Search examples: Microsoft | 2015 | 2014/10 | 4.12 | 04/20 | 05/26/1980 | Galileo Galilei

Oberleutnant Wilhelm Johnen,...

history · 28 April 1944 · 80 years ago

Oberleutnant Wilhelm Johnen, Staffelkapitän of German night fighter Squadron 5./NJG 5, whilst chasing an RAF bomber strayed into Swiss airspace where he was hit by flak and forced to land at Dübendorf where his Messerschmitt Bf 110G-4B./R3, which was equipped with the latest Lichtenstein SN-2b radar, was interned by the Swiss authorities. Fearful that the top-secret radar (which was the Luftwaffe's answer to the Allies "Window" anti-radar system) might fall into the hands of the Allies, the Germans eventually traded twelve new Bf 109G fighters in exchange for a Swiss guarantee that the interned aircraft with its new radar would be completely destroyed. 

More history on 28 Apr