Captured Allied Planes used by Germany

World War II German Military
#1

This site has one of the most complete listing of captured Allied planes used by the German Air Force at one point they had 40 B-17s

Since so many B-17s were lost over Europe, it comes as no surprise that not a few Fortresses fell into Axis hands, either by being forced to land on German airfields or by the Germans piecing together flyable examples from the bits and pieces of crashed aircraft. By various means, the Germans were able to put about forty Fortresses back into the air, which is a rather sizable force, so much so that the Luftwaffe can be counted as a major B-17 user!

http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/capture.htm

Here is an additional link with more information about the captured planes and how they were used.

http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/2833/luftwaffe/transport/do200/do200.html

and another link,

http://home.att.net/~jbaugher2/b17_22.html

here is another link,

http://www.kg200.org/history1.html

and this will be the last, although all are very interesting,

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/b17fortress.html

#2

Thanks for the links.

By various means, the Germans were able to put about forty Fortresses back into the air, which is a rather sizable force, so much so that the Luftwaffe can be counted as a major B-17 user!

I think that figure is not correct, the number actually oput in flying conditions were much less. Maybe is 14 and not 40

#3

I heard it mentioned in the closing months of the war US fliers were instructed if they needed to crash land, do it on German soil, rather than Russian occupied territory so that may be why a larger number of bombers ended up in German hands. we did not want the Russians to get ahold of our bombing sites

#4

But if strict and stringent orders for obligatory devastation of irreparably damaged airplanes - machines perceptibly incapable to return to their own bases - by means of deliberate crash-landing upon the German territory actually were issued, why to Hell American crews were equipped with this special Identification patches - designed and made available to all combat crews of the 8th Army Airforce for missions near the Russian front?

US Identification Patch carried by aircrews on combat missions that brought them in close proximity to those areas where soviet troops had operated

US Identification Patch, reverse

With all due respect, my dear Mr. A Rod, but your previously mentioned constatation is a little bit inaccurate. You see, late in WWII, RAF and USAAF bombers that had been damaged in raids over the Reich actually were instructed to attempt force-landings in Soviet-controlled territory, rather than attempt to make their way back to their Western bases. In April of 1945 the Soviet Air Force also issued a directive to its units in the field to report the exact location of every single aircraft of their Western Allies that were in Soviet hands, as well as to report and gather together every injured and healthy crew member available for repatriation.

Official Soviet takeover of the US crash-landed B 17, involving the US crew and officers of the NKVD, Nagybánya, Hungary – December, 1944.

Amongst those airplanes recovered by Soviets were in total 162 Allied machines: 73 B-17s, 73 B-24 Liberators, 14 P 51 Mustangs, 1 P 38 Lightning, and 1 Handley-Page Halifax. Amid these planes 68 machines were completely devastated, but still usable to certain extent as spare part resources. Although Russian aircrews and maintenance crews had no experience with such aircraft, 18 airplanes were repared by Soviet technicians and sent back to their previus owners, while 76 machines remained in Soviet possesion. These aircrafts were retained as temporary heavy bombers within the 45th Soviet Heavy Bombers Division, with 30 Liberators in its 203rd, and 23 B 17’s within its 890th Regiment.

Officers of the Soviet Union in front of the repared B 24 – April 1945, Sombor - Yugoslavia

The B-17s remained in service until 1948. The only ever proclaimed admonition of the Soviet officials targeted those well-known striking nose-arts painted on the bombers, and for that reason they ordered compulsory removement of all those “outrageous pictures”.

#5

Maybe they equipped those crews which took part in this experiment of those pendulum bombing raids from England via Germany to Poltawa/Russia and back. The USAAF tried this once but german Luftwaffe saw through it and destroyed about 50 Fortresses on the ground at the airfield of Poltawa.

#6

I’d want to confirm that order somewhere reliable. You have to wonder if the USSR folk got a hold of bombsights from the miscl B24s & B25s that diverted to Vladivostock area after missions over Japan. A B29 may have ended up in Siberia that early as well. One or two did late in the war.

#7

There is a book on KG 200 I think its by Pohl (?) who was a pilot or commander of the squadron. I’ll dig it out.

#8

There have been several books on KG200… most recent (and in my opinion best) is “KG 200: The Luftwaffe’s Most Secret Unit” by Geoffrey J Thomas and published by Hikoki in 2004. More details can be found here

The book which I think ptimms makes mention in the previous post could have been “KG 200, The True Story” by P.W.Stahl. My copy was published by BCA in 1981… and the Hikoki title covers and updates all the data from this book.

Cheers

Peter D Evans
LEMB Administrator
http://www.luftwaffe-experten.org

#9

Peter your right it was Stahl.

#10

My pleasure… :slight_smile:

Incidentally, to answer the original question “KG 200: The Luftwaffe’s Most Secret Unit” lists some 12 B-17’s known to have been used by KG200, with another 8 listed as possibles. The author goes to to add:

“As apparently no more than 20 B-17’s of all models were captured, most of those being F’s, it seems likely that codes were changed or duplicated and sub-types mis-identified. As far as is known, no more than five G models may have actually been flown by KG200. Orders of Battle list a maximum of eight B-17’s on strength at any one time. Crew log-books which identify aircraft as G’s may have done so erroneously. Most just note B-17”

Cheers

Peter D Evans
LEMB Administrator
http://www.luftwaffe-experten.org

#11

Maybe they equipped those crews which took part in this experiment of those pendulum bombing raids from England via Germany to Poltawa/Russia and back.

In that case, my dear Mr. Flamethrowerguy, we have another unexplicable mystery: why numerous aircrews detached to many units that flew frequent missions in the Adriatic region (above Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and Austria) - otherwise completely unconnected with the so called Frantic shuttle-bomber forces – actually were equipped with those patches too.

For example, why Second Liutenant Sykes, who piloted his P-38 L (Nr. 44-24214) “Pride of Billinge and Jane”, which suffered mechanical failure and crashlanded near Kerekegyháza, Hungary, on December 6, 1944. – during an air-protectioning mission intended as the air-shield for the highly important photo-recconaissance assignment undertaken by a pair of US F 5 photo-reconnaissance airplanes over Chekoslowakia – was eqipped with those patches as well?

Or why all crew members of the unfortunate B 17 G-50 DL (Nr. 44-6422) that was part of the 483rd Bomb Group based at Sterparone Airfield, Italy – which crash-landed at the Sombor airfield on April 16, 1945 – were also equipped with those patches?

Repaired B 17 G, YAF – May, 1945

Aforementioned airplane, although significantly damaged – was latter repaired by enthusiastic YAF technicians, and after unsuccesful attempts which were made toward relapse of this machine to their legitimate owners (Americans were completely unresponsive and uninterested!) it was integrated into the YAF (please, note that red colored Star-in-Circle !). However, the YAF was completely indifferentfor toward heavy bombers, therefore this machine was relegated to the Soviet Air Force in August of 1945.

B 17 G, YAF – Sombor Airfield, 1945

And yes – that highly confidential Norden Bombsight was completely unharmed, and in perfectly workable condition. :slight_smile:

#12

I’d think US aircrew would be issued “ID chits” on the basis that the Americans assumed that anyone who ended up among the Russians would be shot as an enemy because they didn’t speak Russian and would therefore in Russian eyes be suspicious persons, regardless of uniform.
During the 1920’s Intervention Force phase of Soviet history, the western nations automatically assumed that Russians shot any non Russian speaker out of hand.
While this is obviously a manifest injustice as a view of Russian values, it certainly coloured later western thinking and policy regarding western crews in Russian hands.

Regards, Uyraell.

#13

b17s in the hands of germany
how interesting