Loss of a German witness

The astonishing story of the Wooden Bombs: Loss of a German witness.

Friday 2nd March 2012, Troisdorf, Germany: Lieutenant-colonel Werner Thiel is no longer. This ex-pilot of the Luftwaffe was born in Dillenburg on 24 August 1923, became lieutenant in the Luftwaffe in 1943. He was detached at the Luftkriegschule Werder (near Potsdam) where he was the witness in an early morning from October 1943 of the dropping of a dozen of dummy wooden bombs on fake wooden airplanes. The bombs were marked with the painted words « Wood for wood »!

This extraordinary testimony from a German officer has been filmed on 28th December 2010 by Pierre-Antoine Courouble, the author of “L’énigme des bombes en bois” and director Philippe Leynaud who was working on a similar subject. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_tGOxoIhIE&feature=related ).
At the end of the filmed interview, Werner Thiel addresses the allied pilot who had that typically peculiar sense of humor.

Jean Dewaerheid and Peter Haas, translators of the Dutch and German version of the book, took up the torch from Pierre-Antoine Courouble. Together they continue the quest. As they noticed that most of the testimonies are American, a basic idea started growing. Couldn’t this typically peculiar sense of British humor not simply be an example of AMERICAN sense of humor? Today they hope to interview a pilot or a member of the American Forces stationed in Europe during WW2 who could have been involved in the dropping of these wooden bombs. The three authors are convinced that the dropping of wooden bombs on wooden airplanes is not an urban legend!

Extract from the filmed interview (Troisdorf, 28th December 2010)

Werner Thiel: I was born on the 24th of August 1923 in Dillenburg, in the center of Germany. I joined the Luftwaffe in 1942. After training courses in France (first in Romorantin, then Angers and later Le Mans) I was posted in October 1943 at the airfield of Werder, near Berlin. In those days I also worked at the false aerodrome of Borkheide that was equipped with a runway. We were living in a kind of container, nearby two air-raid shelters. These were in fact small bunkers where we could find refuge when the Allies bombed Berlin. At the end of October 1943, the air raid warning alarm went off. We put the lights on from the false runway and moved the decoy planes.

PA Courouble: How many decoys airplanes did you use?
Werner Thiel: Maximum ten, I would say. They were made of wood and netting. A few nights before, we noticed reconnaissance missions, so we were prepared for the raid. We heard the planes coming …

PA Courouble: Sorry to interrupt you once again, but how many people were in charge at this dummy airfield?
Werner Thiel: I would say a dozen soldiers. Not more.

Werner Thiel: … Like everybody else, we were afraid of these air raids. We heard the planes flying above us but this time nothing happened. At dawn, we left our shelter with cautious steps. We dreaded time bombs. We didn’t believe what we saw: they bombed us with wooden bombs! Six to ten wooden bombs laid on the ground, all with painted in white « Wood for Wood ».

PA Courouble: What about the body of those bombs? Was it hollow?
Werner Thiel: They were made of solid wood. One of us was carpenter and managed to use this excellent wood material to build new frames for the enlarged aerial pictures that were going to decorate our austere surroundings.

PA Courouble: Did you use all these bombs for that purpose?
Werner Thiel: Yes, all of them. We were not the only guardsmen. Our colleagues were full of admiration and we exchanged some of our pictures for cigarettes or food …

PA Courouble: Do you remember what you thought at that time? Did you have any idea about the use of these wooden bombs?
Werner Thiel: We thought it was meant as a joke. Something like « Look how stupid you are. You built a dummy airfield. We saw it and it’s not worth dropping a real bomb! »

(Werner Thiel takes his glass and looks at the camera)

Werner Thiel: I drink to the health of all pilots in the world and more particularly at the American colleagues. I would be extremely happy to meet one day the American pilot who dropped those wooden bombs. Prosit!

His message put on YouTube will not make his dream come true.
But his wish can still be fulfilled!

We are working on the French-American project to produce a documentary film about the subject. Olivier Hermitant, from « Route07 production »,
(http://vimeo.com/11526361) is offering his services in order to find the rare bird, a veteran of WW2 who was the witness or perhaps actor of the dropping of these wooden bombs on German targets.

Could you help us in our quest finding the rare (American) bird? We would be extremely grateful if you could inform your members about this riddle of the Second World War.

Kind regards,

Jean Dewaerheid
Professor at the Haute Ecole Lucia de Brouckère, author, translator, lecturer.
Address: Leeuwerikenlaan 17, 1830 Machelen, Belgium. 0032.230.567.00
http://www.dewaerheid.be