?_Courland: Luftwaffe's Operation 'Rescue' on 8th May 1945??

[Michi]

Any facts known about the happenings which occured on the 8th May 1945 over the Baltic Sea or Kurland/Courland??

According my source:
On the last day of the war 4 He 111 and an unknown number of Ju 52 were flown from the West and Norway into the pocket of Kurland/Courland.
Many tranport planes from the Norwegian airports, flew even over the Swedish territory to get there.
They were unarmed, as in the West & Norway the war was over for some days.
The Ju 52 landed in Grobina/Grobin, the He 111 had to land on a bigger air-strip.
At the way home, the Russian fighters organized a "turkey-shooting", all of the 4 He 111 were shot down; and 32 of an unknown Number of Ju 52 were lost.
At least 20 - 30 soldiers were on board in each of the air-crafts.


1.) Did this happen?? (as I have only this source)
2.) Who many Ju 52 flew to Courland??
3.) Which transport units took part.
4.) If this did happen, in which books are there infos about it??
5.) Are the numbers of lost transport a/c correct??


Any additional informations are welcomed!!




MfG Michi

[xavier]

very interesting michi, sureI would like to hear more about it, ...
were did you get the available data on this criminal act.?

regards
Xavier

[Michi]

My sources were some different books, and articles in the net.

Reilling, A.: Die Letzten Flieger Von Kurland
Schmidt, Rudi: Achtung - Torpedos los!



MfG Michi

[Ron Klages]

Michi,

The following information is from the book Bridgehead Kurland by Franz Kurowski.

I quote from the book:

In the morning of 8 May 1945, 35 Ju52 transport aircraft flew from Norway into the Kurland pocket and landed at Grobin, directly east of Libau. It was the last intact German airfield. In exemplary fashion, they took the wounded and fathers of families on board for transport to the Reich.

They were attacked by Russian fighters and ground-attack aircraft over the Baltic Sea. Almost all of them went down, burning and trailing heavy plumes of smoke, in an hour of increasing attack by more than 100 Russian fighters and IL-2 ground-attack aircraft. None of those aircraft could be saved. Only two of the Ju 52s were able to sneak through at extremely low altitude, only about 20 meters above the water. That was a terrible catastrophe. It was solely a result of the fact that Jagdgeschwader 54 had been instructed to take off for its flight back from Kurland early in the morning.


Hope this adds to the information base

best regards