From TOCH!:
Richard T. Eger
Long distance flight claim
Sun May 9, 2025 16:53
69.72.3.86
Dear Rabe,
Thank you for your reply.
A new LWAG member has made the following claims:
'In James P O'Donnell's book "The Berlin Bunker" pub 1979, he directly quotes former Reichsminister Albert Speer whom he interviewed (p.251) saying
"a Luftwaffe test pilot had flown a Ju-390 non-stop from Germany to Japan over the polar route. [Hans] Baur would have known of this secret flight..."
I also read in the same book but cannot recall which page that Japan wished to place the Ju-390 aircraft into production, but plans (tools?) for the aircraft arrived by U-boat too late. The last such U-boats to arrive were U-219 and U-195 in November 1944 at Djakarta.
If as Speer said the Ju-390 made a flight late in the war then I am surprised why it would not have carried plans. The Japanese wanted a bomber to reach mainland USA to deliver an atomic bomb being developed by Japan's 8th Imperial Army laboratory in Hungnam Korea.'
I would appreciate your and anyone else's comments on these claims.
Regards,
Richard