ju 390 comes to america

[mike siggins]

iwas reading in a old book on me262 i saw that wattson whizzers flew aju 390 to america does any body know what happened to it

 

[Milosh]

There was a Ju290 tho.

LEMB
The correct Junkers factory registration was "PI+PS", when WNr.290110165 was first flown on September, 8th 1943. Afterwards, according to "Kössler/Ott: Die grossen Dessauer", the plane was transferred to Finsterwalde, where it received KG200´s Geschwader code "A3+HB". This unit did not fly combat missions, but highly secret command tasks behind enemy lines e.g. over Iraq, Rhodes and the Balcans. The last order for Hauptmann Braun's crew on April 30th 1945 was a flight order to Barcelona with an certain group of people which however did not take place before the war ended. The group was to be the rest of France´s Vichy government arrested in Sigmaringen castle. For this mission the less suspicious Stammkennzeichen was re-applied in a bright colour (white?), the painter crew mistaking a "J" for the "I", when overpainting the military KG200 code. ( When hand-writing in German you write the letter "J" for a printed "I" so the mistake can be easily made). Remember, the Ju 290s commuting between Franco´s Spain and the Reich were bearing civil registrations. Interestingly Hpt. Braun´s logbook lists "A3+HB" until the final day. On May 8th 1945, the aircraft took-off on its last flight with seventy women (Wehrmacht aides) and children from Königsgrätz in Böhmen to München-Riem which was already in Allied hands and so the only fully intact Ju290A-7 was delivered on 10.07 o´clock into the hands of the Americans. The wrongly-coded "PJ+PS" was photographed at Roth airfield near Nürnberg, where "Alles kaputt" was applied. At least at Paris-Orly the complete set of American emblems had been applied.

 

[stona]

I'm afraid that account is a bit confused.
There were claims sometime after the war that a Ju 390 had flown to within 10,15,20 miles of New York (depending which version you read). This was repeated by William Green in the then influential "Warplanes of the Second World War" published in 1968. This was fairly comprehensively debunked by later authors,particularly Karl Kössler and Günter Ott.

Watson's Whizzers never had nor flew a Ju 390. All captured enemy aircraft were assigned a number. Initially this was an EB (for Engineering Branch) number,later and most well known,an FE (for Foreign Evaluation) number. Later still these became T2 numbers,which indicated the Air Intelligence organisation in the standard USAF/USAAF organisation.

The Ju 290 cited above had the number FE 3400.

Incidentally Watson's Whizzers only obtained 13 captured aircraft and gave them,initially,there own numbers. These were 11 Me 262s of various types and 2 Ar 234 Bs.

I hope that's another internet "fact" dealt with

Steve

 

[FLYBOYJ]

 

[norab]

a little more info
Army News | News from Afghanistan Iraq - Army Times

 

[stona]

Yep,that's FE 3400 a Ju 290 A-4.
It wasn't one of Watson's Whizzers' aircraft but was flown to the US by Watson. Not sure which americans named it "Alles Kaput",most Whizzers' names included those of women with a few exceptions (What was it?,Snafu1,Ole' fruit cake) but it could have been them.
Cheers
Steve

 

[nuuumannn]

According to Phil Butler's War Prizes it was Watson himself who named the aircraft 'Alles Kaput'.

 

[stona]

According to Phil Butler's War Prizes it was Watson himself who named the aircraft 'Alles Kaput'.

Thanks,I've got Butler's book hiding in a cupboard somewhere

Cheers

Steve

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

To bad she never survived. It would be amazing to see in a museum.

I know hind sight is always 20/20, but we screwed up big time scrapping all these aircraft.

 

[vikingBerserker]

A-fricken-men!

 

[krieghund]

An interesting side note. After the aircraft had been flown to America it underwent a heavy inspection and the discovery was made that a barometric fused bomb had been rigged next to the wing tanks but failed to detonate.Sneaky bastards!!!

 

[rank amateur]

I've read somewhere that a JU 390 landed in Spain at the end of the war and was kept chained for quite sometime because there was no one to pay for the all the costs. Eventually it was scrapped. Talking about missed opportunities! That would have been something, to have a six engined german plane these days.

 

[davparlr]

To bad she never survived. It would be amazing to see in a museum.

I know hind sight is always 20/20, but we screwed up big time scrapping all these aircraft.

I still cannot believe they cut up every single YB-49. You would have thought some would have been excellent test articles for flying wing aerodynamics and stealth studies. Indicates to me political intrigue. It is certainly amazing and terribly sad that all those wwii aircraft were destroyed, especially axis planes.

 

[GrauGeist]

I've read somewhere that a JU 390 landed in Spain at the end of the war and was kept chained for quite sometime because there was no one to pay for the all the costs. Eventually it was scrapped. Talking about missed opportunities! That would have been something, to have a six engined german plane these days.

There has been some talk about recovering the Bv222 Wiking that was scuttled after the war...now that would be a 6-engined beauty I'd love to see up close

 

[michaelmaltby]

"... I know hind sight is always 20/20, but we screwed up big time scrapping all these aircraft."

I hear ya bro ... but if you had to chose between modern weapons and museums for your tax $$$$'s ......

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

There has been some talk about recovering the Bv222 Wiking that was scuttled after the war...now that would be a 6-engined beauty I'd love to see up close

They have been talking about that for quite some time, yet I don't think there has been any progress. They say that because of the conditions of where it is laying, it should be almost perfectly preserved.

"... I know hind sight is always 20/20, but we screwed up big time scrapping all these aircraft."

I hear ya bro ... but if you had to chose between modern weapons and museums for your tax $$$$'s ......

Those planes sitting in museums would not take up that much money.

 

[GrauGeist]

Actually, I'd be happy to see that Gigant raised, then...or heck, why not both?

I am greedy like that.

 

[michaelmaltby]

I love museums ... but ... there are museums and then there are museums .... how much $$$$ ya got ... .

 

[krieghund]

Here's a message stating that great care is to be taken with this Ju290

 

[krieghund]

Here are some pics of the Ju-290 used after the war until the 1950's. One picture is right after it defected from Germany March 1945 with "unknown" passengers. After it crash landed everyone booked and the Spanish took it on and repaired it.