Mystery Flieger Memorial
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Mystery Flieger Memorial
I've drawn an absolute blank on this one. Location is in the Tettnanger Wald near Eriskirch, Germany. North shore of Lake Constance. I would be most grateful for any information that you can post.
The translation on your screenshot is a bit off in some places. The relevant sentence is: On 5th July 1934, Erich Haal, Hans Hemmer, Heinrich Hommel and Erich Brinkenauer died in the crash of their Do.13 in the Tettnanger Forest. On the same day a Do.II crashed at Argenhardt with Franz Schlotter, Wilhelm Boehnke and Karl Kobel on board. They also perished.
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Oh that's terrific - I can barely speak English let alone German despite having lessons some 68 years ago now ! Two accidents geographically not too far apart on the same day - I wonder if the weather had anything to do with it - or perhaps they were closely passing acquaintances?
A qick internet search provides some more information. The DO11 crashed first. Eyewitnesses said it span in and the cause was attributed to fatigue failure at the wingtips which led to redesign and a reduction in span in later aircraft. The second aircraft launched in response to the first loss and seems to have suffered a similar fate. Tettnang where they both crashed is quite hilly just to the east of Friedrichshafen and of course not far north of the Alps. It is not reported if turbulence played a role. But both aircraft losing bits of of their outboard wings points in that direction. This was a time when Germany was rearming and the accidents were kept secret at the time. Retirees of Dornier have been tending the memorials ever since. A reminder how dangerous flight test was in the early days.
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Many thanks lederhosen most interesting. I've deleted the poor translation. I came across the memorial for the DO11 that crashed into Lake Constance off Manzell.
The later DO11 crash was apparently never fully explained but was thought again to be wing vibration related. In any case the aircraft was not a great success and other more promising types were preferred. I personally had never heard of it. Apparently it was a relatively large bomber developed in some secrecy at a time when Germany was not supposed to have an Air Force.
