Dead German WWII fighter pilot found in Denmark identified

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Dead German WWII fighter pilot found in Denmark identified (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 3/26/2017 3:50:14 AM EDT

A while back we had a thread on the remains of a German fighter being excavated from a field in Denmark.

The pilot remained on board and has now been identified as 19 year old Hans Wunderlich. He was born in Bavaria in 1925 and was declared dead in March 1945. His last remaining relative was his sister who died in 2006.

Deutsche Dienststelle confirmed his identity from papers which had survived in the crash site.

His remains are kept at the University of Aarhus forensic institute. The fate of his remains hasn't been determined, but it's possible that he'll be buried at a military cemetary in Denmark.

link in gibberish

Posted: 3/26/2017 3:57:58 AM EDT

[#1]

19? Damn. Germany was really scraping the bottom of the barrel by that point.

Posted: 3/26/2017 4:17:48 AM EDT

[#2]

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1972862_Danish-boy-and-Father-find-WW2-Messerchmitt-with-remains-of-pilot-inside-.html

Isn't Swedish and Danish mutually intelligible?

Posted: 3/26/2017 4:19:13 AM EDT

[#3]

wow

great they where able to identifie him

what a shame he has no family left in Germany

Posted: 3/26/2017 4:37:44 AM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Quoted:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1972862_Danish-boy-and-Father-find-WW2-Messerchmitt-with-remains-of-pilot-inside-.html

Isn't Swedish and Danish mutually intelligible?

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Danish isn't a language, it' a speech impediment.

Posted: 3/26/2017 4:40:23 AM EDT

[#5]

Who shot him down?

Posted: 3/26/2017 5:29:00 AM EDT

[#6]

I would think the Germans would take care of bringing him home.

Posted: 3/26/2017 5:32:48 AM EDT

[#7]

19?

It is a shame that he has no surviving family though.

I imagine the German gov't will shit on him.

Posted: 3/26/2017 5:54:37 AM EDT

[#8]

I still think the farmer whose farm the plane was buried on is an asshole. He buried that plane knowing there was a body in it and never did anything to remove it and largely forgot about it until his son dug it up.

Posted: 3/26/2017 5:58:58 AM EDT

[#9]

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I still think the farmer whose farm the plane was buried on is an asshole. He buried that plane knowing there was a body in it and never did anything to remove it and largely forgot about it until his son dug it up.

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Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:21:50 AM EDT

[#10]

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Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

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Agreed
ETA hey post 1234!

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:36:34 AM EDT

[#11]

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Quoted:
Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

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Quoted:

Quoted:
I still think the farmer whose farm the plane was buried on is an asshole. He buried that plane knowing there was a body in it and never did anything to remove it and largely forgot about it until his son dug it up.

Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

Not sure I would call him a Nazi. 19. He was 13 when the war started.

I doubt he was a guard at a concentration camp, killed Jews or or other inmates.

Probably was pulled from a reserve unit based on education or some aviation experience.

I bet he had minimal flight training. "Here is how to take off and here is the switch for the guns"

In March 1945 it is a miracle he made it to France without being shot down by Allied fighters. Hard to believe there was even an intact airfield to takeoff from.

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:40:51 AM EDT

[#12]

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Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

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Because you served in the German armed forces in WWII does not a Nazi make.

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:40:52 AM EDT

[#13]

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19? Damn. Germany was really scraping the bottom of the barrel by that point.

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Not that odd actually. Pilots were very young then.

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:43:53 AM EDT

[#14]

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I would think the Germans would take care of bringing him home.

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That would cut into the refugee funding.

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:46:20 AM EDT

[#15]

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I still think the farmer whose farm the plane was buried on is an asshole. He buried that plane knowing there was a body in it and never did anything to remove it and largely forgot about it until his son dug it up.

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Edit. Apparently I was wrong

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:51:18 AM EDT

[#16]

Quote History

Quoted:
I still think the farmer whose farm the plane was buried on is an asshole. He buried that plane knowing there was a body in it and never did anything to remove it and largely forgot about it until his son dug it up.

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How do you know he buried it knowing the pilot was still there?

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:53:22 AM EDT

[#17]

Farmer must have had a Caterpillar to bury the plane, to hard by hand.

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:54:53 AM EDT

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:
Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

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Quoted:

Quoted:
I still think the farmer whose farm the plane was buried on is an asshole. He buried that plane knowing there was a body in it and never did anything to remove it and largely forgot about it until his son dug it up.

Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

Wow. 19 yo pilot goes down and this is your response?

Do you want to know, how I know you, didn't serve in the Queen's military?

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:57:06 AM EDT

[#19]

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IIRC the Nazis had a history of killing the farm owners when they found plane wreckage on their land, so farmers buried planes that were shit down to avoid that fate. Hard to call the farmer an asshole for wanting to save His life due to circumstances beyond his control.

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Are there any documented examples of Nazis killing farmers simply for owning land where a plane crashed?

Occupying German forces frequently prohibited locals from inspecting a crash site, but I have never heard of them killing someone for owning the land.

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:58:04 AM EDT

[#20]

Are they going to posthumously charge him with war crimes?

Posted: 3/26/2017 6:59:37 AM EDT

[#21]

Quote History

Quoted:
Are there any documented examples of Nazis killing farmers simply for owning land where a plane crashed?

Occupying German forces frequently prohibited locals from inspecting a crash site, but I have never heard of them killing someone for owning the land.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:

IIRC the Nazis had a history of killing the farm owners when they found plane wreckage on their land, so farmers buried planes that were shit down to avoid that fate. Hard to call the farmer an asshole for wanting to save His life due to circumstances beyond his control.

Are there any documented examples of Nazis killing farmers simply for owning land where a plane crashed?

Occupying German forces frequently prohibited locals from inspecting a crash site, but I have never heard of them killing someone for owning the land.

None that I can think of.

Posted: 3/26/2017 7:03:04 AM EDT

[#22]

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Are they going to posthumously charge him with war crimes?

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Only seems reasonable.

Posted: 3/26/2017 7:03:44 AM EDT

[#23]

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Are they going to posthumously charge him with war crimes?

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Came to post.

Posted: 3/26/2017 7:06:52 AM EDT

[#24]

IBTL. Nazi talk usually descends into crazy town. Farmer mist have figured getting buried in the fighter was next best thing to military funeral. Too bad he has no family left at all.

Posted: 3/26/2017 7:08:45 AM EDT

[#25]

Quote History

Quoted:

Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

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You must be too busy helping Syrian refugees acclimate to Canadian values.

Posted: 3/26/2017 7:33:36 AM EDT

[#26]

Quote History

Quoted:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1972862_Danish-boy-and-Father-find-WW2-Messerchmitt-with-remains-of-pilot-inside-.html

Isn't Swedish and Danish mutually intelligible?

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Yes.

Posted: 3/26/2017 7:36:08 AM EDT

[#27]

Quote History

Quoted:
Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
I still think the farmer whose farm the plane was buried on is an asshole. He buried that plane knowing there was a body in it and never did anything to remove it and largely forgot about it until his son dug it up.

Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

Damn, you're so edgy and cool!

No wonder GD loves you!!

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:01:20 AM EDT

[#28]

Quote History

Quoted:
I still think the farmer whose farm the plane was buried on is an asshole. He buried that plane knowing there was a body in it and never did anything to remove it and largely forgot about it until his son dug it up.

View Quote

Meh. You occupy my country, you get buried in a field and forgotten.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:03:02 AM EDT

[#29]

The link asked me in Danish if it was ok if they gave me cookies. What a nice site- Danish cookies are usually so good.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:21:57 AM EDT

[#30]

Quote History

Quoted:
I still think the farmer whose farm the plane was buried on is an asshole. He buried that plane knowing there was a body in it and never did anything to remove it and largely forgot about it until his son dug it up.

View Quote

The Germans invaded and occupied his country, rounded up and extinguished many of his countrymen, probably looted his farm's produce, his personal wealth and God knows what else they did.

AND you expect him to have sympathy for one of these invaders?

It is also very likely that if he reported this to the proper authorities his reward would have been another more thorough search of his home and more scrutiny of his family history.

SSS was a very real survival necessity for many in NAZI occupied Europe.

However, the GD uniform fetish is fully erect so don't let me interrupt the online circle jerk.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:25:43 AM EDT

[#31]

Quote History

Quoted:

The Germans invaded and occupied his country, rounded up and extinguished many of his countrymen, probably looted his farm's produce, his personal wealth and God knows what else they did.

AND you expect him to have sympathy for one of these invaders?

It is also very likely that if he reported this to the proper authorities his reward would have been another more thorough search of his home and more scrutiny of his family history.

SSS was a very real survival necessity for many in NAZI occupied Europe.

However, the GD uniform fetish is fully erect so don't let me interrupt the online circle jerk.

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Or he turned in his fellow countrymen good chance of that as well.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:29:40 AM EDT

[#32]

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Quoted:

Not that odd actually. Pilots were very young then.

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Yeah wasn't George H W Bush 18 when he became a Naval pilot

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:31:27 AM EDT

[#33]

Quote History

Quoted:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1972862_Danish-boy-and-Father-find-WW2-Messerchmitt-with-remains-of-pilot-inside-.html

Isn't Swedish and Danish mutually intelligible?

View Quote

Mutually unintelligible. No civilized man can understand such gibberish.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:34:25 AM EDT

[#34]

I like coffee with my Danish.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:36:22 AM EDT

[#35]

Quote History

Quoted:

The Germans invaded and occupied his country, rounded up and extinguished many of his countrymen, probably looted his farm's produce, his personal wealth and God knows what else they did.

AND you expect him to have sympathy for one of these invaders?

It is also very likely that if he reported this to the proper authorities his reward would have been another more thorough search of his home and more scrutiny of his family history.

SSS was a very real survival necessity for many in NAZI occupied Europe.

However, the GD uniform fetish is fully erect so don't let me interrupt the online circle jerk.

View Quote

This.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:40:41 AM EDT

[#36]

In this thread, we see who hasn't yet figured out that most of the WW2 history they 'know' is actually propaganda.

I hope this young man's soul is at rest.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:41:29 AM EDT

[#37]

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Quoted:
19? Damn. Germany was really scraping the bottom of the barrel by that point.

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Haha, I was a 19 year old helicopter pilot in the Army during peacetime. Guess we were desperate too!

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:42:23 AM EDT

[#38]

Quote History

Quoted:
This.

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View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:

The Germans invaded and occupied his country, rounded up and extinguished many of his countrymen, probably looted his farm's produce, his personal wealth and God knows what else they did.

AND you expect him to have sympathy for one of these invaders?

It is also very likely that if he reported this to the proper authorities his reward would have been another more thorough search of his home and more scrutiny of his family history.

SSS was a very real survival necessity for many in NAZI occupied Europe.

However, the GD uniform fetish is fully erect so don't let me interrupt the online circle jerk.

This.

More people from Denmark died fighting as volunteers on the eastern front then died as a result of the occupation.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:44:56 AM EDT

[#39]

The area where the plane crashed was a swamp in WWII days.
Is why the plane was 12 feet under the dirt.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:47:13 AM EDT

[#40]

Quote History

Quoted:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1972862_Danish-boy-and-Father-find-WW2-Messerchmitt-with-remains-of-pilot-inside-.html

Isn't Swedish and Danish mutually intelligible?

View Quote

It's similar to Austrian.

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:51:14 AM EDT

[#41]

Quote History

Quoted:
19? Damn. Germany was really scraping the bottom of the barrel by that point.

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wait..........I was just 19 in 1971 when I graduated from U.S. Army Flight School! I don't think of it as though they were scraping the bottom of the barrel. I did just fine in a very hot shooting war winning 4- Distinguished Flying Crosses and 36- Air Medals. George H.W. Bush was also a very young naval pilot when he won his first DFC. Surprisingly 19 y.o.'s are very capable if given the opportunity.

ETA: Young men like that are strong, have sharp eyesight and fast reactions. Most of all, they are fearless and bulletproof (somewhat)!

Posted: 3/26/2017 8:55:50 AM EDT

[#42]

I read somewhere the farm was near a former German training base, perhaps he was a training casualty?

Posted: 3/26/2017 9:03:43 AM EDT

[#43]

"I don't give doodley shit about Jews, or Nazis"!

Posted: 3/26/2017 9:05:58 AM EDT

[#44]

Quote History

Quoted:
19? Damn. Germany was really scraping the bottom of the barrel by that point.

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My neighbor, Hayden C., had his ship shot out from under him by not one but TWO kamakaze's when he was a 17year old US Navy sailor.

Rest in Peace, Hans...the war is over. May God comfort your soul.

(eta: NOT an 88'er...just a fellow human, who has often found himself caught up in the games of others.)

Posted: 3/26/2017 9:11:47 AM EDT

[#45]

Quote History

Quoted:
19? Damn. Germany was really scraping the bottom of the barrel by that point.

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The average age of RAF pilots during the Battle of Britain was only 20. It was common to be went to a fighter squadron with 200 total flight hours,even fewer later in the war for Germany and many of those would have been on gliders. This is why the Germans said "-there were the aces of aces and everybody else". Everybody else were the tens of thousands from all countries killed in mishaps and shot down in droves. Nobody had the time to train pilots to the extent they are today. The US wasn't faced with imminent invasion so it had the luxury of the best pilots,the Soviets the least so which is why the experten racked up so many kills in the east.

Germany was to the point that had the war gone on even a few months longer that 15-16 year olds trained entirely on gliders would have been sent up in He-162s.

A whole bunch would have been crashed just learning how to actually fly the things and due to tempermental early jet problems etc.

Posted: 3/26/2017 9:17:35 AM EDT

[#46]

Quote History

Quoted:
In this thread, we see who hasn't yet figured out that most of the WW2 history they 'know' is actually propaganda.

I hope this young man's soul is at rest.

View Quote

This. Holding actually items and speaking to the men/women that were there will find the actual truth.

Posted: 3/26/2017 9:20:24 AM EDT

[#47]

Quote History

Quoted:
More people from Denmark died fighting as volunteers on the eastern front then died as a result of the occupation.

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SS Wiking

Posted: 3/26/2017 9:26:37 AM EDT

[#48]

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Meh, I have a hard time caring about dead Nazis.

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So did a lot of people in occupied countries.

Posted: 3/26/2017 9:33:42 AM EDT

[#49]

He was a damn enemy combatant. The farmer is not a dick for burying him and never speaking about it. Let's be reasonable. At the time, the farmer buried him because he was In uniform fighting for Nazi Germany; probably on a combat mission killing people. The farmer would have been executed if the Nazis found the plane on his farm.

It's been a lifetime since that plane crashed. It's not wartime. He was found and deserves a respectful military burial.

Posted: 3/26/2017 9:35:59 AM EDT

[#50]

Very few people in war-time Germany were members of the Nazi party. To assume the dead pilot was a Nazi is akin to assuming every living person in the Southern States was a slave owner during the civil war.

He fought for his country and should be honored. At the time he took to the air, the war was utterly lost and even taking off was very risky. The Allies had total control of the skies.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Dead German WWII fighter pilot found in Denmark identified (Page 1 of 2)

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