marsan airfield administration Abteilung. These groups, like FAGr 5, had received no orders and had initally decided to remain at their posts. That turned out to be a fatal error of judgement. The FAGr 5 column waited until daylight for them, but there was no sign of the civilian workers or the airfield staff. It later transpired that they too had come up against the Maquis and had suffered casualties.

  At around 0500 hrs on the 19th, as the new day dawned, the column started up and drove towards Bordeaux, the southern outskirts of which it reached by 0845 hrs and where it paused for a brief and very wary breakfast, as well as to refuel. By 1030 hrs it had passed through the city safely, and north-west of it, crossed over the suspension bridge leading across the Dordogne. This was potentially a dangerous moment, for, as the vehicles of the column passed over the bridge, so they were vulnerable to air attack and to an ambush by the Resistance. ‘We were glad once it was behind us and we continued in the direction of Angoulême,’ recalled Oskar Schmidt.6 That afternoon they stopped in some woods, where the field kitchens were set up and the men ate and washed in a stream. At 1530 hrs, the journey resumed, and, driving as quickly as possible under sunny skies with no sign of enemy aircraft, they reached Angoulême at 2000 hrs.

  Through radio contact with the remaining crews at Mont de Marsan, it was learned that Bordeaux had just been declared a ‘Fortress’ (which meant it had to be defended at all costs) and as such, had the FAGr 5 convoy arrived there any later than it did, it would have found itself trapped in the city, where it would have been used to bolster the defences.

  At Angoulême it was learned from the local German commander that any attempt to head directly east would not be possible, because all roads were being covered by groups of maquisards. As leader of the column, Oberleutnant Schmidt thus decided to make for the town of Poitiers, to the north, which held a strong German garrison and where it was hoped that a road could be found close to the front line that was not held by the Resistance.

  As rain started to fall and with guards scanning the surrounding area and skies, the vehicles were refuelled and fresh wood loaded into the wood-gas-powered vehicles. The local military commander at Angoulême eyed the FAGr 5 column with interest and expressed his ‘opinion’ that it should be incorporated into his own command. Schmidt politely, but firmly, told the soldier that he had his own orders.

  At 2030 hrs, and with daylight fading, the column moved off under heavy, sheeting rain, destined for Poitiers. The rain proved relentless, and those personnel driving in the smaller Kübelwagen field cars found water seeping into their vehicles. Brakes failed. ‘As if by a miracle,’ Schmidt recalled, ‘all the vehicles survived the flood.’ One advantage of the adverse weather, however, was that it kept the bands of Maquis away.

  Some 15 km north from Angoulême, the column arrived at a barrier across the road to which was attached a sign that read ‘Diversion’, but
without any further explanation. The diversion led into a forested area with some narrow ravines, which prompted a sense of growing unease among the men in the column. At about midnight, Schmidt ordered the vehicles to stop for the night and mounted guards on all sides. Every member of the column endeavoured to get some sleep, despite their wet clothes. During the night, the guard at the end of the column, under Oberleutnant Motzkus, a pilot of 1./FAGr 5, became engaged in a short exchange of fire with a small band of assailants, but deployment of the aircraft cannon against them saw them off. There were no casualties on the German side.

  At 0630 hrs, on the morning of the 20th, after a hasty breakfast, the column moved again, but by now it had increased in size as a result of being joined by vehicles from other German organizations that had been operating in France such as the Reichsbahn and the Organisation Todt. In daylight, the officers of FAGr 5 were bemused to discover that hitching rides on their vehicles were a number of elderly German civilian men wearing shirts, trousers and braces; the appearance of a well-organized military column was ebbing.

  As the column approached Poitiers later that morning, so it was forced to make another detour as a result of a bridge that had been blown up. Then, a little later, the lead vehicle in the column spotted a barrier across the road made from felled tree trunks, and at the same moment the column came under light fire from a nearby village. The German gunners returned the fire as the occupants of their vehicles jumped into the cover of ditches on both sides of the road. In the process some of the Germans were wounded, including an Unteroffizier of FAGr 5 who was later taken to the base of the Free India Legion for treatment and from there to a hospital.

  The heavy cannon fire from the column was sufficient to cause the maquisards in the village to disperse, but once under way again, a bus, which had given many years of faithful service to FAGr 5 and which had even seen service with the reconnaissance units in Russia, suffered damage to one of its wheels. Lacking spares with which to repair the damage, the mobile workshop mechanics, Feldwebel Walk and Unteroffizier Hunn, volunteered to remain with the bus to make the new part using their lathes and other tools. It was agreed that a security detachment would also remain with them for protection, and the repair work was to proceed on the basis it did not take more than two hours.

  As the rest of the column continued on its way, it stopped briefly before each settlement it came to, at which the gunners would fire a short warning salvo of cannon fire over the rooftops to dissuade any maquisards that might be there from launching an attack.

  At 1145 hrs, they reached the southern outskirst of Poitiers amidst an air raid, but well camouflaged and armed, they used the disruption to halt for a rest and to eat.

  ____________

  Back at Mont de Marsan on the 20th, it was the turn of Hellmut Hetz of 1./FAGr 5 to fly to Munich-Riem, as he remembered:

  Finally, on 20 August, I loaded my Ju 290 with as much as it would carry including the Gruppe’s butchers and six to eight pigs. I knew we would be flying at reasonably high altitude and told the butchers to kill the pigs if they should start to breathe heavily (I had learned this from my father who was a vet). Then, as I began my taxiing run, another group of men came running up and we hauled them aboard. Now heavily overloaded I continued the run, but could not reach the official take-off speed. Nearing the end of the runway, I pulled the aircraft up anyway and managed to get her up into the air. As we headed for Munich, we flew through bad thunderstorms, the butchers became air sick and the pigs suffocated. The bodies of the animals soon began to smell badly, so as soon as we touched down at Munich-Riem, the crew threw them out. After we taxied to a stop the groundcrews found bushes and twigs wrapped around the undercarriage, showing how close we had been to the trees when we took off.

  Shortly afterwards we were ordered to fly our Ju 290s to satellite airfields in order to conceal them from enemy fighter-bombers. After an hour’s flight, I landed at a tiny airfield [Mühldorf am Inn], but as the tractor pulled the aircraft into a wood, it started to sink into the mud. I quickly taxied it out again and helped the crew to cut timbers to form a platform on which it could stand safely. As far as I am concerned, it’s probably still there, as I can not see how anyone could take-off in a Ju 290 from that field!7

  GROUND COLUMN STAGE 2: POITIERS–TITISEE, 20–25 AUGUST

  The news at Poitiers was not good. The local German commanders there advised the officers from the Luftwaffe column not to take the direct roads to the east from Poitiers. Everywhere in the east was now teeming with the Maquis. Even some of the smaller and weaker German infantry units still operating in the area had been beaten back by the Resistance. Rather, the best option was to head north, to move closer to the front, and to try to find a route through to the east from there.

  The predicament facing the FAGr 5 column was made more difficult by orders from the Poitiers military command to take with them more displaced German and ‘friendly’ individuals who had found their way to the town – merchant seamen, railway workers, farriers and other civilian personnel. ‘We were beginning to take on the appearance of a gypsy column,’ recalls Oskar Schmidt. Furthermore, after waiting in vain until 1430 hrs for the repaired bus that had been left on the road south of the town to catch up, Schmidt decided to press on.

  Just as they were leaving, the local military Kommandantur (Commandant’s Office) informed the column that a large quantity of market goods had been ‘discovered’ in the town and that the men were welcome to help themselves. Schmidt, however, was resolved to continue regardless of this tempting offer and although he knew it was a ‘regrettable omission’, progress and the prospect of survival were more important.

  Heading north along straight country roads towards Tours, surrounded by open countryside with few trees, the column was then strafed in a low-level attack by Mosquito fighter-bombers. The FAGr 5 gunners responded immediately with their 20 mm MG 151 cannon, and the air around the road convoy quickly became obscured with clouds of smoke. Luckily, the Mosquitos flew off, but one NCO was wounded in the foot during the attack.

  Shortly after the Mosquitos departed, the column came upon a small convoy of three staff cars, in which was a senior SS officer, together with a large amount of luggage and looted goods, as well as his female secretaries. They sought refuge with the FAGr 5 column, much to the consternation of some its members, although there was little they could do about it.

  Indeed, at one point during the journey, the column entered a small town and was stopped by an SS unit. Its leader, an SS Hauptsturmführer, attempted to order Oberleutnant Schmidt to use his resources to set the buildings on either side of the street ablaze. Schmidt refused on the basis that his men had not been fired at from anyone in the town. A tense stand-off between Schmidt and the SS officer followed, during which the FAGr 5 personnel made it very clear that they would use their machine pistols against ‘anyone’ if they were threatened. At this, the SS backed away and the column was waved on. As Schmidt commented, ‘Break the Resistance, yes – but exacting revenge on innocents was not the solution.’

  Fortunately, beyond Poitiers the afternoon summer skies remained clear of further prowling enemy aircraft. ‘What they could have done to us!’ noted Schmidt. ‘Perhaps the English fighter pilots were having their tea?’

  But as the column drove on, there were uncomfortable indications that they were nearing the front, in the form of burnt-out vehicles lying abandoned by the roadside. As they neared Tours, the column turned off the main road and headed for the town of Sainte-Maure de Touraine. As it did so, the coupling between one of the lorries of the Gruppe and its trailer snapped. It was decided that the senior occupant of the lorry, Flieger-Ingenieur Unger of the Gruppenstab, would remain with it together with Schirrmeister (Technical Sergeant) Limmer, until the mobile workshop and the repaired bus caught them up and could conduct the necessary repairs.

  Once more, Schmidt decided to continue, leaving his colleagues behind; ‘Every kilometre we progressed towards the eas
t, took us closer to the homeland and safety.’

  As night fell, the weather changed, bringing heavy rain. In the worsening conditions, the column started to break up with some of the smaller vehicles lagging behind. A halt was ordered so that the vehicles could close up and reassemble, and the personnel rest for a meal.

  Under cover of darkness, at 0100 hrs the next morning, the column set off with Leutnant Klose, a pilot of 2./FAGr 5, at its head in a lorry fitted with multiple cannon, followed by Oberleutnant Schmidt in a Tatra field car. Behind Schmidt came another heavily armed lorry. Within moments, however, the second truck struck a small landmine, which although it was triggered, fortunately caused little damage apart from puncturing the two front tyres. However, above the noise of the engines, neither Klose nor Schmidt heard the small blast and continued to drive on through wooded countryside. Furthermore, because the headlights of the following vehicles had been darkened, it was some time before Klose and Schmidt had realized what had happened. When they eventually returned to the main column, Schmidt’s Tatra also drove over a mine at which it ‘sprang into the air’. Once again, the mine caused damage only to the tyres. But as Schmidt recalled: ‘Why the Maquis, who had probably laid these little mines in the rain, did not try to attack the lone column leader, is a mystery.’

  Once again, the column had been fortunate, but because of the delays caused and the subsequent repairs, as well as exhaustion on the part of several of the drivers, orders were given to rest until dawn.

  At dawn on the 21st, the column moved off in the direction of Bourges, which it reached later that morning. The town was in chaos as the remaining German troops there were preparing to evacuate. To the north, Paris was about to fall to the Allies and the Falaise pocket had all but been closed with the loss of more than 10,000 German soldiers killed and another 50,000 taken prisoner.