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-
10
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