Do-24_p368.html

Do-24T at Speyer, Germany.
The sub-type and Werk Nr. is unknown. There is only the front fuselage and the stubwings, which were recovered from lake Muritz near Mecklenburg in former East Germany in 1991. This aircraft was sunk there and was probably one of the four Do-24's that were to be used in a suicide attack on one of the Oder bridges in an all-out attempt to stop the Soviets in march 1945. Before the attack could be made all Do-24's were sunk. Three were destroyed by American fighters and the last one was being manouvred into a hidingplace when again American fighters attacked, the only one on board was the pilot so there was nobody to report the attakers and he went down with his aircraft. It was never the intention for the pilots to do it themselves, they were to fly the aircraft onto the river, get out and try to reach the riverbank in a dinghy whilst a volunteer steered the aircraft onto the bridges. The Do-24 was chosen for this task because it could carry a huge amount of cargo, in this case being explosives. Coming from Rettung Zwischen den Fronten the following: The Do-24 Werk Nr. 97 had been used in the so called "Aktion 24". During this operation, beginning April 1945, four Do-24 had been ordered to the "Erprobungsstelle der Luftwaffe in Rechlin" in which they were prepared for "Kamikaze" operation against four railway-bridge over the river Weichsel in Thorn, Warschau, Deblin and Dunjawec (east of Krakow) to stop the supply line of the Sowjets. The Do-24 had been chosen to do this job, because the flyingboat was able to carry such a big aoumt of explosives. Each Do-24 should had been flown by it normal pilot to a point not far away from its target. At this point the normal pilots are supposed to leave the flying boat in a small rubber dingy trying to reach the bank of the "Weichsel". There the SO-Pilots (Selbstopfer) pilots should steer the Do24 directly against of the bridge piers. The following explosion of the "explosive Do24-Kamikaze" should finally collapse the brigde. But before the so called "Aktion 24" could start, an air raid of the B-24 on the area ot the airfields of Rechlin and it surroundings, destroyed three of the four "Sprengstoff Do-24´s". Unfortunately this action also caused one cassualtie. Feldwebel Heinz-Ottokar Hildebrandt tried to roll his Do-24 (RLM-Werk No.24) to a secret part on the Müritz-See near Roebel, when his fully prepared Do-24 had been hit by Mustangs of 354.Fighter Squadron. They discovered Hildebrands Do-24 on the water and after few moments the flying boad gone upin flames. In this action the former Sea-Air-rescue pilot died. The flying boat did not detonate, but finally started to sink near Roebel. At the beginning of the 90´s parts of this Do24 were hoisted. His three remaining comrades finally reached with surviving Do-24, without any instruments the air base of Bug in Rügen, home of the Seenotgruppe 81. (thanks to Ralf Beyer for this info)