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BOXART STORY
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.
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Martin Novotný
Efta Einak
INFO Eduard
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March 2024