Jürgen Campsen joined the Luftwaffe in 1937, before that he had been a chemist; at the time of his death, he had been married just over a year. Frau Campsen later remarried and her son, Dr. Steffen Daehn has kindly given more information about his mother’s first husband.

Ofw. Campsen held the German Cross in Gold, Iron Cross 1st Class and Gold War Flights Badge. He had been shot down before, having at that time 450 war flights to his credit. At about 20.00 hrs. on 29 October 1944, his Ju 87, V8+QB, had been hit by medium AA near Stolberg (east of Aachen). With its engine and fuel feed system damaged, Campsen and his radio operator, Uffz. Gustav Merchel, abandoned the aircraft. Merchel tried to regain German lines but was taken prisoner after three days; Campsen evidently made it back to fight again.

In his last letter to his wife, on 20 February 1945, Campsen had written:

"I am looking forward so much to my next leave, maybe in summer, would be nice and then it should be six weeks long … the decision for the outcome of the war cannot be far away. I am still, just as you my love, very confident."

Helmut Steffen was NSG 1’s Intelligence Officer, not Campsen’s normal crewman and it is not known why they were flying together on 24 February; their final radio message was:

“Aircraft on fire, we are bailing out.”

Green and Oxby saw no parachutes whereas they did report their victim catching fire, although unfortunately neither of these points is conclusive in identifying the Ju 87 concerned.

Whilst Campsen and Steffen have no known graves, Dr. Daehn has learned that the US Army had already taken the Hambacher Forst area and that it was their practice to bury any German bodies they found alongside their own dead. He is looking into the possibility that this may have happened but there was then some error such that the two men were not later reburied in a German War Cemetery. There seems no possibilty that any further evidence will be found at Hambacher Forst since the whole area has been given over to open cast mining since 1978.

My thanks to Dr. Steffen Daehn for allowing me to reproduce the information and photographs on this page.