The murder of a captured RAF Sergeant in Eutingen/Pforzheim Warning:graphic images

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by Pollux5, Oct 3, 2011.

  1. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    Eutingen is a small village at the eastern suburb of Pforzheim. Till 1970 it has had its own townhall and an own mayor. During the 3. Reich it belonged to the Kreis Pforzheim with the known Kreisleiter Hans Christian Knab.

    Here is a map

    [​IMG]

    About Knab something can here been seen in another thread of mine.
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/prisoners-war/32689-murder-five-captured-raf-officers-warning-graphic-images.html

    In the night from 28th July to the 29th July 1944 there was an airraid at the city of Stuttgart in which the RAF had lost up to 40 crews.

    One Lancaster was brought down by a nightfighter at Eutingen near Pforzheim. It was the crew of No. 57 Squadron Type: Lancaster I Serial: ME864
    Code: DX-E

    I found some information about the crew and a small story about their last flight and the nightfighter who shot them down.

    Wardle Anthony D.F.C.

    When the NSDAP Kreisleiter Knab heard about that, he became busy and moved to Eutingen to thw townhall. Here he told the authorities that he doesn´t want any airmen to stay alive.



    And as there were not found any airmen yet he left the place. When during the day he heard that some were found alive, he send his men which would lead to the brutal killing of Fl/ Eng: Sgt. Cyril John Ludlow in the townhall of Eutingen.
     
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  2. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    The victim
    Fl/ Eng: Sgt. Cyril John Ludlow



    His Exhumation at the cemetery
    At the first picture his corpse is identified by broken leg and a greave he was wearing


    The next pictures are the entrance and exitwounds done by a small missile bullet in the head which caused his death.
     
  3. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    Here is a small Report by english authorities of what had happened
     
  4. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    This looks to be another brilliant thread...Well done !
     
  5. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

  6. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    Testimony of the whitness Karl Geuss about what had happened.
     
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  7. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    This looks to be another brilliant thread...Well done !

    Thanks, but I have to thank you. Without you I would have nothing. Your efforts bring me so much further in the investigation of war crimes done in my homearea.
    Is it possible to read the testimony? I can read it, but I also have a large display.

    Is it possible that there was no trial in this case?
     
  8. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    .....
     
  9. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    This is the townhall of Eutingen where it had happened. Maybe I will get an historical picture of it the next time I´m in our townarchive. You still can see the horn from the cold war times.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    The files from the Eutingen case are very detailled. Even Photos of the whitnesses are present.
    This is the Deposition of Rothfuss, the local dentist. And a picture of him.
     
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  11. BFBSM

    BFBSM Very Senior Member

    You make some of the most interesting posts!

    Mark
     
  12. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    Thanks Mark.
    I think it is fantastic when history comes further you. Even if there has been cruelties.
    Sometimes for me reading the war crime files is like reading a detective novel with the fact that it has rael happened and in my neighbourhood.
     
  13. Varasc

    Varasc Senior Member

    Extremely fascinating topic.
     
  14. At Home Dad (Returning)

    At Home Dad (Returning) Well-Known Member

    fascinating, dreadful stuff.

    Well done again :)
    What became of the dentist?
    Perhaps he's still alive, eh!
     
  15. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Thanks Pollux for revealing the background to this case.

    I cannot see the full presentations from dial up.....very very slow to load up.

    However, a further look at the case regarding the murder of the Pilot (F/O A.V H Wardle) and Flight Engineer (Sgt C D Ludlow) was that the two accused SA men, Franz Schroth and Willi Schwab were not convicted of murder due to lack of evidence........seems a strange verdict.Does the document clarify this.

    No 57 Squadron Association might have some detail on this case.

    Regarding the status of the SA.While the Allied authorities at Nuremburg decreed that the SS and its off shoots and the NSASP were criminal organisations,the SA were not so endorsed.
     
  16. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    fascinating, dreadful stuff.

    Well done again :)
    What became of the dentist?
    Perhaps he's still alive, eh!

    Unfortunately he is not longer alive. Might be a Methusalem otherwise. But his son, Werner Rothfuss, whos name is infact Werner Rothfuß, ist still alive and lives nowadays 3 villages far from Pforzheim.
    He also was a whitness and when I had a telephonecall to him today he assured to me that he can still remember the day and that he can also remember the screams coming from the closed window of the townhall. Unfortunately he is over 80 and sitting in a wheelchair so it won´t be possible to revisit together with him the scene for further explanations.

    This is him and his Desposition.
     
  17. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    .....
     
  18. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    There was a trial. But the trial was not named after Eutingen or Pforzheim in contrast to the case of Pforzheim/Huchenfeld.

    This maybe the reason why the case is not even known by our town archiv. Tomorrow I will do researches there. But I´m not hopefull. Dissappointingly they collected nothing about the warcrimes done in our community.
     
  19. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    ..........
     
  20. Pollux5

    Pollux5 Senior Member

    ...............
     

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