Air raids on Ingolstadt
The air raids on Ingolstadt during the Second World War culminated from January to April 1945.
From 1943/44, major Bavarian cities were also increasingly threatened by air strikes by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces . Smaller cities like Ingolstadt were initially spared. It was not until the beginning of 1945 that the aerial warfare hit this city on the Danube and changed its cityscape. The bombing raids on Ingolstadt left around 650 dead. At least twelve Allied aviators were killed, one of whom was murdered by a Nazi functionary .
prehistory
After the landings in Normandy in June 1944 and Operation Dragoon in southern France in August 1944, the Allied armies penetrated across France to near the German imperial borders within a few weeks . The summer offensive of the Red Army pushed the German troops back into the Vistula region and the East Prussian border. At the beginning of 1945, the airspace over the entire Reich territory was almost unrestrictedly controlled by the Allies. Because of the increasingly weaker German defense, they were increasingly able to switch from the less precise night attacks to the previously more dangerous day attacks.
On September 10, 1944, USAAF fighter pilot Major John R. Reynolds was shot down over Ingolstadt. To avoid civilian casualties, he pulled his falling Mustang P-51 over a residential building and only parachuted out at a height of 50 meters. He was slightly injured on landing and was captured by the police. The Ingolstadt NSDAP district leader Georg Sponsel, a fanatical Nazi, had himself handed over to the prisoners of war under a pretext and shot him. The pilots murder led after the war to the conviction and execution Sponsels.
Up until the beginning of January 1945, the Ingolstadt area had been spared combat operations, but the "war on the home front" began to take on dramatic forms.
January 15, 1945
On January 15, 1945 Ingolstadt experienced the first major air raid on the city area. In the early hours of the morning, 640 long-range bombers and 782 fighter planes were made ready for take-off on the bases of the 8th Air Force stationed in south-east England. The daily deployment saw air strikes on marshalling yards in southern Germany. For the target of Ingolstadt, the 1st Bombardment Division deployed 111 bombers from the B-17 "Flying Fortress" (flying fortress) .
At 11:55 a.m. the air warning center for the greater Ingolstadt area gave an air raid alarm , which, however, was largely ignored by the population due to a large number of previous false alarms .
The extremely poor visibility in the Danube region had a decisive influence on the planned bombing of the southern German marshalling yards, which is why alternative targets had to be chosen on site. In Ingolstadt, this should be the munitions plant ( Muna ) near Desching (today's location of the Esso refinery). The lead bomber (pathfinder) had set the target marker bomb ( "Christmas tree") on the H2S navigation radar above the thick cloud cover , whereupon the first wave began just a few seconds later with the dropping of 480 high-explosive bombs and 330 incendiary bombs. The fact that the marker bomb was set just a fraction of a second too early had devastating consequences for the village of Feldkirchen. Most of the bombs fell on the old town center in the area around Marienplatz, with 70% of the buildings having to be recorded as total losses. As a result of this attack on Feldkirchen 22 people were killed. The actual target, the Army Munitions Plant Ingolstadt near Desching - about 2 km further north - was missed. The second wave then dropped 1278 cluster bombs over the southern part of the city, between Haunwöhr and the flood dam, as well as on undeveloped areas near the restaurant "Bonschab". Another wave hit the area at Nordbahnhof, Ober- and Unterhaunstadt, and the leaflet newspaper “ Nachrichten für die Truppe ”, issue of January 12, 1945, was also dropped.
The final report of the local air raid protection officer recorded 28 dead and 29 wounded in the city area, as well as 22 dead and 7 seriously injured in Feldkirchen. On the following Friday, January 19th, the funeral ceremony for the first Ingolstadt air war victims took place in the morning with great sympathy from the population. The coffins covered with swastika flags were laid out in front of the funeral hall of the municipal cemetery . The NSDAP staged this funeral service with great propaganda effort according to a fixed ritual and representatives of the party, the state, the armed forces, the city and even a Hungarian delegation who happened to be in Ingolstadt lined the square in front of the funeral hall together with the relatives.
Hateful speeches by the Nazi leaders from Ingolstadt against the “Anglo-American murder pilots” and loyalty to “Führer, Volk and Vaterland” were intended to provide consolation and support for the bereaved. The names of the Ingolstadt victims were read out accompanied by the gentle roll of drums. After the numerous wreath-laying ceremonies, the act of mourning ended with the singing of Nazi songs.
March 1, 1945
For Thursday, March 1, 1945, the 8th Air Force had actually planned strategic attacks on airfields by the dangerous new Messerschmitt Me 262 interceptors. However, since the meteorologists announced bad weather, the planned targets had to be changed. 253 Consolidated B-24 "Liberator" bombers of the 2nd Air Division in East England were targeted at the Ingolstadt railway station with the Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk (RAW).
At 12:56 p.m. the air raid warning station for the Ingolstadt area gave the 183rd air raid alarm. In order to find the planned targets even when the cloud cover was completely closed, the navigators of the bomber association used their H2X radars . The tightly closed formation of the four-engine B-24 flew to Ingolstadt Central Station from the west . He was undefended because the Ingolstadt anti-aircraft forces had been relocated to particularly endangered "first-order air raids" such as Munich, Nuremberg or Augsburg since 1944. From 1:31 p.m. to 1:35 p.m., the bombers set off 603.3 tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs in three waves in rapid succession above the clouds from a height of around 5500 meters. In addition, a large number of leaflets, forged food cards (travel meat stamps) and arson agents (sabotage) stuck on red cardboard were dropped. The major attack took place over an area of around 14 km along the railway line from Reichertshofen to Oberhaunstadt, with the main focus of the attack concentrated on the northern old town area.
Large parts of the old town were in ruins. The rescue workers in Ingolstadt had to deal with completely new and unfamiliar tasks. People buried had to be rescued at a total of 32 damage sites. In addition to numerous residential buildings, the cultural building department in the Ballhaus on Paradeplatz, built in 1593, was completely destroyed.
Under the most difficult conditions, over 100 people, mostly seriously ill and wounded, had to be rescued from the rubble of the badly destroyed city hospital on Sebastianstrasse. The air raid shelter on Rechbergstrasse, an underground corridor between the cavalier Elbracht and the Rechberg Front, had received a direct hit.
Extinguishing and rescue work continued through the night. Buildings in danger of collapsing had to be secured by the security forces, furniture had to be salvaged from damaged houses, streets had to be cleared of rubble, and dud sites had to be marked and cordoned off.
The attack on Ingolstadt, registered by the United States Air Forces as SA 3306, resulted in 197 dead and 107 wounded. There were 147 total write-offs and over 200 medium to severe damage to buildings throughout the city.
Chief of staff of the 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing involved in this attack on Ingolstadt was the well-known American actor James Stewart . The following day the German Reichsender München broadcast the succinct message from the Wehrmacht report : “During yesterday's terrorist attacks in south, south-west and south-east Germany, North American bomber groups again mainly destroyed the homes of the population. Serious damage occurred primarily in the urban areas of Ulm, Ingolstadt and Reutlingen ”.
March 4, 1945
Due to the bad weather conditions, the plan to bomb German air bases or industrial plants on March 4, 1945 could not be realized. Therefore, the 8th Air Force changed the planned deployment to alternative destinations in the Ingolstadt area. At 9:44 am, the air raid warning station for the Ingolstadt area initially announced a “small alarm” and a minute later the 184th air raid alarm since the outbreak of war. At around 10:12 am, 69 B-17 “Flying Fortress” flew to the city area from the west and south-east. In the area of the old town the view was good that day, but near the Danube it was very hazy and cloudy, so an attack from sight was only possible to a limited extent. Without radar, the first wave threw at 10:13 a.m. at the city limits near Kothau, the second wave at 10:14 a.m. at Luitpoldpark , the third wave at 10:17 a.m. along the Neuburg railway line, the fourth wave at 10:24 a.m. at the city limits near Haunwöhr and finally the fifth wave at 10:25 a.m. near Friedrichshofen a bomb load of 175.5 tons. The focus of the attack was on the Ingolstadt-Neuburg railway line.
The US target card "Ingolstadt # 4416" from March 4, 1945 documents why Haunwöhr was exposed to this massive attack. The railway lines were incorrectly identified on the reconnaissance photo with the station facilities. In the photo, the Donauwörther line is referred to as a double-track main line to Eichstätt. The actual Eichstätter line, on the other hand, shows the destination map as a branch line to Riedenburg.
April 5, 1945
In order of the day No. 928, the 8th Air Force provided for strategic bombardments of military installations in southern Germany on April 5, 1945. A total of 1,358 long-range bombers and 662 fighters were to be used to seriously disrupt German war logistics. The Heereszeugamt in Ingolstadt, one of the most extensive Wehrmacht magazines in military district VII (southern Bavaria), was assigned to the 1st US bomber division, which attacked fighters with 211 "B-17 Flying Fortress" bombers and 201 P-51 "Mustang" fighters as escort.
The target approach to Ingolstadt took place on this sunny and cloudless day by sight, but with additional radar navigation. At 11:11 a.m. the bomber association was near Ingolstadt and three minutes later the bombs fell in three waves over the parade ground between Ringlerstrasse and Ettingerstrasse, a total of 1575 high-explosive bombs with a total load of 621.4 tons as well as numerous leaflets with the information “Two doctrines - a decision ”and“ I cannot end the world war ”.
The northern part of the target area in particular resembled a single crater landscape. About 70% of the extensive facilities and hall buildings of the Army Equipment Office on Ringlerstrasse and the adjacent parade ground were destroyed. A direct hit completely destroyed one of the three new barracks blocks of the Max-Emanuel-Kaserne on Hindenburgstrasse. The adjoining residential area was also affected. Between Ettinger Straße and Spreti-Straße there were 19 total damage to residential buildings and 31 serious damage to buildings. There were 52 dead - 39 civilians in the area around the parade ground alone - as well as 56 seriously injured and 170 homeless.
April 9, 1945
Officially, no Allied air raid on Ingolstadt was planned for April 9, 1945, and yet this day was without a doubt the most fateful day in the history of Ingolstadt.
In the afternoon, tightly closed bomber formations first flew over the city area to fly missions to the Neuburg Air Base , the WIFO tank farm near Unterhausen and the Munich-Riem Airport. The German Jagdverband 44 under Lieutenant General Adolf Galland was stationed there with the Me-262 jet aircraft, which were technically highly modern at the time, and the attack by an association of 212 B-17 bombers was aimed at this air base. On the return flight to their locations in the south of England, the flight route of these 212 "flying fortresses" led again over Ingolstadt at an altitude of around 7000 meters. An air raid alarm triggered at 5:09 p.m. prompted the few passers-by in the city to flee to the nearest air raid shelter. After the enemy bomber association had almost flown over the city area, ten B-17 bombers suddenly left the formation at 5:15 p.m. and flew back in a U-turn. From a height of around 2500 meters, one of these aircraft placed a smoke marker over the old town area. The remaining nine bombers flying in from the south-westerly released their relatively low residual load of only 29 tons of explosive and incendiary bombs in just one minute, from 17:17 to 17:18.
This air raid turned large areas with a focus on "Adolf-Hitler-Platz", as the Rathausplatz was called at the time, into a landscape of rubble. Several direct hits on the Augustinian Church , built by Johann Michael Fischer in 1736 , with the adjoining Franciscan monastery on Schutterstrasse were particularly serious. In the basement of this rococo church, 73 people seeking protection, mostly refugees from Pomerania, died. Only one young woman, who could only be recovered from the broken monastery cellar after ten hours, survived.
The destruction of the Hl.-Geist-Spital was equally serious, because since hardly any resident had visited the shelter, most of them stayed in their rooms or in the stairwell during the bombing. Of the almost 100 elderly people, 16 were killed in this bomb attack. Other explosive devices destroyed the former government building with the historic Salzstadel, the city theater on Rathausplatz, the new municipal administration building on Schäffbräustraße, the newly built Danube Hall on Tränktorstraße, the Roli cinema, as well as numerous residential and commercial buildings in the area of Rathausplatz, Donaustraße, Münzbergstraße and Schäffbräustraße.
Around 100 people were seriously injured when they were buried, and more than 1,000 citizens were left homeless as a result of the enormous building damage. The alarm condition ended that day at 19:42 with the “all clear”.
That the attack on Ingolstadt was not planned can be seen from the documents of the United States Army Air Forces and it was only several days later that the high command found that the 390th Bombardment Group of the 13th Combat Bombardment Wing was responsible for this haphazard attack. The reason is that aircraft that still had residual bombs on board on the return flight had to get rid of their ballast, as otherwise a return to the base would have been questionable due to the higher fuel consumption.
For the 8th Air Force this Monday was an equally lossy day. After the aircraft of the 3rd Bombardment Division landed back on their English airbases, six B-17 bombers were missing and 42 were damaged. In addition, 56 crew members were missing and 2 men were reported as killed.
April 10, 1945
Eight P-47 “Thunderbolt” fighter-bombers attacked large areas around Ingolstadt with their on-board weapons on April 10, 1945 . Coming from the direction of Neuburg, at 1:36 p.m., they fell under fire on a fully loaded ammunition train parked at the freight yard. As a result of this attack, 4 wagons exploded, causing severe damage to the railway systems, killing 4 and injuring more than 70 people.
April 11, 1945
For the next day, a total of 1,303 bombers with 913 fighters were ordered to attack southern German supply and ammunition depots, as well as marshalling yards and air bases. The use # 941 saw on April 11, 1945, the 3rd Bombardment Division as main target the marshalling yard Ingolstadt, and the airbase Manching ago. With a cloudless sky, the bombers found their targets from 6000 meters above sight. The bomber association flew from Donauwörth with a strength of 21 waves with ten B-17 “Flying Fortress” each into the airspace of Ingolstadt. 13 waves of the 4th Combat Bombardment Wing initially attacked the Manchinger Air Base between 12:42 and 13:05. This attack, in which 369 tons of high explosive, incendiary and fragmentation bombs were dropped, destroyed large parts of the air base facilities including the runway and the numerous German Air Force aircraft that had been parked due to lack of fuel. Immediately after the start of the attack, the siren warning signal sounded in Ingolstadt at 12:53 p.m., but at exactly this point the head of the B-17 bomber formation had already reached the target area around Ingolstadt main station. In eight waves, the five groups devastated the area around the station with a hail of bombs totaling 237 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs. In this attack, which lasted until 1:41 p.m., - in addition to numerous residential buildings in Ringsee and on Münchner Straße - the St. Anton elementary school, the school barracks on Tillystraße and the administration building of the Bavarian Insurance Chamber were totally destroyed. As a result of a direct hit, the tower of St. Anton's Church, which was built on a poor foundation, overturned and the fire bombs that were subsequently dropped left the rest of the heavily damaged church in flames.
The ammunition train that had been damaged from the previous day was still at the loading ramp of the goods handling area. When the railway system was attacked again, this ammunition train was hit hard again, whereupon one wagon after the other began to explode hour after hour. The damage to the tracks had completely interrupted through traffic and did not allow the train to leave the danger area. Because the rumor was spreading that the train's cargo consisted of “V-2 weapons” , a mass panic broke out in which thousands of women, children and old people in the cover of darkness with the essential hand luggage in open fields, gravel pits or in the alluvial forests flowed away from the city. Since the detonations of the train, which was gradually burning out, continued throughout the night, many of the residents who stayed behind suspected a night attack and, despite the "all clear" at 8:57 pm, spent the night in the cellars.
A preliminary damage overview was only possible on the day after next and it was found that 18 people died in the station area and 17 people in Ringsee / Kothau that night. According to estimates by the South Police Station, around 300 to 400 people had become homeless as a result of the large number of total damage to their homes.
April 16 and 20, 1945
On April 16, 1945, a more casual air raid on Ingolstadt took place. At around 2:10 p.m., the air raid sirens reported an "air raid alarm" and an hour later around 400 four-engine bombers flew over the city from the east. Without setting a target marker bomb, two planes from this retreating US bomber squadron dropped a total of eight high-explosive bombs, each weighing 500 pounds, at random on the eastern and western outskirts of the city. In addition to minor damage to property, some graves in the city's west cemetery were hit, with several buried corpses being thrown from their graves.
As can be seen from the entries in the air protection diary, the duration and frequency of the daily alarms increased noticeably in the following days. The urban area was almost constantly in a state of alarm, only the alarm levels were different.
April 20, 1945 brought the main battle line closer to Ingolstadt, as the 7th US Army took Nuremberg on that day .
Around 2:00 pm, about 80 Martin B-26 “Marauders” of the 9th Air Force flew across the city on a broad front and attacked the ammunition plant near Desching near Unterhaunstadt . In a dive, the bombs were released and important facilities on the Muna grounds were hit. The last wave hit the main ammunition chamber directly and triggered a chain reaction. This caused a huge explosion, the mushroom smoke of which was visible for several kilometers throughout the afternoon. Despite the severe destruction, this attack did not result in any deaths in the Muna. In contrast, two forced agricultural laborers lost their lives in an adjacent field .
April 21, 1945
Already during the night four B-17 bombers made reconnaissance recordings over Regensburg and Ingolstadt, at the same time threw German-language leaflets with the current news: “Nuremberg has capitulated” and in daylight the heaviest air raid on the city followed.
The Allies planned the destruction of the last still intact air bases and railway facilities for that day. For this reason, the 3rd Bombardment Division was originally supposed to bomb the air base in Landsberg am Lech . Due to the bad weather there, however, the attackers decided on Ingolstadt as an alternative target. The visibility over the urban area was good, but in the outskirts, as in the entire southern Danube region, it was extremely hazy. After around 50 enemy aircraft had been sighted in the Aichach area , the air raid warning center for Ingolstadt reported an "acute air hazard" at 10:10.
At 11:30 a.m., a formation of around 30 bombers flew over the city without attacking. At 11:41 a.m. the top of 212 B-17 bombers with 144 P-51 fighters as escorts came from the south-westerly direction in the city area. The wide range of bombs, consisting of a total of 348 bombs, was remarkable. 500 pounds and 35 pcs. 300 pound high explosive bombs, as well as 1682 pieces. Incendiary bombs of 250 pounds each, 2423 pcs. 120 pounds and 1178 pcs. 100 pounds of weight. The 4th Combat Bombardment Wing then attacked the Ingolstadt city area and the area around the main train station in five waves.
The first three waves of this attack laid a "carpet of bombs" characteristic of US air strikes over the old town area. Serious damage was caused to numerous residential and commercial buildings on both sides of Ludwigstrasse, including the former district office. The customs office building on Mauthstrasse and the town hall suffered moderate fire damage. Serious damage to buildings was also recorded from the Holzmarkt to the northeastern outskirts. The bombs also destroyed the clinic on the Eastern Ring Road. For this reason, medical care could only be maintained in the following period.
The attack of the 4th and 5th waves was aimed at the railway systems of the main train station, with massive bomb damage being recorded in the surrounding residential areas on Münchener Straße and Martin-Hemm-Straße. From a height of about 4,000 meters, the US aircraft dropped a total bomb load of 519 tons over Ingolstadt. In addition, the fighter planes used as escorts caused further damage with their non-stop gun fire.
This attack claimed 104 lives in the urban area of Ingolstadt, and 41 fatalities were recorded in Ringsee / Kothau. In the urban area, 123 residential buildings were totally destroyed and 131 buildings were severely damaged by explosives and fire bombs. This attack left around 2,000 people homeless.
On the return flight of this bomber fleet, a B-17 crashed as a result of anti-aircraft fire, killing eight crew members. Another B-17 was found missing and a US bomber reached the British base only badly damaged.
April 22-25, 1945
The air raid of April 21, 1945 was the last of its kind and Ingolstadt was a destroyed city. As a result of the burst supply lines, there was no water, gas or electricity. The most important traffic route at the time, the railway, was completely interrupted. The large number of bombed-out citizens who went in search of new homes to relatives or friends in the surrounding villages had to take their last belongings on foot or, at best, by bike. Even the large siren system, which was now familiar in everyday war life, was put out of operation by an explosive bomb.
Nevertheless, in the following days, US fighter-bombers flew low-level attacks against Ingolstadt with their on-board weapons. Hardly anyone dared to venture out onto the streets and whoever did so might pay for this recklessness with his life. No fewer than 28 fatalities from low-level aircraft fire have been recorded in the past four days. But this war also took its toll on the other side, the US fighter-bomber pilots, in the attack area over Ingolstadt several times. For example, on April 25, during a low-flying attack on the station area, the anti-aircraft aircraft stationed in the station hit a P-47 "Thunderbolt" from the 396th US fighter squadron on the wing. The machine then began to lurch, lost height and finally crashed at the bridgehead at Reduit Tilly . The 21-year-old pilot was killed.
surrender
After Nuremberg surrendered on April 20, the American offensive rolled on to Regensburg and Passau . Other US troops approached Ingolstadt from the Württemberg - Franconian area. Since April 17th, the 38th SS Grenadier Division "Nibelungen" advanced to the Danube. On April 17th, Heinz Greiner, the commanding general in the military district, declared the river to be the main battle line (HKL) and announced that he would hold the city under all circumstances. In the cocky propaganda jargon of the time, this was understood to mean “defense to the last cartridge”.
The Volkssturm and OT men and 500 Hitler Youths called in by the Nazi Gau leadership were under the orders of the local combat commander Major Paul Weinzierl . A fight for Ingolstadt threatened with fatal consequences. It was thanks to Weinzierl's considered actions that it didn't come to that. He ordered his troops south to the Hohenkammer area with sham orders.
On the night of April 20-21, false reports about the approach of enemy tanks began to circulate. The military, Nazi functionaries and the population faced uncertain days: will the city be defended, will there be house-to-house fighting?
On the morning of April 24, soldiers of the 352nd Volksgrenadier Division, who had previously been involved in violent defensive battles west of Eichstätt, came to Ingolstadt. At the same time, the 86th US Infantry Division with the 342nd and 343rd US Infantry Regiments had crossed the Altmühl at various points . Since the Ingolstadt large siren system had been destroyed in the last air raid on April 21, the bell of the minster proclaimed “tank alarm”. The majority of the population then went to the air raid shelters and spent the last days of the war there in constant uncertainty.
On an order from the General Command, withdrawing SS troops blew up the Danube bridges in Ingolstadt in the early morning of April 26th. From 1:00 a.m. to 4:58 a.m., the motorway bridge, the railway bridge and the Donaustraßenbrücke sank into the stream. On the morning of April 26th, the "Volksgrenadiers" withdrew to the south, whereupon the entire city area was halfway "peaceful".
By noon the US Army had encircled the city from the west and reached the Danube. From the bridgehead barracks, the German staff watched the Americans march on the northern bank of the Danube, but there were no more fighting. American fighter-bombers then attacked several times at low altitude along the south bank. Damage to the facade caused by low-level aircraft fire is still visible today on the northern brickwork of Reduit Tilly. Artillery smoke grenades finally enabled soldiers from three companies of the 86th US Division to cross the river unimpeded in assault boats at 7:20 p.m. At 11:00 p.m., another battalion of the 86th US Division struck downstream, between the road and railroad bridges that had been blown up, a track bridge over the Danube. Later that night, more troops with heavy equipment were able to cross over.
Only now did the Americans notice that there were still numerous German soldiers in the bridgehead. The Americans attacked and threatened to destroy the entire bridgehead with artillery and bombs. In front of the gate, a US parliamentarian with a white flag then demanded the surrender of the entire command post within 20 minutes. Since the combat commander was no longer able to act as a result of a weakness, the next highest ranking officer was given the task of handing over the city. On the morning of April 27, 1945, the entire bridgehead crew with a white flag gathered in front of the pioneer barracks on the bridgehead and moved to a prisoner-of-war camp the next day.
The 86th "Black Hawk" Infantry Division was able to advance to Manching on the same day. Another Danube crossing in the area between Donauwörth and Vohburg was successful, the way into the Alpine foothills and to Munich was open. On May 8, 1945, the headline of the Army newspaper "Stars and Stripes" announced: "Nazi Germany has unconditionally surrendered".
Statements by American forces confirm how great the danger would have been for the city on this day with only the slightest resistance. In fact, in the diaries of the 342nd US Infantry Regiment, an air raid on Ingolstadt was announced for April 26th at 6 a.m., but it was canceled again at 9:30 a.m.
See also
swell
- Unpublished 8th Air Force mission documents from 1945 (US National Archives, Washington)
- Final reports by the local air raid protection officer after the air raids (Ingolstadt City Archives)
- own records of contemporary witness reports
- Photos: all archive H. Fegert
literature
- Hans Fegert: Air raids on Ingolstadt . 3K-Verlag, Kösching, 1989.
- Ingolstadt City Archives: Ingolstadt under National Socialism. Ingolstadt, 1995.
- Hans Fegert: Target of attack INGOLSTADT . 3K-Verlag, Kösching, 2010.
Individual evidence
- ^ Christian Silvester: Major Reynolds' Survival and Dying , Donaukurier of September 20, 2012