Our latest eArticle, One of the First to Fall by Adam Thompson, is now available here. This short but fascinating story covers the life and death of Lt. Heinz Biereye, an observer who served with the Henschel 126-equipped reconnaissance Staffel, 2.(H)/Aufklärungsgruppe 31.
The story was actually the result of Adam ordering the incorrect personnel file from the Bundesarchiv – he thought he was getting the PERS 6 file for a pilot with the surname Biereye that flew with IV./KG z.b.V. 1. Instead, he received the personnel file for Heinz, and decided to do something with the information contained therein. We were then able to source photographs and colour profiles of Biereye’s aircraft, and the eArticle came together very nicely.
An unassuming individual born in Wahlstatt, near Liegnitz, the story behind Biereye’s path to war was one shared by countless others in Germany and Austria during the 1930s. Beginning his military service with the infantry, Heinz Biereye soon transferred to the Luftwaffe, training as an aerial observer for the short-range reconnaissance branch of the German air force. Although his first posting was to 3.(H)/14 in Austria, several months before the Second World War began, Biereye found himself near the Polish border, having recently been transferred to his new unit, 2.(H)/31. Attached to the 5. Panzer-Division, he and his Staffel were ready to participate in the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Assigned to a combat sortie on the opening day of the invasion, his operational service would last just a single day. Operating in the region of Auschwitz, his aircraft was engaged by the Polish defenders and forced down; the seriously wounded observer would die later that day. With assistance from some Polish researcher friends, we have been able to identify which troops and Polish air force pilots fired upon Biereye’s aircraft that morning.
The loss of Heinz Biereye was the first casualty suffered by 2.(H)/31 during the Second World War, as he became one of the first Luftwaffe airmen to fall during the conflict.
The article is accompanied by seven photographs, an overview map, three tables, two colour profiles of Biereye’s aircraft on his fateful flight and the unit emblem of 2.(H)/31, all by Clint Mitchell, a glossary, and a complete sources list. Although not someone whose name adorns the history books, the story of Lt. Heinz Biereye is, nonetheless, an interesting insight into the ordinary experiences of an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary times.
