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| Tue 22 Jul 2003 |
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Fully armed Nazi bomber planes 'buried below East Berlin airport'
ALLAN HALL IN BERLIN
AN AIRPORT used by hundreds of thousands of tourists and business travellers each year could be sitting on top of thousands of live bombs.
Papers among thousands of files captured from the Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, claim tons of live Second World War munitions were buried in concrete bunkers beneath the runways of Schoenefeld airport in East Berlin. It is now the main destination for discount airlines, such as Ryanair, and numerous charter companies.
Not only did the commissars intern munitions beneath the runways, but also entire Nazi fighter planes, all fuelled and fully bombed-up, according to the Stasi.
The captured files of Interflug, the former East German government airline and the airport authority of the DDR, are now being examined to see if the Stasi claim is true.
Experts believe it entirely feasible that, in the aftermath of the Second World War, with Berlin littered with millions of tons of unexploded ordnance, the Soviets could well have pressured local officials to move to clear the airfield as swiftly as possible.
"They would have stuffed them anywhere they could - there was simply too much stuff to blow up all at once," said Karl-Heinz Eckhardt, a Berlin historian. "There was a warren of massive Nazi bunkers beneath the site of the present airport that would have suited their purposes."
City authorities claim the airport is perfectly safe, but a thorough check on the claims in the Stasi files - 140 km of them that will still take a number of years to decipher - is being undertaken.
Nearly two million passengers a year pass through Schoenefeld. According to the Stasi files, the ammunition was buried in bunkers between eight and nine metres deep.
A spokesman for the airport said: "We became aware of the bunkers in 1993, four years after the fall of the [Berlin] Wall. A check was undertaken then and everything was determined to be safe."
But he conceded that he was astounded at the claims that fully-fuelled and bombed-up aircraft lie beneath the runways and said new tests about the safety of the structures will be carried out.
He added: "We had no idea that so much ordnance is supposedly under there."
Frank Henkel, the Conservative interior ministry spokesman, said: "This must be investigated thoroughly and immediately and the runways strengthened if necessary."
Berlin, with its sandy, dry soil, was perfect for the bunker-building of the Third Reich. Hundreds of thousands of them were constructed during the 12-year lifespan of the Nazi government: for every one metre of building above ground in modern-day Berlin, there are three metres below ground.
Bunkers are being discovered every day and a group called Underground Berlin has turned several of them into tourist attractions.
Papers among thousands of files captured from the Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, claim tons of live Second World War munitions were buried in concrete bunkers beneath the runways of Schoenefeld airport in East Berlin. It is now the main destination for discount airlines, such as Ryanair, and numerous charter companies.
Not only did the commissars intern munitions beneath the runways, but also entire Nazi fighter planes, all fuelled and fully bombed-up, according to the Stasi.
The captured files of Interflug, the former East German government airline and the airport authority of the DDR, are now being examined to see if the Stasi claim is true.
Experts believe it entirely feasible that, in the aftermath of the Second World War, with Berlin littered with millions of tons of unexploded ordnance, the Soviets could well have pressured local officials to move to clear the airfield as swiftly as possible.
"They would have stuffed them anywhere they could - there was simply too much stuff to blow up all at once," said Karl-Heinz Eckhardt, a Berlin historian. "There was a warren of massive Nazi bunkers beneath the site of the present airport that would have suited their purposes."
City authorities claim the airport is perfectly safe, but a thorough check on the claims in the Stasi files - 140 km of them that will still take a number of years to decipher - is being undertaken.
Nearly two million passengers a year pass through Schoenefeld. According to the Stasi files, the ammunition was buried in bunkers between eight and nine metres deep.
A spokesman for the airport said: "We became aware of the bunkers in 1993, four years after the fall of the [Berlin] Wall. A check was undertaken then and everything was determined to be safe."
But he conceded that he was astounded at the claims that fully-fuelled and bombed-up aircraft lie beneath the runways and said new tests about the safety of the structures will be carried out.
He added: "We had no idea that so much ordnance is supposedly under there."
Frank Henkel, the Conservative interior ministry spokesman, said: "This must be investigated thoroughly and immediately and the runways strengthened if necessary."
Berlin, with its sandy, dry soil, was perfect for the bunker-building of the Third Reich. Hundreds of thousands of them were constructed during the 12-year lifespan of the Nazi government: for every one metre of building above ground in modern-day Berlin, there are three metres below ground.
Bunkers are being discovered every day and a group called Underground Berlin has turned several of them into tourist attractions.
This article:
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=792292003
Secret War:
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=222
Dipl. Ing. Henrici entrusted with the execution of the development that now as Hs 117 designated Fla rocket. A subsonic rocket developed as midwing monoplane with swept bearing areas until spring 1944. As engine served two solid-propellant rockets for the start, which were thrown off after this. Afterwards a liquid engine walter HWK 107-729 provided for a thrust of 380 kp. For the kind of bevelling a kind carriage was used. The control was made by radio (radio command steering element). With the first 1944 21 starts accomplished from May to November heights to 11000 m were reached. The Hs 117 was beside "wasserfall" the only Fla rocket, which was used still.
Attempt execution with television guidance. This version possessed the base of the Hs 293 A, however on the bomb head as nose accessory the television camera developed. A further trunk auxiliary piece was between nose and tail part and accommodated the television station. The third accessory was finally the large Yagi array at the tail. The control took place as with the remarks with a control stick, directed by radio or wire, however goal covering was made via the attendant by a television screen, in whose center the goal had to always stand. This task proved however as too difficult and could not be made not operational up to the end of the war. Into this version the new Schmidding glide bomb engine was built also for the first time, which particularly as replacement for the too low-power walter engine 109-507 one had developed.
Into the dimensions and proportions an increasing version of the Hs 293 H. should be inserted however against surface targets. As carrier aircraft the heavy bomber Heinkel He 177 was used. The glide bomb could be dropped from a maximum distance of 14 km and maximally 8 km height the goal. The remote control took place at the beginning by radio. Later samples received their control signals over wire, similarly the Hs 293 B. than pay load a bomb weight of approx. 1300 kg were carried. The Hs 295 ran since April 1944 in testing. This could not be locked however to end of war.
In the late summer 1944 the development of a Kleinst Fla rocket under the designation "foehn" was locked. It concerned a uncontrolled pulverrakete, which should be used with 1200 m ceiling against low fliers. The projectile of the caliber of 7.3 possessed 3 kg total weight. It was equipped with an impact and a Selbstzerlegerzuender. The firing came from racks in the single shot or as defensive fire salvo from 48 shot from 6 frameworks with 8 rockets each. In testing were special executions of this equipment with 3, 5, 7, 24 and 35 launch rails. The 3-Schuss-Geraet which can be served from a man to should become as "people Flak r throwers" the Flak of the "small man". In September 1944 the issued Flak emergency programme 1944/45 demanded the output of 1000 Flak r until April 1945 who far from "foehn". Although production started according to plan in October 1944, until February 1945 only 50 devices were delivered. They still stood for the conclusion of practical troop testing in the employment.
At the beginning of of 1944 was begun after the same construction principles of the past Henschel Fernlenkkoerper with the construction of a small aerial engagement rocket, which received the designation Hs 298. Also it was in principle a reduced airplane with arrow wings and double vertical stabilizer. In the first remarks liquid-fuel rocket engines came to the use (Schmidding 109-513 with 1000 kp for 10 seconds and BMW 109-511 with 600 kp for 12 seconds), which were given up however later in favor of the achievement-weaker however simpler and cheaper pulverrakete Schmidding 109-543. The radio command steering element had however only a range to 1.5 km. Therefore the projectile at the beginning of of 1945 was given up in the context of the restrictions of sample in favor of the Kramer X-4.
