Shadow over the Atlantic

by Robert Forsyth

  On 26 July, the Kommando der Erprobungsstellen authorized the establishment of Sonderkommando Nebel (Special Detachment Nebel) under the command of Hauptmann Nebel. The unit was set up specifically to oversee the further development of the Me 264 V2 and V3 prototypes and to assess the best use for them. It comprised engineers and personnel drawn from the staffs of the General der Aufklärungsflieger (with whom the Kommandeur of FAGr 5, Hermann Fischer, was working more closely on the long-term, long-range reconnaissance requirements of the Luftwaffe) and the General der Fliegerausbildung. The headquarters of the Kommando was to be at Offingen, the location of the V2 and V3 airframes, and its core staff was to be augmented by Georg Eckl and the aforementioned officers from FAGr 5.

  No sooner had Nebel’s unit been established, however, than it was given fresh orders by OKL. It was now to concentrate on the ‘technical problems associated with new aircraft’ – this meant not just the Me 264, but other new long-range types such as the Do 335 and the planned ultra-long-range Do 635.

  The accomplishments of the Kommando remain unclear, but in August 1944, it is possible that, among other things, it was involved in working with the firm of Osermaschinen GmbH to carry out the design and development of a 6,000-hp steam-turbine power unit for an aircraft, and an Me 264 airframe – possibly the V2 – was to have been placed at the disposal of the firm.19

  On 15 August 1944, at the time Eckl and the FAGr 5 officers were assigned to Nebel, Oberst im Generalstabsdienst Artur Eschenauer, the Chef der 6. Abteilung of the OKL Generalquartiermeister, issued a key report on the future of both the Me 264 and the activities of Sonderkommando Nebel addressed to the senior technical officer on Göring’s personal staff, the OKL Führungsstab and von Barsewisch. According to Eschenauer:

  The removal of the Ju 290 and Ju 390 from the long-range reconnaissance programme has left a hole which needs to be closed. It is possible that the large amount of assembled parts still available would be enough to build 20–30 Me 264s and make them operational. In order to actually realize this, personnel from the General der Auflkärungsflieger and General der Fliegerausbildung should be placed with Sonderkommando Nebel, which will have the task of coordinating the testing and deployment of the Me 264.

  In a somewhat contradictory manner, Eschenauer also went on to state that no ‘large’ completed parts still existed with which to start construction, and that 80 per cent of the required materials had been destroyed. He also foresaw that the Me 264 V2 would not be ready until February 1945 and that the aircraft would weigh 50 tonnes and be powered by four BMW 801 engines. The workforce available at Messerschmitt to build the Me 264 was noted at 80 ‘constructors’, of which half were foreign, with a further 20 brought in from Heinkel. If the plan of the Technisches Amt to use more than one manufacturer was to be realized, Eschenauer opined that, ‘in order to push the matter through, a military commander should be placed in charge. For this purpose, any personnel should come from the General der Auflkärungsflieger or the General der Fliegerausbildung.’

  This was obviously a reference to the employment of the men from FAGr 5.

  Even as late as August 1944, Adolf Hitler still harboured thoughts of conducting air operations against the United States. On 5 August, he announced that he wanted to see the ‘fastest possible production’ of further Me 264s.20 By early September 1944, however, von Barsewisch and Admiral Dönitz were forced to accept that with the imminent loss of vital airfields in France and the increasing superiority of the Allied air forces, the prospect of conducting any form of cooperation between the Me 264 and the U-boats was very unlikely. On the 7th, a last-ditch meeting was held in Berlin to discuss in what way – if at all – anything could be done with the Me 264 project on a practical level. In attendance from the Kriegsmarine were Dönitz and members of the staff of the BdU, while from the Luftwaffe, there was von Barsewisch and Hauptmann Müller from the staff of the General der Auflkärungsflieger, together with Major Fischer from FAGr 5, who had been asked to attend because of his recent practical experience in flying long-range operations over the Atlantic. As Oskar Schmidt noted: ‘At this time Major Fischer was more frequently in Berlin, to be readily available to the General der Aufklärungsflieger and the RLM Chef der TLR for new tasks. There he was also best able to represent the interests of his FAGr 5. Events at the battlefronts, which were the cause of so many problems for the high command, meant the Gruppe was left, more or less, alone.’21 It is quite possible that Hauptmann Nebel was present as well, but this is not certain.

  By the autumn of 1944, the whole Me 264 project was in some state of abeyance. In late September, Dönitz diplomatically persuaded Hitler to cancel plans for the aircraft; in truth, the task of the Admiral was made a little easier by the fact that the Führer was too preoccupied with other more pressing matters, so that by this stage of the war, the question of transatlantic bombing and reconnaissance was no longer relevant or a priority to him. Thus on 23 September 1944, orders were issued from the headquarters of the Führer that all further work on the Me 264 was to be cancelled. This was followed just under a month later, on 18 October, by a stark order from Göring stating: ‘Production of the Me 264 is herewith cancelled.’

  In another meeting, on 16 October, Fischer presented his requirements to representatives from Dornier, Heinkel and Junkers for a strategic reconnaissance aircraft with a range of 8000 km to replace the Ju 290. This was to be based on the Zwilling (twin) concept as used by Heinkel in which the fuselages of two He 111s had been mated together and used to provide power and range, in that case for long-range air-towing. There was no reason why the same concept could not be used for reconnaissance. It was decided that the majority of the aircraft should be used for fuel, although one fuselage was to be used to house 300 kg of marker flares. The hope was that production should begin in January 1945, with one aircraft being delivered in that month, three each in February, March and April and four in May.

  A few days earlier on 12 October, Junkers had agreed to take over from Dornier the design of a radical new Zwilling concept for an Atlantic Aufklärer, which would be able to assist the Kriegsmarine when it planned to resume a meaningful level of U-boat warfare in the late spring of 1945. The big Dornier, formed from the idea of mating two standard Do 335 fuselages to create more fuel capacity in a new wing centre section, was expected to possess a range of nearly 7000 km, enough at least to reach as far as the north of Ireland and the St George’s Channel. This would work ideally to Fischer’s outline specification requirement for an ultra-long-range machine. Sonderkommando Nebel’s work was not over.

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  ‘For three days, American P-51 Mustangs have been attacking our aircraft on the Autobahn. They were able to pick out their dispersals despite some pretty good camouflage.’ So wrote Oskar Schmidt on 9 September 1944 of events at Neubiberg. By this point, those Ju 290s of FAGr 5 that had reached Neubiberg from Mont de Marsan had been towed out to the adjacent Autobahn, which had been closed to civilian traffic, and pushed back into the woods edging the road in an effort to conceal them from Allied air attack.

  Schmidt later recalled: ‘Since there was no Flak defence at all – at least not at the time – the fighters flew low along the Autobahn and fired at the aircraft parked there. Of our own fighters, nothing was seen; but at that time they faced a very difficult situation. Against such overwhelming opposition, it was no longer possible for us to mount regular operations.’

  Eventually, FAGr 5 set up two 20 mm cannon in dugouts on the Autobahn as defence against enemy aircraft.

  In September, the mood at Neubiberg was one of tension and weariness. The men were aware of heavy fighting in Aachen. Yet there was little to do. Boredom created anxiety. Those personnel who were deemed by the Stab to be deserving were given leave (frequently disguised as a service task). Although this was risky, it meant that such servicemen could spend a short period of time with their families before whatever the war would bring in the coming weeks and months. Some men, whose w
ives lived in areas closer by, even managed to get them quartered in local accommodation for short periods. A nearby Flak and fighter defence radar unit made its facilities available for the men of FAGr 5 to watch the occasional evening film.

  The Gruppe Adjutant, Oberleutnant Herbert Abel, who made strenuous efforts to keep the elements of FAGr 5 in Bavaria cohesive and to maintain morale, travelled to Berlin by train in order to ascertain how, as Schmidt recorded, ‘the dice were going to roll for our unit.’ He returned on the 15th unable to say much.

  As September gave way to October, the men carried out work on the land, to help local farmers, and also worked on maintaining the Autobahn, while the mechanics and signals sections busied themselves servicing the vehicles and radio equipment of the Gruppe. By the middle of the month, the atmosphere at the Stab headquarters at Hofolding became increasingly illusory. ‘The Volkssturm was called up – all men between the ages of 16 and 60,’ recalled Oskar Schmidt, ‘and our soldiers were at Hofolding in retirement! With the deterioration in the situation at the battlefronts, the satisfaction with the prevailing situation was quite noticeable. Who could blame us?’

  On the 22nd, the ‘peace’ at Hofolding was disturbed by another low-level strafing attack by Mustangs. Cannon set up in the woods as ‘AA guns’ responded in defence and hits were observed on at least one of the P-51s, which veered away and disappeared behind some trees to come down in the Hofoldinger Forest. The newly promoted Hauptmann Schmidt headed off into the forest with a detachment of men and found the wreckage of the USAAF fighter lying broken up on the forest floor as a result of crashing through the dense trees. The pilot was dead in his cockpit. Schmidt posted a guard to stay with the aircraft, while he went off to advise the appropriate recovery authorities.

  In early November, two of the unit’s Ju 290s were pulled out of their forest dispersals and towed to Neubiberg airfield, from where they took off to an airfield in the east to collect personnel from two reconnaissance Staffeln which had been cut off by the now rapidly advancing Red Army.

  Meanwhile, 25 men from the Stabskompanie of FAGr 5 had to be given up for service with the Fallschirmjäger (paratroops), probably for use as ground troops.22

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  On the morning of 4 October 1944, Ju 290A-7 Wk-Nr 0186 9V+FH, an aircraft which had been delivered to FAGr 5 in April, took off from the base of 1./KG 200 at Finsterwalde en route for Wien (Vienna)-Parndorf in order to undertake an operation on behalf of the Abwehr. The objective of the mission was to drop an Arab sabotage team, led by a Leutnant from the Abwehr, together with containers of explosives, into an upland region of Algeria under the codename Operation Parzival.

  Despite having been assigned to KG 200 since 10 July, the Junkers retained its FAGr 5 fuselage code. Wien-Parndorf was the first stage-stop on its flight to Athens-Kalamaki in Greece, a country from which the Germans were about to withdraw under Allied pressure. After leaving Parndorf, the pilot, Hauptmann Emil Sachtleben of 1./FAGr 5, the man who had flown to eastern Greenland in June, together with his crew, which included observer Oberleutnant Adalbert von Pechmann, also of 1.Staffel, headed for their next stop at Belgrade-Semlin in Yugoslavia. They then flew on to Thessaloniki. They found the airfield there being demolished by German units who were in the process of pulling out. With no accommodation, they tried to get some rest sleeping in the open air, but this proved virtually impossible amidst an uncomfortably warm night spent under mosquito nets with the constant sound of buildings being detonated.

  Furthermore, there was no transport available for Sachtleben to get into the town to report his arrival to the local Luftwaffe commander. It was fortunate therefore, that he was able to use the motorcycle that the crew kept on board the Ju 290 for just such an emergency. Upon his return to the airfield, he found it under attack from a large formation of enemy fighter-bombers, and two other transport aircraft parked either side of 9V+FH were already burning; miraculously, the Junkers remained unscathed.

  Sachtleben instructed the Arabs and their German leader to board the Junkers. Once they and their explosives were safely stowed, the Ju 290 took off for Kalamaki. In a bizarre ritual, prior to take-off from Kalamaki at 1738 hrs, the Arabs performed a dance for their German Abwehr officer. The take-off and first part of the flight went smoothly, but as they approached Chalcis on course for Athens at an altitude of 3000 m, the local German naval Flak batteries, not familiar with the size, shape and sound of the big four-engined Ju 290, feared it was an Allied bomber and opened fire.

  The Ju 290 then flew a course at low level across the Mediterranean towards the coast of Libya. To that point the weather was exactly as forecast, and the crew kept a careful eye on wind direction and speed. On reaching the coast near Tripoli, the Junkers climbed and turned to cross Tunisia and on towards Algeria. Soon after, however, the cloud suddenly thickened and the Junkers flew into the midst of a raging sandstorm. Visibility was zero. After a very worrying period, the storm passed, but the inside of the aircraft had been left coated in sand and all aboard could feel and taste sand in their mouths. It was impossible to tell if any of the engines had been damaged.

  The crew members of the Junkers were now facing real difficulties, since the Allied radio transmitters on Malta, from which they hoped to pick up navigational assistance, were silent and astro-navigation was not possible. Fortunately, however, as they crossed into Algeria, the weather started to clear and a full moon shone. In reality, this was of little help because the Germans were not familiar with the largely featureless terrain below. Eventually, the desert morphed into hills and the crew searched for a suitable drop point. After flying for some time longer, the spot was found and all the agents, as well as their explosives, were dropped.

  The Junkers then turned back across the sea and, after an uneventful return flight, landed at Thessaloniki at 0601 hrs on the morning of the 8th after a flight of 12 hr and 29 min. The aircraft eventually flew to I./KG 200’s base at Finow. From 29 October, this aircraft was based at the East Prussian airfield of Wormditt, from where Sachtleben and his second pilot, Oberfeldwebel Kreutzmann, would conduct further flights, with their aircraft recoded as KG 200 machine A3+OB.23

  By late 1944/early 1945, those crews of FAGr 5 assigned to KG 200 had still not returned to their former Gruppe and it was assumed that, in effect, their posting to that Geschwader had become permament.24

  Meanwhile, in another initiative in November 1944, other crews of FAGr 5 were used to undertake dangerous supply flights to Skoplje (Skopje), one of the last German-held cities in Yugoslavia. Since September 1944, German forces had been vulnerable to attacks from Yugoslav partisans in the region and were increasingly at risk from a Soviet thrust through Rumania. Despite bitter fighting, by November, the Nazis’ 3½-year occupation was almost over. Yet in the first half of that month, Ju 290s continued to fly supply missions from Wien-Aspern to Skoplje, from where they picked up wounded troops for the return flight.

  Leutnant Herbert Wagner of 1./FAGr 5 in Wk-Nr 0157 9V+BK made five such flights up to 13 November. The Ritterkreuz holder Oberleutnant Paul Birnkraut, also of 1.Staffel, performed a mission on 3 November, but on the return flight, his aircraft, Wk-Nr 0180 9V+KH, was hit badly by enemy ground fire. He made it back to Aspern, but his Junkers had been peppered by 80 20 mm hits.25

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  In a conference on 27 November 1944, the OKL decided that 3.(F)/Aufklärungsgruppe Nacht would convert to the Ar 234 jet reconnaissance aircraft rather than the original intention to equip it with the much-awaited and innovative ‘push-pull’ Do 335 for nocturnal reconnaissance. At the same time, it was decided that FAGr 5 at Neubiberg should re-equip with the new Dornier.26 Simultaneously, it was also noted that a new U-boat with a reduced radius of action would soon be introduced, and that FAGr 5 should receive either the Do 335, Ar 234 or, ideally, the Do 335Z (Zwilling – what was actually the new Junkers Ju 635 project). A two-seat version of the Do 335 was considered ideal, but a single-seat version would be acceptable. It w
as hoped that the former would have a range of 4800 km and the latter 5500 km, which was more than twice that of the standard aircraft. Four Do 335s were intended to be built during each of the first four months of 1945, three Ar 234s during each of the first three months of the year, and one Do 335Z in March and April, three in May and five in each of the following months.27 The desired range requirement would probably be achieved by a larger wooden wing, enlarged internal fuel tanks and two 900-l drop tanks beneath the wings.28 Stab/FAGr 5 was to have an intended establishment of three aircraft, while the two Staffeln of the Gruppe would have 12 each. It was proposed that the Fernaufklärungsgruppe would operate out into the Atlantic as far as 25° West, while longer-range missions would be the responsibility of Sonderkommando Nebel equipped with the Me 264.29

  The same day as the OKL conference, Major Fischer – now assigned to the Chef TLR/F1-E, together with Oberleutnant Hans Müller, FAGr 5’s Technical Officer, examined a mock-up of the new Ju 635 twin-fuselage Zwilling project.30 It seemed preliminarly work on the enormous Aufklärer was well under way. After taking over the Do 335Z/He P 1075 project, the Junkers design team had begun by installing radio equipment in late November/mid-December 1944. In addition, Fischer was informed that the FuG 200 Hohentwiel was to be supplemented, or replaced, with the new FuG 224 Berlin A target-indicating set.31

  In December 1944, as German forces fought their last significant counter-offensive of the war in the snow-covered forests of the Ardennes, and the Red Army approached Budapest, Messerschmitt engineers continued their work on developing designs for the Me 264 at Metalbau Offingen. One idea being worked upon at this time was a courier version of the Me 264, with a range of 12,000 km and a payload of 4000 kg. But since virtually all the necessary parts and components for such a project had by now been scrapped or commandeered for other tasks, it seems likely that the whole idea was little more than a ruse to prevent Messerschmitt employees from being caught by military conscription teams who were combing government and civil institutions for vitally needed personnel for the war fronts.