Fully armed Nazi bomber planes 'buried below East Berlin airport

Drudge via The Scotsman ^ | 7/23/03 | Allan Hall

[SquirrelKing]

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.

[SquirrelKing]

France surrendered two hours ago.

[Frank_Discussion]

"...for every one metre of building above ground in modern-day Berlin, there are three metres below ground."

Wow! Something about this is very intriguing.

[Prof Engineer]

ping

[banjo joe]

I always wanted an FW-190, and while we're at it, I'll take an ME-109.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Underground bombers! Those Nazi's thought of everything. I wonder if they had aerial land mines? Secret weapons programs by the Nazi's were just too cool.

[brbethke]

Wow. Planes with tanks full of 58-year-old gasoline. I have trouble enough starting my lawnmower if I don't drain the tank in the fall. I'd hate to have the job of trying to get almost 60 years of gunk and varnish out of the fuel lines, fuel pumps, and carburettors.

[AppyPappy]

I'm too big for an ME-109 but I have always wanted an ME-410.

[TEXASPROUD]

Let the Confederate, excuse me, Commerative Air Force , know about this, the idea of original FW's and Me 109's available today should get the whole Ghost Squadron up and about.

[Southack]

Already Posted Here Last Week - Same Title, too!

[ThomasMore]

I'll take the ME-262 that's down there.

[Dead Dog]

I always wanted an FW-190...my thoughts exactly.

Where any 262s based in that area?

[JimRed]

(Sniff, sniff...) I smell urban legend...

[ThomasMore]

There are restorers chomping at the bit to get there hands on whatever may exist, if anything.

[Gringo1]

I'll take a n ME 109G-2 and a FW 190-D9 please.

[banjo joe]

Might be enough to go around. One story also circulates about the Japanese stashing planes around the pacific in caves... also subject of Dean Ing novel.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Underground bombers! Those Nazi's thought of everything. I wonder if they had aerial land mines? Secret weapons programs by the Nazi's were just too cool.

Too bad they didn't think of Americans coming to kick their behinds!

[joesnuffy]

Oh what a find...
The finest engineerd aircraft in the world...
motors beyond old world craftsmanship
Hope they make it to Oshkosh one of these EEA weeks soon

[ASA Vet]

Was this close to our secret underground US Submarine base?

[meandog]

What are they? Heinkels? MEs? Stukas?

[nuke_road_warrior]

WOW! If World War II Mustangs are worth nearly $1million each, can you imagine how much an Me-109 or FW-190, untouched since 1945, must be worth.