As a new participant in the forum, I have read much good information and some myths. Neither the British nor German government admit to the fact that the Luftwaffe was NOT completely disbanded but kept in readiness for re-establishment fully in the early ’50’s. Nor was the German Navy.. and units of the Army were kept full equipped under various guises. And when you push beyond a certain point in historical research, doors close rather abruptly.So we must rely on aging RAF and Luftwaffe personnel, hoping their memories are still good. An interesting fact confirming what happened is that German military pensions include WWII uninterrupted!!

The part marked in red is the only true fact… as described in “Churchill`s German Army” in the 1977 book:

http://books.google.de/books?id=6PpNUK5u1lkC&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=Arthur+Smith++%22Churchill%27s+German+army%22&source=bl&ots=g-C7FNQ2Nr&sig=vI98wcfSAP1Is5ySwMgeKdaPGaQ&hl=de&sa=X&ei=UFtHUbKMHaWH4ATL3oDoBA&ved=0CC4Q6AEwADgo#v=onepage&q=Arthur%20Smith%20%20%22Churchill%27s%20German%20army%22&f=false

…during the summer of 1945. That`s all. :rolleyes:

Kesha

Thanks for the translation! 🙂

Again, this strikes me as unusual; a single unit that carried-out all these mission types.

I assume the reason for this multi-purpose units was simple math… :rolleyes:

The longer the war lasted, the less experienced pilots were left.

Mostly ground-attack missions then?

According to the website i`ve linked above, his unit was a kinda “jack of all trades device”:

“Aufklärung, Tagjagd, Fernnachtjagd und ab Beginn der Invasion auch für Tag- und Nachtschlachteinsätze”

=

Recco, Day Fighter, Long Distance night fighter, and starting with D-Day, also Day&Night Ground attacks…

Interesting… seems to be true:

http://www.ritterkreuztraeger-1939-45.de/Luftwaffe/E/Eb/Eberspaecher-Helmut.htm

“Damit flog Eberspächer bis Kriegsende härteste Einsätze an der Westfront, so besonders während der Ardennenoffensive und gegen de Brückenkopf bei Remagen. Für seine Erfolge und Leistungen in dieser Position wurde er, als Hauptmann und Kapitän der 3. Staffel des Nachtschlachtgeschwaders 20, am 24.01.1945 mit dem Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes ausgezeichnet.
Weiterhin ist zu erwähnen, dass er während des Krieges etwa 170 Feindflüge flog und sieben Luftsiege im Westen erzielte, davon drei in der Nacht.”

In short:

He flew all of his missions at the Western Front, in particular during the Bulge and against the Remagen bridgehead and got his Ritterkreuz on 24.01.45 for all of this missions.
Flew 170 sorties during the war and shot down 7 enemy aircraft, 3 of them on a night mission.

Never heard of him before, besides the fact that his company later produced “Ebersbächer park heatings” for cars, which are well known over here…

Wonder if they will send the bill to the UK government?

Don`t worry… the legal bearing of this case is that it was a assignment of property. As the UK never claimed for a reassignation of the cookie, it`s now German property.

I`m serious on this. 😎

You obviously have not heard about the fleet of aircraft carriers that Germany had tucked away, made of an ersatz version of Pykrete, they regrettably thawed out & dissolved into the Irish Sea…..

Hm… seems I´ve missed this one on History Channel. :p

However, I can`t see any reason why they shouldn`t have coded a Ju-88
or HE-111 into their Macs… it`s CGI, after all.

But anyway… ich liebe Merkwürdiges, Herr Doktor. 😎