Tuesday, 14 April 2026

Jens Bechler 'Aufschlagbrand' - Ta 152, Alteno

Recently David M got in touch to say that a small A-5, 160-page book by Jens Bechler entitled 'Aufschlagbrand' - first published in 2009 and reprinted last year - had published a 'new' and particularly rare image of the well-known JG 301 Ta 152 line-up photographed at Alteno (near Dresden) in February 1945.  


Author Bechler, based in Dresden, was the founder of the organisation 'Vermisstenforschung' devoted to wartime crash-site investigations. In his book and work at crash sites Bechler strives to elucidate the fates of those aviators 'killed in action' in the last few months of the war as the Soviets closed in on Dresden. The airfield at Alteno - developed by the Russians post-war with the construction of a concrete runway - lies some 70 miles north of Dresden and south-west of the Focke Wulf production plant at Cottbus.  Unfortunately there are no credits and no information about the image in the book. Or anywhere else for that matter. The publisher Flugbücher Verlag in Pirna, on the Elbe river near Dresden, does not appear to be a going concern. I have attempted to contact the author himself but with no result. As for the image - well, the book has little or no Ta 152 content either!