Interesting story on Swiss interned WWII bombers

[B-29 Super Fort]

I'm sure our fellow poster Swiss Mustangs probably knows more about this but I found this story interesting.

How U.S. bombers got out of Switzerland in WWII
 
An Untold Chapter of WWII History
 
A little known chapter of WWII is how the 160 American bombers that landed or crashed in Switzerland were repaired and returned to the U.K.
I was a witness to this story and to the heroism and ingenuity of a small group of men led by Lt. Col. Ralph DePaola assigned to get the planes in flying condition for return. I met Col DePaola in Zurich in December 1944 shortly before he went to Dubendorf to begin the task of repairing 80 percent of these bombers to make them operational for return to Burtonwood, England. I was in his office in a bank building on the Bahnhofstrasse in mid December 1944 and conferred with him about this enormous task. 
Our bomber, a B24 Liberator that we had landed at Dubendorf in April of 1944, was among them. I was a radio operator and gunner in the crew of Lt. Rockford C. Griffith and our Liberator was on a bombing mission to a key German airbase at Lechfeld in Augsburg, Germany when hit by flak and fighters we were forced to seek safe haven in Switzerland.  The date was 13 April 1944. We had a very close call.
I met at Dubendorf with the Swiss military and was taken as an internee and shipped to Adelboden and later to Wengen until I escaped to France in late December 1944. At Dubendorf we were interrogated by Swiss military intelligence for what we knew of the bombing of Schaffhausen on 1 April 1944. of course we told them little and we knew little of this bombing.
The entire episode of how these planes were returned is related in Roy Thomas book Heaven, Haven or Hell published in 1994. 
The Swiss government was paid millions of Swiss francs for the repairs and for the storage of these aircraft based on a complicated formula of the number of hours spent repairing each of the bombers. The Swiss government was also paid for each American internee so much per day for each day of their internment.  These figures were negotiated between the Swiss government and the U.S. in the final weeks of the war and the final payments were made in 1946-47. The total charges came to slightly less than 2 million Swiss francs. In addition the Swiss were paid reparations for bombing of their territory by U.S. bombers during the war. 
The entire incident took many months and hundreds of work hours to complete. A few of the bombers had to be scrapped and a very few found their way into the Swiss Air Force for use in the post war years. However, it is a testimonial to the workmanship of the Americans that 9 our of 10 of the bombers did return to Burtonwood.  A few were scrapped.
I returned to Dubendorf in 1987 to see the displays of the American bombers, B17s and B24s that crashed or landed there in 1943-45.  The Swiss Air Force Museum there has a rather complete display and historical archive of this episode of WWII.  The Swiss Internee Association has memorials in Adelboden, Munsingen and Davos to the appoximately 1,500 American airmen who were interned in Switzerland in WWII. 

http://members.aol.com/b24vet/replib.htm

[Swiss Mustangs]

Sure do !

I have hundreds of photos and stories in my files.

The Swiss AF applied Swiss markings to a number of B-17's and B-24's in order to ferry-fly them to Dübendorf after landings at other airfields in Switzerland; Dübendorf near Zürich was the place where all interned bombers were stored - Very few saw further use for testing and to develop interception procedures for the Swiss fighter pilots - this all happened during wartime;

None of the bombers were retained here for postwar use - those a/c that could not be made flyable for returnment to the USAAF were scrapped - and ironically, those that made it to BAD-1 Burtonwood were scrapped there shortly after arrival.

Sadly, one C-87 (converted B-24 for cargo use) bringing in tools and maintenance personnel crashed after a misjudged landing attempt. All aboard were killed.


Martin

[Tulio]

Squadron Signal publications has printed a book on this very same subject; I do not recall the exact title, but it is something like "In Enemy Skies" subtitled: Defecting and interded allied aircraft in WWII. Plenty of photos and data.

Saludos,


Tulio

[gregv]

I belive this is the Squadron-Signal book you are referring to:


Stapfer, Hans-Heiri
Strangers in a Strange Land, volume 2: Escape to Neutrality

makes for very interesting reading; in fact, it is hard not to read it cover-to-cover in one sitting.

cheers

greg v

[DoraNineFan]

Squadron Signal publications has printed a book on this very same subject; I do not recall the exact title, but it is something like "In Enemy Skies" subtitled: Defecting and interded allied aircraft in WWII. Plenty of photos and data.

Saludos,


Tulio

Do you mean these?



"Strangers In A Strange Land", by Hans-Heiri Stapfer ISBN 0-89747-198-9

This book covers testing and other use of captured aircraft by wartime Germany.



"Strangers In A Strange Land: Volume II Escape to Neutrality", by Hans-Heiri Stapfer ISBN 89747-278-0

This books covers the aircraft which found their way into Switzerland during the war.


Both books have many photos and color profiles.

[Swiss Mustangs]

Greg & all

Hans-Heiri and I grew up in the same town

we did and still do share our interest for interned aircraft in Switzerland during WW 2.

you will find some of my photos in "Strangers in a Strange Land II"

Martin

[Tulio]

Guys:

That's it!

That's the book. If I recall correctly, it has a painting of a B-17 being either attacked or escorted by what -IIRC- are Dewoitine fighters.

Thank you for the information.

Saludos,


Tulio

[Swiss Mustangs]

Tulio

that's a D-3801 - an improved licence-built version of the Morane-Saulnier MS-406 fighter (French provenance). Also on the title is a P-51B in Swiss Markings - the sole example that arrived intact and was extensively tested here.

Martin



I have spare-copies if someone is interested

[Tulio]

Hi, Martin!

Yup, that's the book! I haven't seen it in a very long time, although I own at least two copies of it.

Interesting reading, though.

Saludos,


Tulio

[Dennis Bergstrom]

Grampi's, a restaurant in Zermatt, has a painting of a P-51 flying over the Alps.

Dennis

[Richard W.]

For an account of one German's experience with Swiss internment, see Wilhelm Johnen's Duel Under the Stars.

He became disoriented by searchlights during a flight in April, 1944, and landed his Bf-110 night fighter at Zurich-Dubendorf. (Starts on p. 106 of my New English Library paperback edition.)

The plane had the latest German radar apparatus on it, and Himmler suspected that he had intentionally defected with it. The families of both Johnen and his crewman were arrested by the Gestapo and an agent was dispatched to Switzerland to blow up the plane and kill the airmen.

Goering himself intervened to free the families and call off the assasination. The plane was destroyed under "mysterious circumstances" and, with the aid of the German Consul, both Johnen and his partner were repatriated to fly and fight for the rest of war.

[Swiss Mustangs]

Rich

the clandestine operation by German special forces to destroy the plane and kill the aircrew failed - the trespassers were caught long before they were anywhere near their designated targets.

Following that, a political solution was created and the Swiss agreed to destroy the 'secret' aircraft (it had the latest "Liechtenstein" radar installed) and its entire equipment by explosives and in turn could acquire 12 brand-new Bf-109G-6 fighters directly from Messerschmitt Augsburg production.

Johnen and his crew were soon sent home after this big bang in a remote spot at Dübendorf airfield and the Swiss AF shortly thereafter received the fighters as welcome addition to their Bf-109E fleet.
Being from wartime production, these new Bf-109G aircraft were plagued with many defects, especially on the engines, that showed after only few operating hours and many modifications were necessary in Switzerland to keep the aircraft airworthy. Retirement took place in 1947 due to lack of spares and general deterioriation of the airframes.

There's lots of more such interesting stories to tell.

Martin

[Richard W.]

Hi Martin-
Thanks for clarifying the story.

I see that Johnen wrote his book in 1957 and wasn't privy to all the details of his adventure. I suppose Goering would have been happy to falsely claim credit for saving the lives of him and his family.

It's certainly a chilling reminder of what lousy thugs the Nazis were. Johnen seems to have been a very brave man is the service of a terrible cause.

[Bex]

Hi Martin,
My grandfather, Thomas Elwyn Smith, was the co-pilot of the C-87 that crashed on landing at Dübendorf on 18th August 1945. On landing the right landing gear was only partly down. The pilot tried to abort the landing but the propellar tip of engine 4 hit the runway causing the engine to catch fire. They were unable to gain altitude and crashed into the forest north west of the runway. As you say, they were flying from Burtonwood with parts to rapair aircraft. There were 6 on board, 4 died and 2 survived. Tommy and the pilot Robert Neisser were killed on impact.

Tommy was part of the ferry squadron throughout the war. He was flight commander of all the fighter pilots. When he died he had 829 hours pilot time. It must have been an amazing time for him flying all of those warbirds. His brother created a book of all of his letters home and they make for very interesting reading. Unofrtunately he died only 3 weeks after having married my grandmother.

I have seen some footage on youtube emergency landing at Dübendorf during WWII (2mins 44secs in). The final crash in the sequence closely matches the accident report and eye witness reports and i am trying to date it to see whether it is indeed the crash. If anyone has any information on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Bex

[Pat Carry]

Bex, an interesting post. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the WIX!