Luftwaffe defectors
About the traitors do not like to talk. Traitors - a shame for any country. And war, like a litmus test, sticks out the true qualities of people. Touching stories The Great Patriotic War, of course, more remember the Russian pilots who went over to the side of Germany. However, the same defectors were among the German Luftwaffe pilots. Now it is difficult to say who actually voluntarily crossed the border and surrendered, and who did it by force. But for some people, no doubt.
Count Heinrich von Ainsiedel
The most senior among them is Count Heinrich Einsiedel, who was the maternal great-grandson of the "iron chancellor" Otto von Bismarck. In 1939, at the age of 18, he voluntarily entered German Aviation. When the war began, the count was a Me-109 fighter pilot of the elite von Richthofen squadron, where he was known by the nickname Graf. He shot down several British aircraft, together with other pilots thwarted a torpedo attack by British torpedo bombers on German ships. In June 1942, Einsidel was transferred to the Eastern Front as an experienced fighter pilot in the Udet squadron. In just a month of fighting near Stalingrad, he shot down 31 Soviet aircraft, for which he was awarded the German Cross in gold.
Lieutenant Ainzidel was captured by Soviet 30 prisoners on August 1942, his Messerschmitt 109F was shot down near Stalingrad, in the Beketovka area. In captivity, he wrote an open letter home, recalled the words of his grandfather Bismarck, said before his death: "Never go to war with Russia." The pilot was sent to the Krasnogorsk camp, where other German prisoners were. They were opposed to Hitler, and in November 1943, Ainsiedel joined the anti-fascist organization Free Germany. After the war, the count became its vice-chairman and propaganda commissioner, supervised the release of anti-fascist leaflets.
His mother, Countess Irena von Ainzidel, nee von Bismarck-Schonhausen, wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin asking her to release her son from captivity, and in 1947, he received permission to return to East Germany. The following year, when Ainzidel wanted to go to his mother in West Berlin, a scandal erupted. The count was arrested on charges of spying on the USSR. In the absence of evidence, he was acquitted, but relations with the Communists were rapidly deteriorating. Ainzidel remained to live in Germany, worked as a translator and journalist, published a book of memoirs "Diary of a German pilot: fighting on the side of the enemy." At home, he was considered a traitor to the end, and the Soviet Union was indifferent to him.
Franz-Josef Beerenbrock
Franz-Josef Beerenbrock was born in 1920 year. His mother was Russian and taught her son how to speak Russian well. Beerenbrock joined the Luftwaffe in 1938 and first served in the anti-aircraft forces. At the beginning of 1941, he graduated from flight training as a non-commissioned officer, and from June 22 he participated in battles on the Eastern Front. Beerenbroek was a real ace of the Luftwaffe. In just a few months of the war with Russia, he was awarded the Knight's Cross with oak leaves, and in early December he had 50 downed aircraft. In February, 1942, Franz Josef was given the rank of sergeant major, and in August, Lieutenant. By that time, the number of his “victories” exceeded one hundred. At the beginning of November, Beerenbrock was appointed commander of the 10./JG51 squadron.
11 November 1942 of the year near the town of Velizh, Smolensk region, he shot down three fighters, but in the same battle his plane was hit, the radiator would be affected. Beerenbrock had to make an emergency landing behind the front line, where he was captured. In total, he made more 400 sorties and shot down 117 aircraft. His comrades from the squadron realized that the pilot had gone over to the side of the enemy when they noticed that the Soviet pilots were using their tactical techniques. In captivity, Beerenbrock and Walter von Seidlitz (Walter von Seydlitz), the former commander of the 51 Army Corps and General of Artillery, were among the founders of the anti-fascist organization Union of German Officers, created by 12 on September 1943 of the year. Also in captivity, the Luftwaffe advised Soviet pilots on the tactics of conducting a destructive battle. Berenbroek returned to Germany from captivity in mid-December 1949, died in 2004.
Herman Graf
The son of a simple blacksmith, before the war he worked in a factory. In 1939 he graduated from a military flight school, entered the Luftwaffe and was sent to the first group of the 51 th Fighter Squadron, stationed on the western border. In 1941, he participated in the Balkan campaign, then was transferred to Romania, where he scored his first victory. By May 1942, the Count shot down an 100 aircraft, and Goering personally forbade him to participate in the battles, but the pilot did not obey and soon shot down another aircraft. 17 May 1942, the Earl was awarded the Order of the Knight's Cross with oak leaves.
He distinguished himself in battles at Stalingrad. September 26 The 1942 of the year, the Count among the first Luftwaffe aces, shot down his two hundredth plane. Since February 1943, he was appointed commander of the training group "East" in France. In March, 1943 was assigned the task of forming a special unit to fight the Moskito reconnaissance aircraft, called the Fighter Group South. From October 1944 to the end of the war, he commanded the 52 th Fighter Squadron, the most famous Luftwaffe unit.
8 May 1945, the Earl was captured by the US military and handed over to the Soviet command. In total during the war he made about 830 combat missions and shot down an 202 aircraft on the Soviet-German front. The count spent five years in Soviet captivity, collaborating with the Bolsheviks. Upon returning to Germany in 1950, he was expelled from the group of Luftwaffe pilots for his actions in captivity.
Harro Schulze-Boyzen
Harro Schulze-Boyzen was born in 1912 year in a rich family of German nationalists. His father during the First World War was the chief of staff of the German naval command in Belgium, and his mother came from a famous family of lawyers. From his earliest youth, Schulze-Boysen participated in opposition organizations, in the summer of 1932 he joined the circle of national revolutionaries in Berlin who opposed all political power. During the war he was a member of the anti-fascist organization "Red Chapel".
In 1936, he married Libertas Haas-Neye, and Marshal Goering himself spoke at the wedding. At the same time, Boysen began working at the Goering Research Institute, where he met many communists and began to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, passing on information about the course of the war in Spain.
Even before the war, Schulze-Boyzen was recruited by the NKVD and worked under the pseudonym "Sergeant". From January 1941, he served at the Luftwaffe Operations Headquarters with the rank of chief lieutenant, at the headquarters of Reichsmarshal Marsh Goering, where the most secret units were located. Then Schulze-Boyzen was transferred to a group of military air attaches, and in fact he became an intelligence officer. At a new location, a Soviet spy was photographing secret documents from the Luftwaffe attache at the German embassies abroad.
Schulze-Boysen had an excellent ability to make the necessary connections, and because of this he had access to a wide variety of secret information, including the development of new aircraft, bombs, torpedoes, as well as the losses of German aircraft. He managed to obtain information on the placement of chemical arsenals. weapons on the territory of the Reich. Schulze-Boysen was in a relationship of trust even with one of Goering's favorites, Erich Gerts, who was in charge of the 3 group in the training and instruction sector. The Soviet agent’s informants were the construction inspector, the head of the construction sector, and the lieutenant of the Abwehr department who was involved in sabotage.
Schulze-Boysen conveyed information about many reconnaissance flights of German ghost planes, but the Soviet leadership did not attach much importance to them.
The Germans uncovered a traitor, and 31 August 1942, Harro Schulze-Boysen was arrested. A few days later, the Gestapo also took his wife. A military court sentenced him to death, and December 22 Boyzen and his wife were executed by hanging in a Berlin prison.
Ebergard Carisius
Carisius was the first Luftwaffe to fall into Soviet captivity. During his first combat departure towards the USSR 22 on June 1941, five hours after the start of the war, the engine refused his plane and Carisius had to make an emergency landing in the region of Tarnopol. The navigator shot from fear, and the rest of the crew, led by Ebergard, surrendered. Carisius declared his "disagreement with the Hitler war against the Soviet Union." The rest of his crew died in captivity.
Later, the German pilot himself offered his services and arrived at the front in the winter of the 1943 of the year. With his knowledge of the German army from the inside, he helped the 7 section of the PU of the 3 of the Ukrainian Front to establish meaningful propaganda. With the active participation of Carisius, the 32 German prisoners wrote an anti-fascist appeal to the German population. He joined the participants of the organization "Free Germany", one of the main tasks of which was to conduct antifascist explanatory work among German soldiers at the front. Propaganda was carried out with the help of leaflets, newspapers, plates with records of speeches of leaders of the organization. The participants also had the right to talk with the captured German soldiers and involve them in cooperation.
After the war, Carisius graduated from the military academy in Moscow and then commanded tank formations of the German national army. He retired with the rank of lieutenant general and was awarded the Order of Karl Marx. He served in the Thuringian border police, rose to the rank of colonel and chief of police. He taught Russian in Dresden, where he died in 1980.
Willy frenger
Willy Frenger was considered the best pilot on the Northern Front, a real ace. By the time of the capture, he made 900 sorties, shot down 36 aircraft. He was awarded the German Cross in gold. Oberfeldwebel Willy Frenger, ace of the Luftwaffe from the 6 squadron of the 5 th fighter squadron was shot down by fighter pilot Boris Safonov in the Murmansk region of 17 in May 1942 of the year. He managed to jump on a parachute, and was captured. During the interrogation, Frenger willingly answered all questions, but at the same time he held himself confidently, and claimed that it was not the Soviet fighters who had shot him down, but his own. Gave valuable information about the deployment of German airfields.
In 1943, Frenger, as a saboteur, was thrown into the German rear to hijack the new Messerschmitt Bf109G, but as soon as Willy was on German territory, he immediately surrendered to his own. After checking and confrontation with the former commander, Frenger was reinstated and returned to service, transferring to the Western Front. The personality is rather dark and little is known about it.
Edmund "Paul" Rossman
Since childhood, who loved aviation, Rossman graduated from the flight school in 1940 and was enrolled in the 7 squadron of the 52 fighter squadron. Participated in the French campaign and in the battle for England, shot down 6 aircraft. In June, Rossman’s 1941 was transferred to the Soviet-German front, and by the end of this year he had 32 victories. He was wounded in his right hand, and could no longer conduct agile battles, as before. From 1942, Rossman began flying with a wingman, Erich Hartmann. Hartmann is considered the most productive ace of the Luftwaffe. By the end of the war, 352 won on his account, and nobody managed to beat this record.
9 July 1943, the Messerschmitt Rossman and Hartmann were shot down in the Belgorod area. By this time, Edmund Rossman had 93 victories on his account and was awarded the "Knight's Iron Cross." During the interrogation he willingly answered all questions, spoke about new models of German aircraft. According to Rossman, one of his pilots flew over the front line, and he made an emergency landing to pick up a pilot. But then the Soviet anti-aircraft gunners arrived and captured Rossman. However, according to another version, the flight across the border was made intentionally. Rossman actively collaborated with the Soviet authorities, was released from captivity in 1949. He died in Germany in 2005 year.
Egbert von Frankenberg und Proshlitz
Born in 1909 in Strasbourg, in a military family. He graduated from the flight school and in 1932, he became a member of the SS. He volunteered in the Spanish Civil War as commander of the Luftwaffe. In the year 1941, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Frankenberg was sent to the Eastern Front as a major, commodore.
In the spring of 1943, Frankenberg was taken prisoner and immediately agreed to cooperate with the Soviets. After some time, the Germans heard his speech on the radio, in which he called on German troops not to fight on the side of the “criminal regime”, but to unite with the Russians and together build a new, socialist life. Soon Frankenberg became one of the founders of the National Committee "Free Germany", as well as the "Association of German officers." Later both organizations played an important role in the development of the government of post-war East Germany.
Frankenberg returned to Germany in 1948, and until 1990, he was active in politics within the Democratic Party of Germany.
Luftwaffe - a huge organization that includes not only fighter pilots, but also mechanics, technicians, engineers, radio operators, communications operators, and so on. In addition, anti-aircraft and airborne troops also belonged to the Luftwaffe. As part of this military organization, there were tens, hundreds of thousands of people. Here are only the most famous facts of the betrayal of the Germans, and how many were actually difficult to answer now. The personal files of many German officers are kept in the archives of the Ministry of Defense and can certainly provide many more interesting materials about the Great Patriotic War.
Count Heinrich von Ainsiedel
The most senior among them is Count Heinrich Einsiedel, who was the maternal great-grandson of the "iron chancellor" Otto von Bismarck. In 1939, at the age of 18, he voluntarily entered German Aviation. When the war began, the count was a Me-109 fighter pilot of the elite von Richthofen squadron, where he was known by the nickname Graf. He shot down several British aircraft, together with other pilots thwarted a torpedo attack by British torpedo bombers on German ships. In June 1942, Einsidel was transferred to the Eastern Front as an experienced fighter pilot in the Udet squadron. In just a month of fighting near Stalingrad, he shot down 31 Soviet aircraft, for which he was awarded the German Cross in gold.
Lieutenant Ainzidel was captured by Soviet 30 prisoners on August 1942, his Messerschmitt 109F was shot down near Stalingrad, in the Beketovka area. In captivity, he wrote an open letter home, recalled the words of his grandfather Bismarck, said before his death: "Never go to war with Russia." The pilot was sent to the Krasnogorsk camp, where other German prisoners were. They were opposed to Hitler, and in November 1943, Ainsiedel joined the anti-fascist organization Free Germany. After the war, the count became its vice-chairman and propaganda commissioner, supervised the release of anti-fascist leaflets.
His mother, Countess Irena von Ainzidel, nee von Bismarck-Schonhausen, wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin asking her to release her son from captivity, and in 1947, he received permission to return to East Germany. The following year, when Ainzidel wanted to go to his mother in West Berlin, a scandal erupted. The count was arrested on charges of spying on the USSR. In the absence of evidence, he was acquitted, but relations with the Communists were rapidly deteriorating. Ainzidel remained to live in Germany, worked as a translator and journalist, published a book of memoirs "Diary of a German pilot: fighting on the side of the enemy." At home, he was considered a traitor to the end, and the Soviet Union was indifferent to him.
Franz-Josef Beerenbrock
Franz-Josef Beerenbrock was born in 1920 year. His mother was Russian and taught her son how to speak Russian well. Beerenbrock joined the Luftwaffe in 1938 and first served in the anti-aircraft forces. At the beginning of 1941, he graduated from flight training as a non-commissioned officer, and from June 22 he participated in battles on the Eastern Front. Beerenbroek was a real ace of the Luftwaffe. In just a few months of the war with Russia, he was awarded the Knight's Cross with oak leaves, and in early December he had 50 downed aircraft. In February, 1942, Franz Josef was given the rank of sergeant major, and in August, Lieutenant. By that time, the number of his “victories” exceeded one hundred. At the beginning of November, Beerenbrock was appointed commander of the 10./JG51 squadron.
11 November 1942 of the year near the town of Velizh, Smolensk region, he shot down three fighters, but in the same battle his plane was hit, the radiator would be affected. Beerenbrock had to make an emergency landing behind the front line, where he was captured. In total, he made more 400 sorties and shot down 117 aircraft. His comrades from the squadron realized that the pilot had gone over to the side of the enemy when they noticed that the Soviet pilots were using their tactical techniques. In captivity, Beerenbrock and Walter von Seidlitz (Walter von Seydlitz), the former commander of the 51 Army Corps and General of Artillery, were among the founders of the anti-fascist organization Union of German Officers, created by 12 on September 1943 of the year. Also in captivity, the Luftwaffe advised Soviet pilots on the tactics of conducting a destructive battle. Berenbroek returned to Germany from captivity in mid-December 1949, died in 2004.
Herman Graf
The son of a simple blacksmith, before the war he worked in a factory. In 1939 he graduated from a military flight school, entered the Luftwaffe and was sent to the first group of the 51 th Fighter Squadron, stationed on the western border. In 1941, he participated in the Balkan campaign, then was transferred to Romania, where he scored his first victory. By May 1942, the Count shot down an 100 aircraft, and Goering personally forbade him to participate in the battles, but the pilot did not obey and soon shot down another aircraft. 17 May 1942, the Earl was awarded the Order of the Knight's Cross with oak leaves.
He distinguished himself in battles at Stalingrad. September 26 The 1942 of the year, the Count among the first Luftwaffe aces, shot down his two hundredth plane. Since February 1943, he was appointed commander of the training group "East" in France. In March, 1943 was assigned the task of forming a special unit to fight the Moskito reconnaissance aircraft, called the Fighter Group South. From October 1944 to the end of the war, he commanded the 52 th Fighter Squadron, the most famous Luftwaffe unit.
8 May 1945, the Earl was captured by the US military and handed over to the Soviet command. In total during the war he made about 830 combat missions and shot down an 202 aircraft on the Soviet-German front. The count spent five years in Soviet captivity, collaborating with the Bolsheviks. Upon returning to Germany in 1950, he was expelled from the group of Luftwaffe pilots for his actions in captivity.
Harro Schulze-Boyzen
Harro Schulze-Boyzen was born in 1912 year in a rich family of German nationalists. His father during the First World War was the chief of staff of the German naval command in Belgium, and his mother came from a famous family of lawyers. From his earliest youth, Schulze-Boysen participated in opposition organizations, in the summer of 1932 he joined the circle of national revolutionaries in Berlin who opposed all political power. During the war he was a member of the anti-fascist organization "Red Chapel".
In 1936, he married Libertas Haas-Neye, and Marshal Goering himself spoke at the wedding. At the same time, Boysen began working at the Goering Research Institute, where he met many communists and began to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, passing on information about the course of the war in Spain.
Even before the war, Schulze-Boyzen was recruited by the NKVD and worked under the pseudonym "Sergeant". From January 1941, he served at the Luftwaffe Operations Headquarters with the rank of chief lieutenant, at the headquarters of Reichsmarshal Marsh Goering, where the most secret units were located. Then Schulze-Boyzen was transferred to a group of military air attaches, and in fact he became an intelligence officer. At a new location, a Soviet spy was photographing secret documents from the Luftwaffe attache at the German embassies abroad.
Schulze-Boysen had an excellent ability to make the necessary connections, and because of this he had access to a wide variety of secret information, including the development of new aircraft, bombs, torpedoes, as well as the losses of German aircraft. He managed to obtain information on the placement of chemical arsenals. weapons on the territory of the Reich. Schulze-Boysen was in a relationship of trust even with one of Goering's favorites, Erich Gerts, who was in charge of the 3 group in the training and instruction sector. The Soviet agent’s informants were the construction inspector, the head of the construction sector, and the lieutenant of the Abwehr department who was involved in sabotage.
Schulze-Boysen conveyed information about many reconnaissance flights of German ghost planes, but the Soviet leadership did not attach much importance to them.
The Germans uncovered a traitor, and 31 August 1942, Harro Schulze-Boysen was arrested. A few days later, the Gestapo also took his wife. A military court sentenced him to death, and December 22 Boyzen and his wife were executed by hanging in a Berlin prison.
Ebergard Carisius
Carisius was the first Luftwaffe to fall into Soviet captivity. During his first combat departure towards the USSR 22 on June 1941, five hours after the start of the war, the engine refused his plane and Carisius had to make an emergency landing in the region of Tarnopol. The navigator shot from fear, and the rest of the crew, led by Ebergard, surrendered. Carisius declared his "disagreement with the Hitler war against the Soviet Union." The rest of his crew died in captivity.
Later, the German pilot himself offered his services and arrived at the front in the winter of the 1943 of the year. With his knowledge of the German army from the inside, he helped the 7 section of the PU of the 3 of the Ukrainian Front to establish meaningful propaganda. With the active participation of Carisius, the 32 German prisoners wrote an anti-fascist appeal to the German population. He joined the participants of the organization "Free Germany", one of the main tasks of which was to conduct antifascist explanatory work among German soldiers at the front. Propaganda was carried out with the help of leaflets, newspapers, plates with records of speeches of leaders of the organization. The participants also had the right to talk with the captured German soldiers and involve them in cooperation.
After the war, Carisius graduated from the military academy in Moscow and then commanded tank formations of the German national army. He retired with the rank of lieutenant general and was awarded the Order of Karl Marx. He served in the Thuringian border police, rose to the rank of colonel and chief of police. He taught Russian in Dresden, where he died in 1980.
Willy frenger
Willy Frenger was considered the best pilot on the Northern Front, a real ace. By the time of the capture, he made 900 sorties, shot down 36 aircraft. He was awarded the German Cross in gold. Oberfeldwebel Willy Frenger, ace of the Luftwaffe from the 6 squadron of the 5 th fighter squadron was shot down by fighter pilot Boris Safonov in the Murmansk region of 17 in May 1942 of the year. He managed to jump on a parachute, and was captured. During the interrogation, Frenger willingly answered all questions, but at the same time he held himself confidently, and claimed that it was not the Soviet fighters who had shot him down, but his own. Gave valuable information about the deployment of German airfields.
In 1943, Frenger, as a saboteur, was thrown into the German rear to hijack the new Messerschmitt Bf109G, but as soon as Willy was on German territory, he immediately surrendered to his own. After checking and confrontation with the former commander, Frenger was reinstated and returned to service, transferring to the Western Front. The personality is rather dark and little is known about it.
Edmund "Paul" Rossman
Since childhood, who loved aviation, Rossman graduated from the flight school in 1940 and was enrolled in the 7 squadron of the 52 fighter squadron. Participated in the French campaign and in the battle for England, shot down 6 aircraft. In June, Rossman’s 1941 was transferred to the Soviet-German front, and by the end of this year he had 32 victories. He was wounded in his right hand, and could no longer conduct agile battles, as before. From 1942, Rossman began flying with a wingman, Erich Hartmann. Hartmann is considered the most productive ace of the Luftwaffe. By the end of the war, 352 won on his account, and nobody managed to beat this record.
9 July 1943, the Messerschmitt Rossman and Hartmann were shot down in the Belgorod area. By this time, Edmund Rossman had 93 victories on his account and was awarded the "Knight's Iron Cross." During the interrogation he willingly answered all questions, spoke about new models of German aircraft. According to Rossman, one of his pilots flew over the front line, and he made an emergency landing to pick up a pilot. But then the Soviet anti-aircraft gunners arrived and captured Rossman. However, according to another version, the flight across the border was made intentionally. Rossman actively collaborated with the Soviet authorities, was released from captivity in 1949. He died in Germany in 2005 year.
Egbert von Frankenberg und Proshlitz
Born in 1909 in Strasbourg, in a military family. He graduated from the flight school and in 1932, he became a member of the SS. He volunteered in the Spanish Civil War as commander of the Luftwaffe. In the year 1941, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Frankenberg was sent to the Eastern Front as a major, commodore.
In the spring of 1943, Frankenberg was taken prisoner and immediately agreed to cooperate with the Soviets. After some time, the Germans heard his speech on the radio, in which he called on German troops not to fight on the side of the “criminal regime”, but to unite with the Russians and together build a new, socialist life. Soon Frankenberg became one of the founders of the National Committee "Free Germany", as well as the "Association of German officers." Later both organizations played an important role in the development of the government of post-war East Germany.
Frankenberg returned to Germany in 1948, and until 1990, he was active in politics within the Democratic Party of Germany.
***
Luftwaffe - a huge organization that includes not only fighter pilots, but also mechanics, technicians, engineers, radio operators, communications operators, and so on. In addition, anti-aircraft and airborne troops also belonged to the Luftwaffe. As part of this military organization, there were tens, hundreds of thousands of people. Here are only the most famous facts of the betrayal of the Germans, and how many were actually difficult to answer now. The personal files of many German officers are kept in the archives of the Ministry of Defense and can certainly provide many more interesting materials about the Great Patriotic War.
Information