Maj Walter Nowotny Story !!!!

Vienna council shifts Luftwaffe hero from plot of honour to pauper’s grave
By Clare Chapman in Vienna
(Filed: 13/07/2003)

The ashes of a daredevil Luftwaffe pilot who shot down more than 250 Allied
planes in the Second World War are to be exhumed from a grave of honour in
Vienna after the council stripped him of his status as a war hero.
The campaign to remove Major Walter Nowotny’s remains from the city’s Central
Cemetery and move them to a pauper’s plot has been led by the grandson of a
British RAF pilot who was shot down over Belgium in 1940 and died of his
injuries.
David Ellensohn, a Vienna city councillor whose maternal grandfather was RAF
acting pilot officer James Gillespie, successfully argued that Major Nowotny –
the first fighter pilot in history to bring down 250 enemy aircraft – had
been serving the Third Reich and did not deserve his heroic status.
“He was not fighting for this country, for Austria, he was fighting for the
Third Reich,” said Mr Ellensohn, a Green Party councillor. “If they had won the
war, there would be no Austria as such. Therefore, we should not be forced to
give special credit to this man.”
Major Nowotny, who had shot down 258 enemy aircraft by the time of his death,
aged 24, had been awarded the Third Reich’s highest military honour, the
Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, by Hitler himself.
When the major died in 1944 when his fighter crashed in flames, his ashes
were buried with his medals in his home town, Vienna, alongside Austrian
resistance fighters and Beethoven, Schubert, Johann Strauss and Brahms.
Mr Ellensohn asked: “What did he do that earned him a place alongside those
who really earned their places in the cemetery, such as resistance fighters
Rosa Jochmann and Paul Speiser?
“He was placed in that section of the graveyard by the Nazis, not by the city
of Vienna, and although it has taken 59 years for the city to recognise that
he does not deserve to be there, we are pleased that action is finally being
taken.”
The council’s decision has been denounced as “cultural barbarianism” by
Johann Herzog, a councillor for the opposition Freedom Party (FP), which has
launched an appeal.
Opposition councillors argue that relocating the major’s ashes would
contravene the war graves welfare law, from 1948, that says war graves – regardless of
the nationality of their occupant – must remain undisturbed.
Mr Herzog said: “The necessity to dishonour Nowotny’s grave, and therefore
his person, almost 60 years after his death, is evidence of a distorted
understanding of history and moreover a lack of deference for a fallen soldier. And
that’s all he was – a soldier.
“He was not a member of the National Socialist Party and he certainly was not
a war criminal. If he were, I could understand the removal of his status. In
fact, he was respected not just by his own side but by RAF pilots as well.”
Mr Ellensohn, however, insisted that the plan to move the grave away from the
cemetery’s section for heroes was perfectly justified. “As far as I am aware,
there is no rule in Catholicism that says a grave cannot be moved, not like
in Judaism,” he said.
Major Nowotny, who joined up when he was 19 following the invasion of Poland,
was renowned even among Allied pilots and during the summer of 1943 became a
virtual one-man air force in the skies over the Eastern Front. In June 1943 he
shot down 41 aircraft, 10 in one day. He crashed on November 8 1944 and was
buried with his medals a few days later.
It is truly sad when “political correctness” defames the honor of a man who
served his country and gave his all.

Post Script by WEB455: Walter -Nowi- Nowotny flew over 442 missions in
achieving 258 victories. He recorded 255 of his victories over the Eastern front.
Of his three victories recorded over the Western front, 2 were four-engine
bomberss and all 3 victories were gained while flying the Me 262 jet fighter.
Nowotny took off on 8 November 1944, flying against USAAF bombers with a fighter
escort. The exact circumstances of Nowotny’s death remain uncertain. Ground
personnel reported hearing combat above the clouds. Nowotny reported he had
downed a B-24 four-engine bomber and probably destroyed a P-51 fighter. He then
reported an engine failure before making a garbled transmission referring to
burning over the radio. His Me 262 A-1a was seen to dive vertically out of the
clouds and crash at Epe, 2.5 kilometres east of Hesepe. It is generally accepted
that he was shot down by 1st Lt Edward -Buddy- Haydon of the 357th Fighter
Group, USAAF and Capt Ernest -Feeb- Fiebelkorn of the 20th Fighter Group, USAAF
whom shared a Me 262 victory at 12:45 over Achmer that day.

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