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| Europe |
| Fully armed Nazi planes ’buried below East Berlin airport’ |
| 2003-07-23 |
| EFL Papers among thousands of files captured from the Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, claim tons of live Second World War munitions were buried in concrete bunkers beneath the runways of Schoenefeld airport in East Berlin. It is now the main destination for discount airlines, such as Ryanair, and numerous charter companies. Not only did the commissars intern munitions beneath the runways, but also entire Nazi fighter planes, all fuelled and fully bombed-up, according to the Stasi. The captured files of Interflug, the former East German government airline and the airport authority of the DDR, are now being examined to see if the Stasi claim is true. Experts believe it entirely feasible that, in the aftermath of the Second World War, with Berlin littered with millions of tons of unexploded ordnance, the Soviets could well have pressured local officials to move to clear the airfield as swiftly as possible. "They would have stuffed them anywhere they could - there was simply too much stuff to blow up all at once," said Karl-Heinz Eckhardt, a Berlin historian. "There was a warren of massive Nazi bunkers beneath the site of the present airport that would have suited their purposes." Nearly two million passengers a year pass through Schoenefeld. According to the Stasi files, the ammunition was buried in bunkers between eight and nine metres deep. A spokesman for the airport said: "We became aware of the bunkers in 1993, four years after the fall of the [Berlin] Wall. A check was undertaken then and everything was determined to be safe." But he conceded that he was astounded at the claims that fully-fuelled and bombed-up aircraft lie beneath the runways and said new tests about the safety of the structures will be carried out. OK, how many people had the same thought I did; "Gee, I wonder what a fully armed ME-262 would go for on Ebay?" |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #9 Bulldog >> In addition, Hitler wouldn't budge on the fact that he wanted it to be a bomber originally, wasting much precious time in developement. |
| Posted by: Paul 2003-7-24 5:23:29 PM |
| #8 I remember that book as well Ed - nice recall on your part |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-7-23 10:18:16 PM |
| #7 Been done by Clive Cussler, if I remember correctly. His fictional hero, Dirk Pitt, tends to collect old cars and airplanes that he's chanced across during his adventures, and one of them was an intact ME-262. *drool* Mr. Cussler does this himself, now that he's wealthy due to his successful novels. |
| Posted by: Ed Becerra 2003-7-23 6:59:15 PM |
| #6 I'll take my P-51D or P-47D (or Mk.XIV Spitfire) over your FW-190 any day. The Allied planes were competitive in the air, more reliable, and better suited to mass production. |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-7-23 6:47:38 PM |
| #5 I can see the headline now: "Warbird restorers brawl in Nazi bunker" |
| Posted by: Aussie Mike 2003-7-23 6:24:58 PM |
| #4 Sluggish acceleration, vulnerable to slower planes on take off and landing, and would often zoom past the target before it'd lined up for a good burst. By neglecting production of tried and trusted designs, and diverting personnel and resources to the development of an infant technology which wouldn't bloom effectively for years, Germany and the Luftwaffe made a big mistakes in the latter part of the war. Similar story with tank development. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-7-23 2:41:02 PM |
| #3 The ME-262. That was a fantastic plane, and things could have turned out much differently had Der Fuhrer recognized its potential and capitalized on it. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-7-23 2:25:12 PM |
| #2 And yet people are still bitching that nothing's been found in Iraq after only a few months. |
| Posted by: growler 2003-7-23 2:18:39 PM |
| #1 I wanna be the first kid on the block to own a FW-190! |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-7-23 2:18:02 PM |