Background

In early June 2007, in the City of Enger, suburb of → Pödinghausen in the County of Herford, a German fighter plane from the Second World War was found and recovered during construction work. After exhaustive research and interviews with eyewitnesses from the time, it was etablished that the plane had crashed in November of 1944 during an aerial battle. Most of the wreckage, as well as the ammunition remaining in the wreck was simply left in place and covered with earth so as not to interrupt the agricultural use of the area excessively. With time, the dramatic event and the circumstances surrounding it, as well as the aircraft itself, lapsed into obscurity.

Now over 60 years have passed since the end of the war. I got interested in the topic and asked myself about possible forgotten or unknown crash sites in the local area. That´s when I started my journey into the past.

The interviews with period witnesses and the extensive research ot the happenings ot the time made a strong impression on me and opened a window into an era that seemed very distant and unreal to me yet, at the same time so near and concrete. I became aware ot the many fates of people who lived in a time where every day was a struggle for survival and death was ever present. Whether civilians, who were killed or injured by bombs or aerial gunfire, or aircrews who were wounded or killed in their planes.

These pages are intended to portray individual fates and thus remind us of the people of this era so that their lives and deaths are not forgotten. At the same time, I hope to document the air war in the region of the areas of east Westphalia. The area I am researching at present includes the counties of Gütersloh, Herford, Lippe, Minden-Lübbecke as well as the City of Bielefeld. Soon I will include the county of Höxter and complete the eastern Westphalia area.

Special thanks go out to those with whom I have spoken and who have helped me flesh out these pages with their clues and their memories. Some of these memories were painful yet I was still received in a friendly fashion. The understanding of some ot these crashes would not have been possible without this help.

Additionally, I want to thank the members of the forum of the internet page luftarchiv.de who also contributed in no small way to the existence of these pages and especially to Mr. Marney Mason from America for translating my web pages into English.