Oberfeldwebel Albers was a very experienced Bordfunker -DKiG, Frontflugspange mit Einzatszahl 400 ...- with Westa 3. At the time of the armistice, 8/5/1945, the unit was based in Norway at Oysand near Trondheim. At 03h30 in the morning of 8/5/1945 Albers and his pilot flew their Junckers 188 to Gardermoen (Oslo airport). They would then make a hop across the Baltic Sea to deliver the aircraft to the British on the airstrip of Lubeck-Blankensee in Germany. However, instead of flying there in a straight line ... they dropped into the Kurland Kessel to pick up soldiers, which they then took to Germany arriving at the end of the day.
There was no fighter cover above the Kurland Kessel. The guns fell silent in the Kessel at around 14h00. The last ship left at 20h30. The next day the Kurland Army surrendered to the Russians. A gutsy thing to do with the war in its last hours. The flight log simply states Abholen von Kurlandtruppen. Albers then closes his flight log with the writing that the plane and people were handed over to the British.
There was no fighter cover above the Kurland Kessel. The guns fell silent in the Kessel at around 14h00. The last ship left at 20h30. The next day the Kurland Army surrendered to the Russians. A gutsy thing to do with the war in its last hours. The flight log simply states Abholen von Kurlandtruppen. Albers then closes his flight log with the writing that the plane and people were handed over to the British.
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