Raising a He 219

from a watery grave that is.

Around 1.30pm i first saw the message on a Danish modeling board that a He 219 was to be raised today and tomorrow in nothern Jutland, about 1½ hours drive from here. I called some of the numbers on the webpage and was told where to go and to call again when I got there. Not letting a chance like that get away I was on my way within an hour.

Getting there, the salvage ships were very close to the shore 3-500m I'd say, so I suppose the 219 was trying to make an emergency landing there. The landscape behind the dunes certainly weren't inviting at all for a crash landing.



Getting the we called and we were picked up by a speedboat and brought on board the salvage ships. Pretty cool.

They had already picked up quite a few pieces. On the left is the left wing including the centre nacelle with gear. On the right is the lower aft fuselage, the big chunk being schräge musik ammo boxes and chutes. The guns weren't installed though and neighter were the wing armament. On the far back is a prop, an engine and cooler arrangement.



Interestingly the engine showed some katastropic damage that looked like a piston punching through the cylinder walls. Perhap that's what brought it down?

The guns in the belly tray was installed though as the only ones. Perhaps plane dedicated to training?



The planes characteristic y-shaped control stick



The ejector seats - still aboard. Radio operator to the left, pilot to the right



One of the last things we saw before starting back home was the raising of the right wing. Unfortunately it was in a bad shape and didn't look too good once on the deck.



What a day - quite an experience! And on top of that I got myself involved with these guys - they were talking about a 109 or 110 another place they were looking to raise too - hmmmmm interesting