Warbird Information Exchange

there was some debate on the old board many moons ago about somebody finding one of the two or three Me262s fitted with a bomb aimers position in the nose submerged complete in a lake somewhere - unless this was a misident of an Arado Ar234. - arguably even rarer now.

Anybody heard anything about this recently?

sk

_________________
Simon King

Simon

Supposedly that 262 [ fate is unknown although it was belly landed and being inspected by U.S. troops ], Ar234 and Me163 . The guy from DivetheWorld site said he found them in a lake near Rechlin airfield and had video. Some of us made inquiries and one phoned him, he promised to get 'still' photos when he had time...we are still waiting after about three years ;-0

Dave

Thanks Dave - if anybody responded it was bound to be you!

Curious though - with only two A-2a/U2 built, 110484 and 110555, why "announce the discovery" of such a rare beast when essentially the discovery of any 262 would have had equal effect - if that was what was wanted.

Do we know if it was purportedly V-484 or V-11/V-555?

Is it worth pursuing again??

sk

_________________
Simon King

Hi Dave

I followed up on this too and even stopped off on my travels - it was just bull - I think he was lonely and wanted a little attention - still it was a nice place to visit and there were some nice planes nearby to look at so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Regards
john P

_________________
Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

Without trawling through my old emails, I can't recall for certain, but I think it was V555. There is certainly the possibility of aircraft in the Rechlin lakes, but I believe there are plenty of munitions lying around as well ;-0.
Steve at DTW was contacted by myself regarding the steps required to recover any aircraft [ in consultation with the Luftwaffe Museum ] and by a prominent US collector, who was prepared to bear the cost of the recoveries if he could secure one of the three said aircraft. As I mentioned it never went further than phone calls. I am a bit bewildered by the guy who made the claims, as he is an ex RN Diver and has done some great work for Museums, diving on Galleons etc. I can't understand why he would belittle his reputation by making 'false discoveries' . It seems to have spread to his website with obviously fake sonar scans of the Sunderland / P-47...why leave yourself open for ridicule like that ??
Make no mistake there are still some great intact aircraft in the German lakes, but a lack of will by the German Govt. and also 'drinking water' concerns prevent them from being raised.

Dave