Ofw. Karl Maish 2.NJG100

[Dominik Koscielny]

Greetings, I am looking for any information on Ofw. Hans Maisch.
Ofw. Karl Maish was a winner in two combats in night October, 16/17, 1944. However I'm especially interested in his victory over the Liberator KH-152 "F" the story of which together with the incident description prepared for the Red Cross few years after the war I've attached to this letter.

Next year on the anniversary of that event we'd like to unveil the plaque in the place of both the death of the aviators and the plane crash. We hope we'll manage to gather the families of the crew members at the ceremony - we've already established connection with some of them.

This year on the anniversary of the crash we were visited by Jack Cowan - son of the Liberator's rear gunner. It was a very moving meeting.

As you can see, information about the winner - Karl Maish, is the last thing needed to fully reconstruct this story. I believe his photos and biography details can still be found somewhere, especially if he survived the war... Maybe someone from his family is still alive? I'll be very obliged if you will help me to obtain any information about him.

Dominik


It is concerned researching Zabrnie, 20th May 1947
British aviators’ graves.


To
The Polish Red Cross Regional Office
in Dąbrowa Tarnowska.


On October 6, 1944, at about nine o’clock in the evening, local dwellers in Bukowiec near Szczucin, noticed an aircraft over woods flying to the East and making a round, then she got a heading to the South. The plane was burning when was flying over Brzezówka , the Szczucin gmina.
The next day, in the morning, it was found out that two British aviators , who were memebers of the aircraft crew , were in hiding in a forest near Bukowiec. Mister Szymon Dziekan, an English translator form Brzezówka, was brought and during a conversation with these airmen he got an information that the aircraft crew consisted of eight members and one of them came from Africa.He was tall and of full face, frizzy with black hair, aged 23. A captain of the Polish Army alias “Wiatr” (Wind) from Świdrówka village, the Szczucin gmina looked after them.
The third man of survived aviators was accidentally captured by housed here Germans.Unfortunately, witnesses cannot mention the names of the saved airmen.
The fourth member of the crew hit the ground at Brzezówka area, on the Szymon Dziekan’s field, getting the immediate death there.According to a witness he could be a quite tall whitey of profuse hair, aged 21. According to the field owner’s statement, his name may have been MacWilliam. The airman was buried in the same place he died by Władysław Knutelski from Słupiec, the Szczucin community and the filed owner’s son Bronisław Dziekan. from Brzezówka.
The fifth aviator was found on Władysław Szarka’s field in Brzezówka and was buried in the place where he was found. According to a German gendarme, who took away all his papers ( ID card, etc...), the aviator was an officer. The crew memeber was quite tall and of an oblong face , aged 21. His body was seen by me, who is writing the report, as well.
The body of the sixth airman was found and buried in Kazimierz Łachuta’s field in Brzezówka. His personal papers were saved and are kept by Józef Sroka in Brzezówka.
All of these three dead aviators died when bailing out the burning plane. Their graves are looked after by Youth Section of the Polish Red Cross of the Primary School in Zabrnie, the Szczucin community.
The burning aircraft was continuing farther gliding to the South of Brzezówka and crashed finally at neighbouring district Łęg, in Radgoszcz village , two kilometres of Brzezówka.Two aviators who were still on the aircraft board, were killed when the plane crashed. Both airmen were buried by local people in Franciszek Szczupek’s field from Łęg. Unfortunately there wasn’t any possibility of finding out their names because all their personal records were taken away by Germans.
According to local dwellers, Władysław Irla from Łęg, found near the crash place , a picture of three airmen which had been left by Germans. But it hasn’t been verified.


Stanisław Krajewski
A head-master
in Zabrnie, the Szczucin gmina.
The Patron of the Youth Section of The Polish Red Cross.