I was wondering if anyone had heard anything about this or could validate this POW report? As ever with me, a visit to the archives always raises a few interesting documents. This particular document arose investigating the war diary of 'Y' division, the temporary scratch unit raised to counter a german thrust in the hills N.W of Bou Arada (just after Rommels tailwag in Kasserine). During Y Divs first battle for Steamroller farm (See an earlier thread) a number of commando and german casualties were put into the farm buildings by the Germans and later rescued in the 2nd battle by a joint coldstream and churchill tank force. For the first engagement the german forces were opperating well ahead of their supply lines and were being reinforced by air drop, however interrogating German pow's revealed that some of the casualties from steamroller had previously been evacuated by german 'Autogiro'. Now this may not have been relable, but its a funny thing to bring up if not. Does anyone know anything about the practice of using early helicopters in this front?
Fl 282 Flettner Fl 282 during flight trialsRoleHelicopterManufacturerAnton Flettner, Flugzeugbau GmbHIntroduced1942Retired1945 Primary user Luftwaffe Flettner Fl 282 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This helicopter was used on many occassions in the Mediterranean by the German Navy. Not sure if it was ever used for rescue etc, but it was only a single seater I believe. No Autogyro at the time, in my opinion, would have been up to the job of evacuation-rescue etc. I await other replies with interest. Regards Tom
