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In Messerschmitt Mode over the Eastern Front

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Published on 19 Nov 2022 / In Film & Animation

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Life_N_Times_of_Shane_T_Hanson

This Messerschmitt ME 109 - with the red heart squadron insignia was Josef Lundthorp's** squadron

**(many variants on the Aglicised post WW2 sires name).

I have been looking for many years on the war records of where he and 6 other pilots trained for a while, by flying a meter or so above the road, between poplar trees, as training to flying their planes into a (dual track) train tunnel maybe 2Km long, to pop out in a very steep walled mountain valley, drop bombs onto a hydroelectric power station, loop up and over and go back into the train tunnel and then out.

But the war records are almost non existent, the German war records are full of arrogant and unhelpful cunts, the Russian and the satellite states, etc., are like throwing rocks into a vacuum, and while knocking out all the enemies power stations and dams was a priority to destroy their war production capabilites, many countries have changed names, disappeared, been assimilated (soviet union) and their old records - especially war ones, records of power stations, train lines, hydroelectric scemes etc., have disappeared into the mists of time. AND many relatively ancient train lines, tunnels etc., are long forgotten. As the war pressed on and the losses mounted - the squadrons (getting pulverised) were regrouped from an initial (making this up) 25 planes, and when they and the others were reduced to 10 planes per squadron, they were joined up with other squadrons to get the numbers up, so the squadrons were fairly fluid and were moved around a real lot.

IF anyone can come up with any thing, about this particular mission, any help would be appreciated.

(the full write up)


If anyone can help out with this....

I kind of know that is probably pushing shit up the steepest of hills... 

This is a bit of an abstract historical thing. One of the men I was apprenticed too, when I was a lad, was a man by the name of Joseph Lunthorp or Landthorpe or Landthorp (something like that) and he was an ex ME 109 messerschmitt pilot during WW2. He had the matching black squadron insignia and ID number/s tattooed inside his upper left arm - because pilots were often badly burned and that was the generally one of the few area's that identifying marks would remain.

His squadron was the 7/JG 26 - Messerschmitt ME109

And one of his missions was to fly with about 6 (?) other planes through a train tunnel - with about 2 feet or 600mm clearance on each wing tip, and once at the other end of the tunnel, they had to drop their bombs onto a power station within a steep walled valley, while doing a steep bank and partial loop - before heading back into the tunnel.

He said they had to train by flying their planes with only a few feet (prop clearance) above the ground - down straight roads lined with poplar trees.

Now I understand WW2 was an exciting time with lots and lots and lots going on - but this is such a rare and distinct mission, that it's always intrigued me - kind of like an itch you can't quite reach. The ME-109 he flew was in this image, second down with the red heart insignia. s3.amazonaws.com/fineartofdecalsimages/CED48189.jpg

I have tried the German war archives - but they are unhelpful, AND they refuse to deal with people only in English. AND the issue is that there was an awful lot of bombing raids on all sorts of things, throughout all sorts of countries over such huge areas and in so many languages and nationalities.


The main criteria for searching is Messerschmitt ME109 (aircraft) and 2 or 3 Km of train tunnel (assumed). Mountains. And hydroelectric (assumed) power station.

This link I assme, does not contain the mission, but it's in that particular strategic initiative. The mission as far as I can recall,could have been nearly anywhere in Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....Operation_Eisenhamme

This is also an extremely good read. On pages 16 and 17 - *The map is adapted from a German original enclosed with a list of Soviet electric power plants (thermal and hydro) issues in April 1943 by the War Economy Staff of the Wehrmacht High Command (Wehrwirtschaftssab im OKW [Their spelling mistake should be PKW]: Liste der Industriebetriebe der UdSSR. Teil II: Elecktriziitaetswerke) And it shows some 40 power generation stations in an area of some 1000Km wide by 2000Km long.

https://www.rand.org/content/d....am/rand/pubs/researc


This is along the right lines but it is HUGE. (and I have asked them already about this specific issue - waiting on a reply)

http://www.digitalhistoryarchi....ve.com/okw--okh-reco

If you can help me with finding this information...

I will not die if I never ever find out about the location of this particular mission, but with Google Earth etc., I would probably be able to see the tunnel and power station, if only I could find out about the mission location.

Can anyone here help me.




https://www.largescaleplanes.c....om/reviews/images/17

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