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It was thought that the American pilots’ attention had been drawn by landing of two training planes “from the Luftwaffe unit”, both having been on the approach during the alert, shortly before the Mustangs appeared. The high number of completed aircraft present was attributable to the need, even after acceptance by BAL, there was still the need to carry out special checks bearing on flight safety: Testing the engine-bearer bolts and checking for breakages in the welds of the aileron push-rods. This process along with any replacement of faulty parts found to be necessary took some time and made it impossible on safety grounds to release the aircraft for ferrying. Checking whether faults had developed in the fuel tanks, news of this problem having been telephoned through from Rechlin by Hptm. Schmitz, project officer for the Ta 152.
Erprobungskommando Ta 152, consisting of 610 personnel (33 of whom were officers), was disbanded on 23 January 1945. When pilots of III./JG 301 arrived at Neuhausen on the 27th to collect their new aircraft, there just only 11 available for them. Had 15 machines not been destroyed or damaged by the USAAF at Neuhausen, the Gruppe might have come much nearer to completing its planned conversion to the Ta 152. Meanwhile there were eight Ta 152s of JG 301 on hand at Rechlin which had been earmarked for incorporation into a Gefechtsverband Kommando der Erprobungsstellen (Battle Unit of the Experimental Stations Command). On 31 January, Lfl. 6’s Quartermaster noted that 1. Jagddiv. was asking for 180 cbm of fuel for III./JG 301’s conversion to the Ta 152 in Altenow since neither Lfl. Reich nor the Gen. der Jagdflieger was willing to provide that amount. For its part, Lfl. 6 was not in any position to make available fuel for any activity not directly serving operations at the front. Soon after, the Cottbus area was endangered by the Red Army’s advance and in the period 2–5 February four Ta 152s were evacuated to Erfurt from the Focke-Wulf factory, apparently by rail.
Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg-im-Breisgau R 3102/6110: Luftangriffe auf das Reichsgebiet (Dez. 1944–Jan. 1945) RL 2-III/409: Materialbewirtschaftung / Personalbewirtschaftung im Zuge des Abbaues der Fliegertruppe (Jan.–Apr. 1945) RL 3/2571: Generalluftzeugmeister / Chef TLR, Anlagen zum Kriegstagebuch, Band 4 (1944–45) RL 3/2572: Chef TLR Anlagen zum Kriegstagebuch, Band 5 (1944–1945) RL 3/2575: Chef TLR Anlagen zum Kriegstagebuch Band 8 (1944–1945) RL 3/8422: Chef TLR, Anlagen zum Kriegstagebuch, Band 9 (1944–1945), Enthält fol. 1: Skizze: Tiefangriff auf den Einflughafen Neuhausen, 16. Jan. 1945 (Meldung Bauaufsicht Cottbus vom 18. Jan. 1945) RL 7-6/8: Luftflotte 6, Anlagen zum KTB, Bd. 2 (Jan.–März 1945) RL 7-6/13: Luftflotte 6, Anlagen zum Kriegstagebuch, Bd. 6 (Februar 1945) UK National Archives, Kew, London AIR 40/796: Operation 796: synthetic oil plants, Magdeburg/Rothensee, and Ruhland; airfield, Alt-Lönnewitz and jet engine plants, Dessau and Muldenstein (16 Jan. 1945) AIR 40/1345c: Air Prisoners of War Interrogation Reports : 2nd TAF, BAFO (Jun–Oct 45) Online 4th Fighter Group Association: http://www.4thfightergroupassociation.org Bauaufsichtsleitung: https://www.cdvandt.org/L-Dv-061-1-Dienstanweisung-Bauaufsicht-Luft-BAL.pdf Cottbus-Neuhausen: https://flughafen-cottbus.de/der-flugplatz/geschichte/ Published Roger A. Freeman: Mighty Eighth War Diary (Jane’s, 1981) ISBN 0 7106 0038 0 Axel Urbanke: Der Einsatz des Geschwaderstabs und der III. Gruppe JG 301 mit Ta 152 – Dichtung und Wahrheit (Luftwaffe im Focus Edition No. 29, 2019) ISBN 978-3-941437-43-2
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PART TWO AND FINAL |
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