floes. Nearby were Allied vessels, which had

come into play and began to honour the Germans with a nasty and dense barrage of their

Bofors. Although reluctantly, the two German

airmen packed up for home in their Wunderwaffen.

Luukkanen was in the worst situation after

the fight. His aircraftperformance was decreasing and it was very difficult to control. „I‘ll

have to land on the water!“

„Good luck Eikka!“

„Thanks, Bunny. It‘ll be like home after the

sauna. No worries!“

Finn landed his Tempest expertly on the water. His mae vest inflated immediately and

the lifeboat quickly filled with air too. Everyone was relieved to have the Finnish colleague

in the raft.

But no one expected a group of killer whales,

which started to show great interest in the

boat. Luukkanen had to use his gun to scare

them off, but they were soon back.

It was getting serious, the curious cetaceans

tried to capsize the boat first and then one of

them just bit through it. So Luukkanen ended up back in the water, trying to get to the

nearest floe as quickly as possible. He succeeded, but the killer whales kept attacking. They

must have mistaken the man in the suit for

a seal. They even jumped up on the ice pack

to tilt it and knock their prey down. Luukkanen stuck his knife into the crust to keep himself from sliding down.

It was clear to Kleinkönnig that rescue, in

the form of a torpedo boat, was coming too

slowly, so he decided to intervene. He started

shooting at the killer whales. If he‘d fought

giant man-eating penguins in the past, why

not killer whales... The group of hungry marine mammals were spooked by the gunfire

and retreated to a distance,still waiting attentively.

But the boat crew soon picked up the pilot

and returned him to the aircraft carrier, cold,

wrapped in blankets and with a cup of rum.

He complained that he had not been given

enough coffee. One or two sailors asked him

to sign a newspaper with his picture on it.

In the evening Squadron Leader Sheddan

nodded his head in acknowledgement. „So

from today on, you have the nickname „Lucky“ Luukkanen! And you, Kleinkönnig, get

a killer whale‘s mouth painted on the bow of

Commissioning of the U.S. Navy aircraft

carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42)

at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York City,

on Navy Day, 27 October 1945. Crew and

visitors crowd her flight deck, as the crews

of other ships present man their ship‘s rails

in her honour. The aircraft carrier on the

opposite side of pier is USS Franklin (CV-13),

under repair for battle damage received

earlier in the year.

Photo: U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage

Command

58

eduard

A United Service Organizations troupe posing with a Messerschmitt P.1101 at the

Oberbayerische Forschungsanstalt, Oberammergau, Germany, in 1945. It was also

with these fighters that Kleinkönnig and his fellow pilots clashed over Antarctica in

1946 and 1947.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

the Tempest. You‘ve really done a good job

of that, considering the circumstances. We‘ll

be flying joint patrols with Meteors of „Smoky“ Shraeder for future events. We gotta

come up with something on those Germans.

We‘ll also be joined by the USS Franklin D.

Roosevelt. They‘ve got Bearcats and Phantom jets.

Cäsar III base, after the battle with the Tempests

Messerschmitt P.1101 stopped in a rock hangar. The turbine was slowly running down

and the mechanics began to swarm around

the blue and white machine. An officer climbed out of the cockpit and inspected the hits

in the wing from 20 mm Tempest shells.

The disheveled and smiling Haunebu pilot

approached from the next hall. He saluted

impeccably and clicked his heels together.

„Lieutenant Woidich, Colonel, welcome

to our base and congratulations on your

kill! I saw your Tommy land on the surface.

I suspected that Eismeer 1 was you.“

Theo Weissenberger shook his head. „Thank

you, but I also saw yours fall into the water.

I was already quite far away, but I definitely

saw a geyser of water when he hit the surface. Congratulations!“

„Your Tempest today was the first Geschwader ´Nowotny´ s victory in New Swabia?“

„No, we‘ve already taken out a couple of B-29s and seaplanes.“

„When are you switching to Haunebu? It‘s an

incredible machine!“

„Perhaps next month. Our friends in the

factories down there are doing great. Can

I see the flying wonder?“

„Of course, come on, I‘ll explain everything.

We‘ve designed some aerodynamic modifications for the new Haunebu III. This is the

anti-G suit and here is the spacesuit...“

Aircraft carrier HMS Habbakuk, north of the Antarctic coast, November

1946

Between the carrier group and the coast

of Antarctica, which loomed on the horizon,

a curtain of flak bursts alternately thickened

and thinned. By the third day, attacks on German mountain airfields were under way, and

Allied pilots were in the air several times a day.

However, the Luftwaffe persistently attacked

the alliance and sank several ships. Now and

then a hit aircraft crashed into the sea, or

a geyser of water rose into the air from an aerial bomb or torpedo.

The deck of the giant aircraft carrier was filled.

This time, Tempests from several squadrons

were tasked with bombing additional landing platforms in the rocks. Meteors provided

fighter escort. There wasn‘t much chance of

rockets and bombs making their way inside

the hangars, but they managed to at least

cover the surrounding area with rocks and

damage the platforms. This also made life difficult for the Luftwaffe.

Kleinkönnig started as Rabbit 5 with

the young Norwegian wingman Torgeir.

The squadron gathered in formation in

a circle around the aircraft carrier and, under

Sheddan‘s guidance, climbed to five thousand meters. It then headed south. Fairbanks‘

meteors patrolled a thousand meters above

them.

As the British formation passed the coast,

in the opposite direction, Helldivers, Bearcats

and Phantoms from the US Navy flew at lower flight levels. Some obviously damaged

and lagging behind the others. Then the radio went into a chaotic scream of American

swear words. It turned out that German jets

and a few Haunebus were heading towards

INFO Eduard - January 2022