Efta Einak

Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Martin Novotný

Cat. No. 8078

It was January 21, 1942, and none of the Allied soldiers at Fort Lamy in Chad were expecting a bombing attack by a lone Heinkel He 111 coming from the south. The anti-aircraft defences offered no resistance at all, and after the raid it was rumoured that the gunners were resting or playing cards.

The daring aviator who devised this attack was Theo Blaich, a German pilot who had strong ties with Africa. His life story could be the subject of a film. He was born on April 5, 1900, in Tübingen, Germany. His mother was Katharina von Schneegas, whose father was a jeweller working for the Russian Czar. The son Theodor (Theo) is said to have become one of the youngest pilots in the German Air Force in World War I. After the war he went to Canada and illegally entered the USA by swimming across one of the border lakes. Later he worked in South America for the Union Fruit Company, participated in the preparation of airfields for Pan American, and eventually settled as a plantation owner in Cameroon.

In November 1935, he renewed his pilot's licence in the UK in an Avro Club Cadet at the Airwork School of Flying at Heston and acquired three aircraft in Africa, including a Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun. He was also reportedly being considered as a candidate for Governor of Cameroon. On a flight from Cameroon to Berlin, he crashed in the Sahara, probably greatly frightening his future wife Margarete, as Blaich's route to Berlin was to the altar. In November 1938 he flew his Bf 108 around part of Africa, covering the 13620 kilometres in 39 hours of total flight time. This sporting event received considerable press attention, but Blaich was already gathering information for the German Air Force at the time.

After the outbreak of the war he lost his plantations and went to Germany, where he joined the Luftwaffe. In 1941, with the rank of Hauptmann, he became a member of Stab X. Fliegerkorps, which supported Rommel's campaign in Africa. He was later assigned to the Stab of Fliegerführer Afrika. Blaich's knowledge of flying over Africa was valuable and he was involved in covert operations. One of these was Operation Pasha. This was the evacuation of General Aziz el Masri, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces. El Masri was secretly collaborating with the Germans and on June 7, 1941, near Cairo, a He 111 aircraft from II./KG 26 unsuccessfully tried to pick him up. On board, besides Blaich, was Abwehr officer and Count László Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós, whose fate became the subject of the novel and film “The English Patient”.

Blaich led Erwin Rommel to the idea of making it difficult for the Allies to supply the African continent by attacking the base at Fort Lamy (today's N'Djamena). He prepared the operation together with the crew of He 111 from II./KG 4 and Italian colleagues, but the action on 21 January 1942 was greatly complicated by a sandstorm. They deviated from their route when flying to the target, so they flew to Fort Lamy from the south. The bombing attack was successful and the smoke from the burning fuel and ten destroyed aircraft could still be seen 100 kilometres away. Flying back to the Italian desert base of Campo Uno (Camp 1) at Bir Misciuro, the crew ran out of fuel but made a successful emergency landing in the desert. The experienced Blaich and his Italian colleague, Roberto Count Vimercati-Sanseverino, decided to stay with the aircraft and hope for rescue despite a small water supply. Eventually, their German and Italian colleagues managed to rescue them, allegedly aided by a German amateur radio operator in Hamburg who picked up one of the last transmissions of Blaich's crew.

Blaich's group was given the designation Sonderkommando Blaich and until mid-1942 carried out patrols against Long Range Desert Group, however without success. The unit's motto became the slogan “Efta Einak”, the equivalent of the German expression “Holzauge” (wooden eye), which became synonymous with the airmen´s observation duty.

Theo Blaich served with the long-range reconnaissance 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 121 from December 1942, later worked in aircrew training, served briefly with I./ZG 76 and in October 1943 was transferred to the Stab of Fliegerführer Kroatien. From October 1943 to September 1944 he led Nachtschlachtgruppe 7, which operated in the Balkans with a motley mix of German and Italian aircraft. For his actions, Theo Blaich received the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold. He died in 1975 in Kaumberg, Lower Austria. You can read more about the raid on Fort Lamy on the Falke Eins blog.