Another link (no registration required) to the same escape story.

The Blohm & Voss BV222 seaplane had a range of approximately 3,800 miles, well within flying distance from Travemunde (on Germany's northern Baltic coast) to the eastern coast of Greenland.

Trouble is, all of the known German weather stations in Greenland had been captured by late 1944, so where would the plane have gone?

To Atlantis, perhaps?

A number of U-boats operated in Greenland waters and as the giant flying boats used 2-stroke diesel engines refueling from U-boat was perfectly feasible. Also there are upwellings of warm water around greenland which stay ice free year round suitable for water landings.

Furthermore Enigma signals decoded at Bletchley Park revealed that the Abwehr (German secret service) sailing vessel Santa Barbara was positioned in the mouth of the Orinoco river.

Santa Barbara was the former French Lobster sailing yawl Passim from the Bay of Biscay and had done several trips to Argentina during the war. It is perhaps even possible that a Bv222 could reach the Orinocco River directly from a Bavarian lake.

Also Hanna Reitsch famous for flying into the heart of Berlin whilst it was surrounded and leaving with Ritter von Greim just before midnight on 28 April 1945 said that Himmler's
Ju-52 was still waiting by the Brandenburg gate when she left. Author James P O'Connell stated the Ju-52 was waiting for SS LtGen Fegelein who had been arrested by the Gestapo. Col Niklaus von Below flew out on this aircraft to Munich on 29 April 1945.

In O"Donnell's book "The Berlin Bunker" Hitler's pilot Hans Baur was quoted from interviews saying he could have flown Hitler out until the very last day, but Hitler was determined to stay and kill himself. Also Albert Speer said Baur did have plans to do so on 28/29 April 1945

Since first posting on the subject in May I have performed some further research on the same topic.

I have learned from Horst Zoeller, the webmaster of website dedicated to Junkers aviation history that an article appeared in a German newspaper in the 'Fifties reminiscing about long range flights to Japan by Junkers Ju-290 aircraft from Bulgaria to Nighsia (west of Beijing).

The same article also refers to flights by Bv222 aircraft in Lufthansa registrations to Sakhalin Island which was then part of Japan.

It may be fair to surmise therefore that Hitler's pilot Hans Bauer planned to evacuate the Fuhrer to Japan via a refueling stop at sea with a U-boat near Greenland.

One rather secretive U-boat the U-534 was often posted to perform weather duties near Greenland, but was in the Baltic at the time. Other U-boats often landed spies in Canada. At any given time late in the war there was usually one U-boat performing weather duties near Greenland.

From there Sakhalin was probably within range of the Bv222. Hitler's plan for the defence of Berlin was to remain in the city as bait for the Russians whilst SS Divisions to the north under Himmler's personal command and other divisions south of Berlin were intended to fall on the Russians from behind as they encircled the city and crush them in a pincer movement.

Hitler had not counted on the mass dessertion of these units and their commanders at the 11th hour. Hitler therefore had never planned to stay for the purpose of committing suicide, but chose this course as events unfolded. Hitler fully intended to win the battle of Berlin.

In his memoirs Hans Bauer insisted Hitler could have been evacuated as late as 28 April 1945. Indeed an unidentified Ju-52 aircraft which brought SS LtGen Hans Feiglein back to Berlin was still on the ground intact on the night of 27/28 April 1945 when Hanna Reitsch and General Ritter von Greim flew out of Berlin. This Ju-52 apparently flew out some of the couriers with Hitler's last testament.

There is no published account of this Ju-52 flight in the early hours of 28 April 1945, but I have pieced together the existence of such a flight from cross comparing several memoirs. Hanna Reitsch is known to have referred to the Ju-52 aircraft in a letter to her brother after the war which was intercepted by US captors.

Interested on all information on German flights to
Japan or Occupied China during WWII

Hi there, M.R. Morrison. The Ju-290 flights to China were Luftwaffe aircraft drafted to Deutsch Luft Hansa. japan would not allow German millitary aircraft to overfly Russia, so the ruse of an airline service satisfied the Japanese.

Many experts in Luftwaffe history say these flights never occured, but Luftwaffe records were hidden in mines at Silesia until March 1945 when they were shifted to Linz austria and burned in an orgy of destruction for a month. Besides which the flights were operated either by DLH or the civil charter operation Kondor.

After the war Albert Speer claimed that one of the two Ju-390 aircraft also flew to Tokyo by the "polar route."

Greenland has an upwelling in the kane basin which is ice free year round. The Bv222 flying boat had 2-stroke diesel engines, thus could theoretically refuel from a U-boat.

I also know that a reconnaisance unit operated He-111 aircraft from an ice airstrip at Novaya Zemla.

Hope this helps you ?

Since posting the above comments I have learned that small flying boats did actually pick up fleeing nazis from an island on the Havel River downstream from the Reichs chancellery up until 27/28 April '45.

I have also been told in correspondence that von below and several of the couriers leaving with Hitler's will may have escaped via the small flying boats rather than Ju-52.

In correspondence I have since been told that after the war a Ju-52 was found wrecked at the make shift runway in the centre of Berlin.

Von Below flew into Berlin after it was cut off by the Soviets. It is still not explained how von Below flew out since Hitler's will was written before the last flying boat evacuation from the river Havel.

Re a Ju52 'wreck on the makeshift runway' in Berlin "after the war". There most certainly was such. My Father was an official R.A.F. War Artist
(many work in Hendon and IWM) and in one of his sketchbooks is a very incomplete sketch of that wreck. He intended to go back and do a psinting, but two days later when he returned, the Russians had cleared the wreck entirely away, bnut is was most certainly a Ju 52 theres no mistaking the corrugated sides. He said it had been hit by a lucky shot from a tank whilst taking off.

J. Stafford-Baker (Junior)

Over the years this has become a pet topic for me and sometimes i do get my facts wrong or wrongly interpret them, but overall I am fairly confident now of the following:

Three Ju-290 aircraft were withdrawn from millitary service during the war to fly long range missions to China. These were:

Werke nr J900183, Ju290-A7 markings KR+LP
Werke nr J900182, Ju290-A9, markings KR+LM
Werke nr J900185, Ju290-A7 markings KR+LN

They were then recoded:

KR+LP as T9+WK
KR+LM as T9+UK
KR+LN as T9+VK

The aircraft were stripped of all armament, modified with extra fuel tanks and adopted new civil identities with Deutsch Luft Hansa (DLH)

Luftwaffe Marshall Erhard Milch was in charge of DLH during the war. Interestingly this airline maintained regular flights through the war to Stockholm, Switzerland and Barcelona.

Up until the fall of Stallingrad these Ju-290 aircraft appear to have flown communications missions from Odessa to Ninghsia until the fall of Stalingrad or late 1942 thereabouts.

For some time after this they apparently also flew to Ninghsia from Milec, Poland. T9+WK appears to have been lost on a mission over Russia.

The aircraft were also later used by KG200 with the following markings:

T9+VK became KG200's A3+BB
T9+UK became KG200's A3+AB (lost over Russia)

T9+VK/A3+BB was the only survivor. It was damaged in a hanger at Finsterwalde by Allied fighters whilst in civil markings sometime around Feb 1944. It was later scrapped in April 1944 at Travemunde.

More interestingly the Ju-390V1 six engined monster which flew for FAGr.5 in France was flown to the airfield at Dessau in November 1944 where it was stripped of parts.

From two different sources, Reichs Armaments Minister Albert Speer and from Dr Wilhem Voss who served the SS Skoda works, a Ju-390 flew from apparently Oslo, Norway to Tokyo "via the polar route."

The flight was apparently conducted in March 1945 by Junkers test pilots and not military pilots. Given the accepted FAGr.5 Ju-390V1 was grounded and being broken up at Dessau, the aircraft which flew to japan could only have been the second Ju-390V2 prototype.

Polish author Igor Witowski refers to a Polish diplomat who witnessed a Ju-390 being dismantled at an airstrip in Uraguay in 1945.

MR Morrison, I hope this helps and if you like to correspond, try sy.gunson @ gmail.com

regards SG

Simon Gunson;

I have review-again-your considerate replies to my requests re; German WWII flights to Japan. Bruce Lee
a friend and sailing partner of some years back in Oyster Bay LI NY - the author of "Marching Orders" Crown Publishers NY 1995 told me some years after his review of the "Magic" diplomatic deciher operations that he found a reference to such flights - once- and which were discontinued
because of their impracticability. I have to find a scintilla of proof documenting such flight(s) or for a much vaunted trans Atlantic/NYC flight either. I have concluded that it is true that "truth" is the first casualty of war - Tu es d'accord, n'est-ce pas?

Marvin Morrison
Denver, Colorado

Marvin absence of proof is not proof of absence, especially given that many WW2 files remain classified until 2045. I welcome the debate however. Incidentally if you read RLM proposals for the NY mission before it's alleged flight in january 1944, you soon realise that the Luftwaffe High command proposed a flight from Brest and not Mont de Marsan, perhaps owing to longer runways.

The US Government chooses which Magic decrypts it wants to release. Magic was actually a cypher called the "Purple code" between Tokyo and the Japanese embassy in Berlin. I've read Magic traffic for the Japanese submarine I-52.

Sometimes when you trawl through this traffic you find gaps where the reader cannot follow who gave orders for something to happen but you pick up the trail a few messages later and you then realise something was classified and witheld.

A good example is that Magic traffic ordering which U-boat was to load I-52's return cargo after it was presumed sunk is absent, yet later you do find a reference or two to what must only be U-864. That is how we understand that not everything has been revealed yet.

There is actually documented proof of the new York mission from CSDIC interrogations of two Luftwaffe personnel. A captured Luftwaffe Photographic technician, Unteroffizer Wolf Baumgart, was interrogated by the US Ninth Air Force and his testimony was recorded by the A.P.W.I.U. Report 44/1945.

In that report Baumgart is quoted claiming that a Ju-390 flew from Mont de Marsan, France, to within 12 miles of New York city. He further stated that photographs were taken of the city's skyline.

The same A.P.I.W.U report also makes reference to corroboration of Baumgart by a more senior Luftwaffe officer, who added that the Ju-390 had an in-flight endurance of 32 hours.

Baugart also made reference to flights from "Odessa to Manchuria." This was cross corroborated earlier in the war by an RAF intelligence report of a another POW interrogation in April 1944.

That report citing the April interrogation was dated from October 1944. A War Ministry report (AIR 40/203) claimed a POW gave information that since the beginning of 1944, there had been "regular air travel between Germany and Japan established for the transport of high officials flown by old experienced Hansa pilots."

On 11 November 1955 when Green was editor of the "RAF Review" he referred to two British Intelligence reports dated from August 1945 entitled "General Report on Aircraft Engines and Aircraft Equipment." Thus the Allies during WW2 with their far greater insight into records many of which are still classified today, did believe in such flights.

One further point worth making is there are references from two known sources and possibly a third in Russia whom I have been unable to track down as yet, that the Ju-390 flew to Tokyo via the polar route in March 1945. Reichminister for Armaments and War Production Albert Speer wrote of this flight in his memoirs.

Unrelated to the Ju-290/390 aircraft a report in the Washington Post for 25 June 1945 reports that the RAF found forty He-177 bombers at Gardermoen airport near Oslo in preparation for an air raid on New York.

There are no official archived records of that project or even the fate of those aircraft. As i said, absence of proof is not proof of absence

When both the Germans wanted to keep secrets and then, so too did the Allies during the Cold War, you are left with nothing more than fragmentary facts to glue back together.

No I can't show you conclusive proof, but neither can you dislodge, or discredit the fact that there are some very credible WW2 documents referring to these missions.