ber formation were described by Oblt. Othmar Zehart, 7. Staffel

Commanding Officer, in a letter to Hörner’s father:

‘…11.9.1944, at about 1215h, we entered into combat with sixteen four-engined bombers over Saxony. Even before we conducted our first attack against them, over half were shot down in

flames. Unfortunately, my Staffel also suffered losses. Your son,

flying on my left, was hit, forcing him to disengage and lose altitude. His aircraft was bellowing smoke, but was not on fire.

I had also suffered serious hits to my aircraft, and could not monitor your son’s situation much further. Because we did not see

him crash, and his aircraft appeared under control during his

descent, we all believed that he was able to bail out and take to

his parachute. Unfortunately, two days ago, I received word that

Heinrich died during the battle…’

By this time we were maintaining altitude but only a few thousand feet. The plane was “skidding” about 30% off course (due to

the rudder), but fortunately the one thing that still worked were

the engines. Avoiding populated areas was a tough job for Ray

and Glenn – we got small arms fire around the Rhine.’

The pilots ultimately managed to set the damaged aircraft down,

running on fumes, in a field near the town of Joigny, southeast of

Paris, just beyond the front line. They were welcomed with horse

meat and wine by the locals. They returned to their base several

days later at Thorpe Abbotts, and picked up their tour of duty

where they had left off. That ended in February, 1945. In 2002 and

2004, navigator George Geise visited the museum at Kovarska and

also the spot where his bomber set down near Paris.

YELLOW ‘6’

The Fw 190 flying under the stricken B-17 ‘Oombree Ago’ is

Yellow ‘6’, W.Nr. 681337, flown by 25-year-old Uffz. Heinrich

Hörner. The moments immediately after his attack on the bom-

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eduard

Uffz. Horner died while trying to belly in on a school field at

Dorf Chemnitz. Walter Burkart, eleven at the time, recalled years later: ‘…I was in an air raid shelter in the cellar. After the

all-clear, we came out. It was said that a fighter came down nearby. We ran to the spot where that had happened, but it was

already cordoned off and not accessible. It was said that the pilot

had survived the landing, but died shortly thereafter. I found out

from which direction the aircraft came in, and that it was flying

very low. He flew past the church and landed in a field behind

the school. After the pilot’s body had been taken away and the

ammunition and armament was removed, we could get closer. My

friends and I collected various items. I had a piece of plexiglass

and a cartridge, but my mother threw it all away. The aircraft

engine lay about six meters from the airframe. People thought

he was trying to land in the field, but that he was unsuccessful.’

The plane, just short of open fields beyond the town, flew

through some treetops between the school building and the church, and impacted, among other things, a memorial to soldiers

of the First World War which was destroyed, after a hard landing.

The pilot was buried at a local cemetery just a few dozen meters

from where the tragedy occurred.

INFO Eduard - July 2021