Fliegerhorst Deelen

[haen2]

Hi everybody,
I think (actiually i am sure) I posted this before, and we came to a dead end.
In the fall of 1944, there was a huge luftwaffe command center at Deelen (Holland) a large building with for the time the most advanced "computer" , aiding the "nachtgeschwader" of the Luftwaffe.
When the Allies landed at Arnhem ( one bridge too far) , too close to the taste of the high command, this complex supposedly was destroyed, because they did not want to fall the technology and advances in Allied hands. The building(s) of heavily armed concrete still stood. Only the insides supposedly were destroyed.
This is what history books have recorded, and has been accepted as a historical fact.
Now comes a puzzle. When yours truly, as a German dispatch runner had to deliver a message to the commanding officer of that unit, in January 1945, I was proudly shown the most advanced computer system, by a blabbermouth Feldwebel, who got chided by a superior, and yours truly, after delivering the message in person to the C.O. was escorted off the premises, and sworn to secracy.
When my unit later transferred to that airfield, that part of the area was sealed off, and strictly guarded.
So . . . . . . what did I see ???? a rebuilt unit ??? a not really destroyed unit ??? a different unit ??? similar to the destroyed one ???
It's not really important anymore, but it is part of the story of my book "Chameleon", and I do not wish to be branded as a lier or someone who fantasised this section.
Thus ????. . . . . is there anyone out there who has info that may have surfaced meanwhile ?
Thanks in advance.
HN

[haen2]

nota bene
Sorry for the typos people; at almost 85, and now using the hunt and peck system, I miss a key once in a while.
Getting old is the pitts, young people could not handle it
Cheers
HN

[Jaap Woortman]

Huug,

Send me an email.

Jaap

[Tom Houlihan]

Jaap, I find myself hoping that you are going to be able to help him on that! That issue gave us both a headache!!


I also find myself hoping he's marking up that map like I asked him to...

[Jaap Woortman]

Tom,

I will do my best.
For headaches is a good medicine: Aspirin of Bayer!

About themap, I have send him one, marked with the mentioned bunker.
Just to find out if we are talking about the same.

Jaap

[haen2]

Got the map, and am more confused than ever
"Googled" it and got even more confused. Obviously my brain is coming apart at the seams.
But . . . the good news is: working with Jaap, we probably will come to the bottom of it.
There must be some explanation, somewhere, somehow.
Stay tuned
H.N.

[phylo_roadking]

Haen, is this the establishment you're talking about? http://www.fliegerhorstdeelen.nl/?page_id=44&lang=en

There's an interesting throwaway line in there...

The proof of the German air defence system being effective came after the war: the Dutch Air Defence system, now needed to defend against Russian forces, was a 1:1 copy of the German system! Ironically, the command bunker of the commanding Nightfighting general, Joseph Kammhuber in Zeist, was used for this purpose! This bunker is also still existing, though the Dutch Airforce later on built a new command centre at Nieuw–Millingen situated at the centre of the Veluwe.

So while yes, the research group seems to think what the books do - "During the start of the Market Garden Operation in september 1944 (in which Arnhem bridge was the main target) the Staff of 3.Jagd Division fled to the back-up command post in the vincinity of Duisburg. (Wiedenbruck). The interior of the bunker was demolished by a German ‘Spreng commando” using aircraft bombs which were already inplace. This blasts were not sufficient to destroy the building itself, it sustained minor damage, but the fighting control room interior was obviously destroyed completely."

....I note

1/ there were other very major nightfighter control control rooms that survived the war in Holland - including Kammhuber's own!

and

2/ the reseach group ONLY says "...the fighting control room interior was obviously destroyed completely". The REST of the establishment might indeed have been serviceable!

There's also THIS -

This personnel was house at the opposite side of the road, in the so-called ‘Divisionsdorf’. This consist mainly of the former Koningsheide-clinic, nowadays a camping site and horse riding-school . The Luftnachtrichtendienst catered for all information the Luftwaffe needed for a ‘klare Luftlage’, or up-to-date picture of the divisional airspace. All information from the operational area (e.g. local Fluko’s – Flugzeug Wach Kommando = local air warning posts), radar- and Flak- en Y-measuring post like ‘’Teerosen’, neighbouring command post like those in Stade en Metz, HQ in Berlin, but also German Navy (=Kriegsmarine) en Army ( =Heer) etc etc finally ended up in bunker Diogenes using hundreds of telephone lines and dozens of USW and SW radio connections (RV-Netz).

So if the Diogenes Bunker was damaged internally or put out of action...."all" that technically needed to be done was to re-route these comms channels elsewhere?

Now comes a puzzle. When yours truly, as a German dispatch runner had to deliver a message to the commanding officer of that unit, in January 1945, I was proudly shown the most advanced computer system, by a blabbermouth Feldwebel, who got chided by a superior, and yours truly, after delivering the message in person to the C.O. was escorted off the premises, and sworn to secracy.
When my unit later transferred to that airfield, that part of the area was sealed off, and strictly guarded.
So . . . . . . what did I see ???? a rebuilt unit ??? a not really destroyed unit ??? a different unit ??? similar to the destroyed one ???

Maybe "all" they did was set up the command centre again in the Divisionsdorf across the way??? After all, it was an intentional destruction, and I assume all the three shifts of Blitzmädel and JLOs survived that event...to be put back to work???

[phylo_roadking]

Looking here...http://www.vanderweel.info/atlantikwall ... ogenes.htm

On september 17, 1944, the day of operation "Market-Garden" -the allied air landings at Arnhem-, the Germans destroyed the interior of "Diogenes" by using explosives, and buried the contents of the office building which was build besides Diogenes in ditches in the surrounding woods.

During this renovation the hidden contents of the bunker, dumped in holes in the woods came to the surface. Amongst personal posessions, kitchenware, bureau materials, papers and photo's, pieces of glass from the plotting table, a badge with signs of a German staffcar was found and a photograph of German female personnel, posing in front of the Diogenes "office building".

...looks like they took care to preserve a lot of the command centre's material!

On the left side of Diogenes and separated from the main building, a smaller bunker can be seen, probably a former generator housing or security staff bunker.

...OR???