The sky was clear , the morning of 5 September 1944. The sergeant major
Maximilian Volke , 29, as he had always obeyed orders . "Nine bombers B -
25 Americans are flying over the Po valley to go to destroy the bridge
over the Po at Polegate . Bring them down . " Maximilian Volke , in the
base of Ghedi , started the engine of his Messerschmitt BF 109G6/U4 and
in a few minutes he was on ' objective. Maybe it was not even excited.
At nearly 30 years was a veteran : the Luftwaffe was considered a " Red
Baron " , because he had shot down 37 Allied planes : many hunting and
even some bomber . On the sky of Mirandola, along with another 3
Messerschmitt , he saw the planes 321esimo group of U.S. bombers .
He
shot with the 30 mm cannon , as he bursts from the two 13 mm machine
guns . One of the B -25 defenses. He was 11 machine guns with 7 gunners .
A gust struck the hunting of Maximilian Volke .
A fall of three
thousand feet , the crash between the rows of vines ripe . His was the '
last German fighter shot down in the Italian sky . His flock -
Jagdgeschwader / 77 - was recalled to Germany a few days later , on
September 15 . How crest had an Ace of hearts. The child Gianfranco
Comini, in the morning of September 5, 1944 , he was playing in the
courtyard of the elementary school in the center of Mirandola was the '
hour of recreation. Everyone stopped to play with the ball, when they
heard the explosions in the sky of a battle. "I saw a great American
plane , had around three or four smaller planes . You could hear the
machine guns . Then , one of the smaller planes began to fall .
I still
remember coming down strong and had the engine at full throttle . " The
outbreak among the rows , the smoke and the flames . " We ran all of
them away from school , see. We children were kept away . Soon after
came the Germans who sent them all away . " After 63 years, the tomb of
Maximilian Volke , born in Monaco May 23, 1915 , was found and the
German driver will have his funeral. Volke are preparing for the
funeral. We'll do it in September, Mirandola , hoping to be able to
contact some family members . " The " Red Baron " of Monaco has been
found in a July afternoon , after a long process of research of
documents and testimonies. "From the German cards - says Michele Becchi,
researcher and collaborator of the RAF ' historical institute of
Resistance of Reggio Emilia - we knew that what fell to a mile and a
half from the center of Mirandola could be your hunt for Volke . But
rest assured we 've only had it when we found his plate . "
The German
pilots , towards the end of '44 , they knew that most likely would have
found the victory instead of death. 'C ' is a detail that struck us and
moved. The Allied pilots , like all soldiers , carried the dog tag
around his neck. Those Germans held her in his pants pocket , inside a
leather bag . They had seen colleagues die , they knew that in the '
impact with the ground that it was armored bulkhead behind the pilot
would have crashed into the engine , destroying the upper part of the
body of the pilot. Volke also had the plate in his pocket. He wanted to
be identified , in the case of killing.
Perhaps also asked that funeral
we can do just now. " A Mirandola Ugo Tassinari , municipal employee ,
he sought the testimony of those who saw then , and has passed all '
Association Raf. " Cavicchioli Attilio , who was also a child, was among
those who ran away in here after the fall of the Imperial hunting. She
was able to indicate the precise point of the ' impact' . The old also
recall other stories. "At the end of '46 , or '47 , an elderly gentleman
came in Mirandola . He was looking for his son fell right here .
Also
paid some laborers , because dug between the rows of vines . A year
later he also introduced a young German who said he was the brother of
the pilot. But with spades and shovels laborers made a hole two or
three feet and found nothing . " They were 40 feet deep, the remnants of
the Luftwaffe pilot ." Fortunately, there 's still some who remember. "
In San Bernardino Lugo - was March 22, 1944 , is the testimony of Dina
Bagnara - while we were behind the house to clean the grain, there was a
battle in the air because there ' was the Germans who fought with the
British. We looked : all those planes seemed swallows up there , they
were so high. Then a German plane crashed in front of our house ' . "
The Germans took skilled workers for the drilling of wells to recover
the remains of Allied planes , especially to study the weapons and
techniques of construction. The craters caused by their aircraft were
instead covered with earth. Maximilian Volke for more than sixty years'
was only a memory, to the children playing in the schoolyard . After the
funeral in September, will be buried in the German cemetery at the Futa
Pass . On the marble, next to the name , an Ace of hearts.
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