DILL, H.G. und HETZ K.-H. (2008) Rote Sieben verschollen im Planquadrat Rudolf-Dora – Fliegerschicksale und das Luftkriegsgeschehen in Nordostbayern-

Zeitzeugen gesucht [“Seven-Red” missing in action in “Rudolf-Dora” –About air force servicemen fighting and dying in action during the aerial warfare

in the Oberpfalz- call on eye-witnesses – past foes-present friends].- Oberpfälzer Heimat, 53: 91-122.

The north-eastern Bavaria was once nick-named one of the “Reich´s Air Raid Shelters” because it was located off the common air routes of USAAF and RAF bombers bound for Nürnberg and Regensburg and by-passed by “Flying Fortresses” heading for the refineries and coal-hydrogenation plants in the former protectorate “Böhmen und Mähren” (Czech Republic). Sites in the Oberpfalz only ranked among targets of opportunity until late 1944 and rendered the region a save heaven for training units from primary flight training to advanced level training (Amberg, Cham, Vilseck, Kirchenlaibach, Schwandorf) and a protected area to manufacture aircrafts (Messerschmitt aircraft plants at Vilseck, Cham, Flossenbürg concentration camp, installations for trial flights at Amberg). In addition, many provisional air strips at Rötz, Burglengenfeld, Adlholz, Grafenwöhr and Weiden were used on a temporary basis and in case of emergency. The first military aircraft crossing into the airspace of the Oberpfalz after WW I was in strength of the Czech air force. It lost orientation and ran out of fuel on its training flight from Prag military aviation training center in 1927. The last airmen belly-landing their aircrafts were pilots of the German Luftwaffe escaping from Prag Rusin airfield just under the nose of the invading Soviet Red Army in May 1945. But it was in the period from late 1944 to April 1945 that the northern Oberpfalz most severely suffered from air raids of the 3. Air Division of USAAF and strafing missions flown by fighter planes of the 19. Tactical Air Force. Four months before the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht took effect, Luftwaffe ground attack operational units, fighter wings and short-range reconnaissance groups were forced out of their bases in the western theatre of operation. There was heavy bombardment of marshalling yards (Schwandorf), ammunitions storage facilities and combined arms training centers (Grafenwöhr) as well as central arms maintenance and logistics posts (Amberg) which took a heavy toll on civilian people and military servicemen alike. The air superiority of USAAF, with the Thunderbolts and Mustangs playing the leading role during allied sorties, made intercepting missions by piston-engined Luftwaffe fighter aircrafts Me 109 and Fw 190 virtually impossible during early 1945. Only a few jet fighters Me 262 scrambled victories and successfully opened fire on the USAAF bombers. It was mainly the German Flak which gave a temporal relief to the German ground forces mainly through its quadruplet 20 mm- AA gun. Deployed along the landing strips of Amberg, Cham and Kirchenlaibach airfields, mounted on open-freight wagons of the Reichsbahn and positioned near road crossings and bridges they were responsible for the losses inflicted on the USAAF during ground attacks. After the Oberpfalz was occupied and cleared from German army units by the US Army in April 1945, German fighter bombers based at Neubiberg air base (München) carried out a few dawn- and dusk air raid missions to stop the advancing US troops heading south. These desperate attempts to turn the tide were the last operations which the Oberpfalz suffered from during WW II.