1961 F-84 Thunderstreak incident
Encyclopedia
The 1961 F-84 Thunderstreak incident, occurring on 14 September 1961, was an incident during the Cold War, in which two Republic F-84F Thunderstreak fighter-bomber
s of the JaBoG 32 of the West German Luftwaffe
crossed into East German airspace
because of a navigational error, before landing at Berlin Tegel Airport. The two planes successfully evaded a large number of Soviet
fighter planes by finding cover in a heavy layer of clouds, but also by the actions of the corporal at the USAF flight control at Berlin Tempelhof Airport who ordered the planes on to Berlin rather than forcing them to turn around and face the pursuing fighter planes. The event came at a historically difficult time in relations between the two Germanies. Only a month before, the Berlin Wall
had been built, which completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin
. It also came three days before the West German federal election, held on 17 September 1961.
Between the end of the Second World War and the German reunification
, West German planes were not permitted to fly to West Berlin, regardless of whether they were civilian or military aircraft. The three existing air corridors
to the city were only open to planes from the three former Western Allies
: the United States, France and the United Kingdom.
. As part of this exercise, the Jagdbombers of Jagdbombergeschwader (JaBoG) 32, based at Lechfeld Airbase
, south of Augsburg
, were to fly a triangular route from Würzburg
to Laon
and then to Memmingen
.
Two F-84 fighter-bombers, flown by Feldwebel
Peter Pfefferkorn and Stabsunteroffizier
Hans Eberl, lost their course in the process of flying this route, with the compass on Pfefferkorn's plane misreading by between 40 and 60 degrees. Additionally, a strong westerly wind was greater in strength than had been forecast. On their way from Würzburg to Laon, the two pilots had become so disoriented that they mistook Liège
in Belgium for Reims
in France.
Shortly after, the pair were picked up by NATO radar stations near Warburg
, in southern Westphalia
, heading east, in the direction of Königs Wusterhausen
, south of Berlin. The two pilots missed a radio call from the radar stations advising them to turn around because they were talking to each other, trying to establish their location.
It was only when reaching a position north of Leipzig
, deep within East German air space, that Pfefferkorn sent a Mayday
signal, which was picked up, to their surprise, by the French-controlled airport at Tegel in West Berlin
, which gave them permission to land. The planes had initially not been noticed by the radar operator at the Berlin Tempelhof Airport because he was concentrating on an incoming Pan Am
Douglas DC-6
. By the time they were noticed, the pair was being unsuccessfully chased by a large number of Soviet
fighter aircraft. A corporal
of the USAF, present in the Tempelhof control tower
, ordered the two pilots not to turn around and face the pursuing fighter planes but instead to head for the Tegel airport as it had a longer runway than Tempelhof and was more suitable for jets. Because of the actions of this corporal and the heavy cloud cover, which the two pilots used to hide themselves, Pfefferkorn and Eberl escaped the pursuing Russian aircraft and successfully landed their planes without further incident at Tegel.
of the two planes had been absolutely necessary.
The then-West German Minister of Defence
, Franz-Josef Strauß, apologised to the Soviet ambassador in Bonn
for the incident, sending his secretary of state
, Volkmar Hopf. The government of the Soviet Union remained silent for a number of days with regards to the incident, before officially protesting against the West German "provocation" and threatening to shoot any aircraft involved down if the incident was repeated.
The Soviet air command in East Germany was less than impressed with the 'unpunished' flight of two enemy fighter planes through their airspace. However, it chose to blame bad weather for the incident rather than the failure of its ground control to guide the Soviet fighter planes to the West German ones.
, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party
in the upcoming federal elections, and the mayor of West Berlin, questioned how the two pilots could be put in a situation where they would be forced to violate international conventions in a time of strained relations between the East and the West. Initially, Strauß announced a stringent investigation into the incident; instead, however, he and Josef Kammhuber
, inspector of the Luftwaffe , transferred the commander of JaBoG 32, Oberstleutnant
Siegfried Barth, and announced that any commander whose unit committed a violation of international borders would be immediately replaced.
When Kammhuber announced this order at Lechfeld the following day, it was dubbed Bier Order 61 (Beer Order 61) because it was formulated late at night over drinks between Kammhuber and Strauß. Barth, commander of JaBoG 32, was not questioned with regards to the incident, and was not allowed to speak during Kammhuber's visit. Instead, Generalleutnant Martin Harlinghausen
, Barth's superior officer, who had once, in 1944, stood up to Hermann Göring
, spoke for Barth and demanded a proper investigation.
Two weeks later, Harlinghausen was forced into early retirement. The non-commissioned officers of JaBoG 32 sent a letter to Strauß requesting that Barth should retain his command, without receiving any answer. Eventually, a proper investigation was conducted which found Barth to be innocent, a result unacceptable to Kammhuber, who initiated a second investigation that found the Oberstleutnant partly at fault. A third investigation followed, which again found Barth to be innocent. Oberstleutnant Barth then lodged an official complaint against Franz-Josef Strauß. Strauß, as minister of defence, ordered all witnesses in the case not to speak
, as they were all military personnel and, therefore, under his command. Nevertheless, his conduct in dismissing Barth was found to be at fault, and the latter had to be reinstated in his position. Strauß however ignored this decision until Hellmuth Heye
, Ombudsman
for the Military, forced him to accept it. Strauß himself was later forced to resign from his post as Minister of Defence, in the wake of the Spiegel scandal
in 1962. Kammhuber retired from his post in the same year.
s and journalists were prohibited from taking pictures of the two aircraft. For years after, it was believed that the two planes had been repainted as aircraft of the United States Air Force
and returned to West Germany by USAF pilots, or that they had been disassembled and transported back to the West in pieces. The arrival of two massive Douglas C-124 at Tegel from Frankfurt am Main also fuelled speculations that the two F-84s would be transported back in these aircraft. An alternative version of the story held that the two aircraft were hidden by the French authorities at Tegel and, later, buried at the airfield, where they were accidentally rediscovered in the 1970s.
In an exhibition at the Luftwaffenmuseum Berlin-Gatow
in 2006, pictures of the two buried and then rediscovered Thunderstreaks at Tegel were shown, finally clearing up the question of what became of the two planes.
The pilots of the two Thunderstreaks, Pfefferkorn and Eberl, were banned from flying and transferred to the ground crew at Lechfeld. The F-84F Thunderstreak, in service with the Jagdbombergeschwader 32 since interception of the unit on 22 July 1958, was phased out of service on 13 July 1966, the Geschwader having accumulated over 80,000 flight hours with the planes.
of the Bundesmarine, piloted by Kapitänleutnant Knut Anton Winkler, was shot at by MiG-21
fighters when it accidentally crossed into East German airspace near Eisenach
. Winkler, who had been returning from a training exercise on board in the Atlantic Ocean, had to carry out an emergency landing at Ahlhorn, south of Bremen
. Winkler himself died less than four years later in a F-104 Starfighter
accident on 10 May 1966.
Fighter-bomber
A fighter-bomber is a fixed-wing aircraft with an intended primary role of light tactical bombing and also incorporating certain performance characteristics of a fighter aircraft. This term, although still used, has less significance since the introduction of rockets and guided missiles into aerial...
s of the JaBoG 32 of the West German Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
crossed into East German airspace
Airspace
Airspace means the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere....
because of a navigational error, before landing at Berlin Tegel Airport. The two planes successfully evaded a large number of Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
fighter planes by finding cover in a heavy layer of clouds, but also by the actions of the corporal at the USAF flight control at Berlin Tempelhof Airport who ordered the planes on to Berlin rather than forcing them to turn around and face the pursuing fighter planes. The event came at a historically difficult time in relations between the two Germanies. Only a month before, the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
had been built, which completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
. It also came three days before the West German federal election, held on 17 September 1961.
Background
At the time, violations of airspace at the border between West and East Germany were common, with, on average, two aircraft a month belonging to members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) crossing into Eastern airspace while a much larger number of Soviet planes crossed into that of West Germany. Some of the violations were deliberate, to determine the opposite side's reaction, while others were by mistake, caused by the difficulty in determining the border line from the air.Between the end of the Second World War and the German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
, West German planes were not permitted to fly to West Berlin, regardless of whether they were civilian or military aircraft. The three existing air corridors
West Berlin Air Corridor
During the Cold War era , the West Berlin Air Corridors comprised three regulated airways for civil and military air traffic of the Western Allies between West Berlin and West Germany passing over the former East Germany's territory. The corridors were under control of the all-Allied Berlin Air...
to the city were only open to planes from the three former Western Allies
Western Allies
The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Soviet Union,...
: the United States, France and the United Kingdom.
Incident
On 14 September 1961, under the code name Checkmate, the NATO high command mobilised the air forces of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and West Germany for the purpose of an exerciseMilitary exercise
A military exercise is the employment of military resources in training for military operations, either exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat...
. As part of this exercise, the Jagdbombers of Jagdbombergeschwader (JaBoG) 32, based at Lechfeld Airbase
Lechfeld Airbase
Lechfeld Airbase is a German Air Force base located 1 km east of Lagerlechfeld in Bavaria, about 20 km south of Augsburg on the Bundestrasse 17....
, south of Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, were to fly a triangular route from Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
to Laon
Laon
Laon is the capital city of the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.-History:The hilly district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance...
and then to Memmingen
Memmingen
Memmingen is a town in the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia in Germany. It is the central economic, educational and administrative centre in the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-Württemberg border...
.
Two F-84 fighter-bombers, flown by Feldwebel
Feldwebel
Feldwebel is a German military rank which has existed since at least the 18th century with usage as a title dating to the Middle Ages. The word Feldwebel is usually translated as sergeant being rated OR-6 in the NATO rank comparison scale, equivalent to the British Army Sergeant and the US Army...
Peter Pfefferkorn and Stabsunteroffizier
Unteroffizier
Unteroffizier is both a specific military rank as well as a collective term for non-commissioned officers of the German military that has existed since the 19th century. The rank existed as a title as early as the 17th century with the first widespread usage occurring in the Bavarian Army of the...
Hans Eberl, lost their course in the process of flying this route, with the compass on Pfefferkorn's plane misreading by between 40 and 60 degrees. Additionally, a strong westerly wind was greater in strength than had been forecast. On their way from Würzburg to Laon, the two pilots had become so disoriented that they mistook Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
in Belgium for Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
in France.
Shortly after, the pair were picked up by NATO radar stations near Warburg
Warburg
Warburg is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia on the river Diemel near the three-state point shared by Hessen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is in Höxter district and Detmold region...
, in southern Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
, heading east, in the direction of Königs Wusterhausen
Königs Wusterhausen
Königs Wusterhausen is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district of the state of Brandenburg in Germany.-Geographical location:Königs Wusterhausen – or "KW" as it is often called locally – lies on the Notte Canal and the river Dahme southeast of Berlin...
, south of Berlin. The two pilots missed a radio call from the radar stations advising them to turn around because they were talking to each other, trying to establish their location.
It was only when reaching a position north of Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, deep within East German air space, that Pfefferkorn sent a Mayday
Mayday (distress signal)
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me"....
signal, which was picked up, to their surprise, by the French-controlled airport at Tegel in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
, which gave them permission to land. The planes had initially not been noticed by the radar operator at the Berlin Tempelhof Airport because he was concentrating on an incoming Pan Am
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...
Douglas DC-6
Douglas DC-6
The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range...
. By the time they were noticed, the pair was being unsuccessfully chased by a large number of Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
fighter aircraft. A corporal
Corporal
Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....
of the USAF, present in the Tempelhof control tower
Control tower
A control tower, or more specifically an Air Traffic Control Tower , is the name of the airport building from which the air traffic control unit controls the movement of aircraft on and around the airport. Control towers are also used to control the traffic for other forms of transportation such...
, ordered the two pilots not to turn around and face the pursuing fighter planes but instead to head for the Tegel airport as it had a longer runway than Tempelhof and was more suitable for jets. Because of the actions of this corporal and the heavy cloud cover, which the two pilots used to hide themselves, Pfefferkorn and Eberl escaped the pursuing Russian aircraft and successfully landed their planes without further incident at Tegel.
International
Immediately after the two aircraft landed, the French authorities at Tegel airport explained to the Soviet authorities in East Berlin that, because of technical difficulties, an emergency landingEmergency landing
An emergency landing is a landing made by an aircraft in response to a crisis which either interferes with the operation of the aircraft or involves sudden medical emergencies necessitating diversion to the nearest airport.-Types of emergency landings:...
of the two planes had been absolutely necessary.
The then-West German Minister of Defence
Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany)
The Federal Ministry of Defence is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany...
, Franz-Josef Strauß, apologised to the Soviet ambassador in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
for the incident, sending his secretary of state
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
, Volkmar Hopf. The government of the Soviet Union remained silent for a number of days with regards to the incident, before officially protesting against the West German "provocation" and threatening to shoot any aircraft involved down if the incident was repeated.
The Soviet air command in East Germany was less than impressed with the 'unpunished' flight of two enemy fighter planes through their airspace. However, it chose to blame bad weather for the incident rather than the failure of its ground control to guide the Soviet fighter planes to the West German ones.
Domestic
Willy BrandtWilly Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
in the upcoming federal elections, and the mayor of West Berlin, questioned how the two pilots could be put in a situation where they would be forced to violate international conventions in a time of strained relations between the East and the West. Initially, Strauß announced a stringent investigation into the incident; instead, however, he and Josef Kammhuber
Josef Kammhuber
Josef Kammhuber was a Career Officer in the German Air Force, and is best known as the first General of the Night Fighters in the Luftwaffe during World War II...
, inspector of the Luftwaffe , transferred the commander of JaBoG 32, Oberstleutnant
Oberstleutnant
Oberstleutnant is a German Army and Air Force rank equal to Lieutenant Colonel, above Major, and below Oberst.There are two paygrade associated to the rank of Oberstleutnant...
Siegfried Barth, and announced that any commander whose unit committed a violation of international borders would be immediately replaced.
When Kammhuber announced this order at Lechfeld the following day, it was dubbed Bier Order 61 (Beer Order 61) because it was formulated late at night over drinks between Kammhuber and Strauß. Barth, commander of JaBoG 32, was not questioned with regards to the incident, and was not allowed to speak during Kammhuber's visit. Instead, Generalleutnant Martin Harlinghausen
Martin Harlinghausen
Martin Harlinghausen was a Luftwaffe Commander during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...
, Barth's superior officer, who had once, in 1944, stood up to Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
, spoke for Barth and demanded a proper investigation.
Two weeks later, Harlinghausen was forced into early retirement. The non-commissioned officers of JaBoG 32 sent a letter to Strauß requesting that Barth should retain his command, without receiving any answer. Eventually, a proper investigation was conducted which found Barth to be innocent, a result unacceptable to Kammhuber, who initiated a second investigation that found the Oberstleutnant partly at fault. A third investigation followed, which again found Barth to be innocent. Oberstleutnant Barth then lodged an official complaint against Franz-Josef Strauß. Strauß, as minister of defence, ordered all witnesses in the case not to speak
Gag order
A gag order is an order, sometimes a legal order by a court or government, other times a private order by an employer or other institution, restricting information or comment from being made public.Gag orders are often used against participants involved in a lawsuit or criminal trial...
, as they were all military personnel and, therefore, under his command. Nevertheless, his conduct in dismissing Barth was found to be at fault, and the latter had to be reinstated in his position. Strauß however ignored this decision until Hellmuth Heye
Hellmuth Heye
Hellmuth Guido Alexander Heye was born on August 9th, 1895, son of father, August Wilhelm Heye, and mother Else Karcher Heye. Hellmuth was a German admiral in World War II and politician in post-war Germany. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
, Ombudsman
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
for the Military, forced him to accept it. Strauß himself was later forced to resign from his post as Minister of Defence, in the wake of the Spiegel scandal
Spiegel scandal
The Spiegel Affair of 1962 was one of the major political scandals in Germany in the era following World War II.The scandal involved a conflict between Franz Josef Strauss, then Federal Minister of Defense, and Rudolf Augstein, owner and editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel magazine, Germany's leading...
in 1962. Kammhuber retired from his post in the same year.
Aftermath
Upon arrival at Tegel, the two planes were immediately hidden in hangarHangar
A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...
s and journalists were prohibited from taking pictures of the two aircraft. For years after, it was believed that the two planes had been repainted as aircraft of the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
and returned to West Germany by USAF pilots, or that they had been disassembled and transported back to the West in pieces. The arrival of two massive Douglas C-124 at Tegel from Frankfurt am Main also fuelled speculations that the two F-84s would be transported back in these aircraft. An alternative version of the story held that the two aircraft were hidden by the French authorities at Tegel and, later, buried at the airfield, where they were accidentally rediscovered in the 1970s.
In an exhibition at the Luftwaffenmuseum Berlin-Gatow
Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr
The Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr , together with the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, is one of the major military history museums in Germany. The museum acts as an independent military department...
in 2006, pictures of the two buried and then rediscovered Thunderstreaks at Tegel were shown, finally clearing up the question of what became of the two planes.
The pilots of the two Thunderstreaks, Pfefferkorn and Eberl, were banned from flying and transferred to the ground crew at Lechfeld. The F-84F Thunderstreak, in service with the Jagdbombergeschwader 32 since interception of the unit on 22 July 1958, was phased out of service on 13 July 1966, the Geschwader having accumulated over 80,000 flight hours with the planes.
1962 incident
Eleven months after the F-84 incident, the Soviet threat to shoot down any aircraft violating the border became real when a Hawker Sea HawkHawker Sea Hawk
The Hawker Sea Hawk was a British single-seat jet fighter of the Fleet Air Arm , the air branch of the Royal Navy , built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its origins stemmed from earlier Hawker piston-engined fighters, the Sea Hawk became the...
of the Bundesmarine, piloted by Kapitänleutnant Knut Anton Winkler, was shot at by MiG-21
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was popularly nicknamed "balalaika", from the aircraft's planform-view resemblance to the Russian stringed musical instrument or ołówek by Polish pilots due to...
fighters when it accidentally crossed into East German airspace near Eisenach
Eisenach
Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...
. Winkler, who had been returning from a training exercise on board in the Atlantic Ocean, had to carry out an emergency landing at Ahlhorn, south of Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
. Winkler himself died less than four years later in a F-104 Starfighter
F-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units...
accident on 10 May 1966.