While stationed in Germany 50s, I drove around often and once saw a big crowd..

Turned out it was a glider show.

Back then Germans couldn't fly motorized aircraft, but could fly gliders .

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Back then Germans couldn't fly motorized aircraft, but could fly gliders .

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As part of the Armistice that ended WWI, their powered aircraft program was severely restricted. They used sailplanes as the loophole needed to train thousands of pilots.

Bregxit said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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From Texas Panhandle History Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/983842051651074/?multi_permalinks=2842433612458566

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(Sylvia Latham)

My 91yr old dad showed me this picture today of a German glider spy plane. Dad was 15 yrs old and took this photo with an old brownie camera. Notice the swaztica on the tail. The plane crashed in a pasture outside of Hereford, Tx in the panhandle. The year was 1939. The townspeople were told not to take photographs, but he managed to take one anyway and has kept it all these years. Never knew what happened to the pilot or plane

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Hereford "Brand" newspaper with account of landing

Pilot Peter Riedel


Side note, about 10 miles SSE of the landing site, would be the site of a WWII POW camp for Italian prisoners.

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Side note number 2...the man who found and helped the pilot was named Rufus Sewell. Rufus Sewell is also the name of the actor who played SS Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith in The Man in the High Castle.

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That character drove me insane. Never have i wanted some to make a good decision as him.

Fun little piece of Texas history. Thanks for sharing.

They have been attacking Wichita Falls for nearly 60 years!

Rabid Cougar said:

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They have been attacking Wichita Falls for nearly 60 years!

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ENJJPT?

Yeah, but that's all of NATO. There used to be a Luftwaffe Squadron at Alamogordo, but they pulled out a few years ago. Dutch F-16 pilots train with the Arizona National Guard, as do some other nations.

why would they care if people took pictures. I can't imagine it was a secret this guy was trying to fly around the country

BQ_90 said:

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why would they care if people took pictures. I can't imagine it was a secret this guy was trying to fly around the country

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Family legends can be that way. You're correct, it was a publicity tour, and the guy was trying to set records all over the US.

Note she says it "crashed". Sailplanes almost never crash, but they routinely make off-airport landings, which this obviously was. No big deal, that's why the wings are made to be folded or easily removed, and the sailplane put on a trailer.

I also find it amusing that it was labeled a spy plane. Yep, people use gliders all the time to spy. Not.

Maybe her granddad misunderstood. Maybe some adult, who didn't know what was going on, told granddad not to take the photo. Most likely it was 90+ years ago, and granddad's memory was fuzzy. Perhaps granddad's memory was influenced by WWII. Maybe granddad was joking with her. Maybe her memory sucks.