Date:	Sunday 26 November 1944
Time:	morning
Type:	Messerschmitt Me 262 A-2a
Owner/operator:	1./KG 51 Luftwaffe
Registration:
MSN:	9K+PK, rote P
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	3 km south of Kirchwistedt, Niedersachsen -   Germany
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Hopsten
Destination airport:

Narrative:
26 November 1944 was a busy day for KG 51. Starting from 0936 hrs, five Schwärme of four Me 262s each took off from Hopsten in a wide-ranging operation, each carrying two SD 250s bombs against enemy artillery positions at Roermond, Duerne, Nijmegen and Helmond.

The third Schwarm took off around 0945 hrs, led by Oblt Heinz Lehmann of 1./KG 51, who flew along with three pilots of 2./KG 51, Uffz Horst Sanio, Uffz Joachim Kroll and Uffz. Heinz Erben. None of them returned to the base. Kroll landed at Achmer and Erben made an emergency landing near Plantlünne.

Oblt Heinz Lehmann was killed in the crash of his Me 262 3 km south of Kirchwistedt, SE of Bremerhaven, Germany. Reason of the crash was listed as unknown, but he probably ran out of fuel. Lehmann is buried at Stade, Garnisons-Fdh Reihe 1, Grab 23. The WNr of his Me 262 is not known, it might have been 170299 (9K+PK).

The case of the fourth pilot is more clear. That morning, 2875 Sqn RAF Regiment, whose AA guns were protecting the airfield B.86 under construction near Helmond, saw three Me 262s that dropped four HE bombs approximately two miles NE of the airfield, without damage or casualties. The AA guns targeted one of these jets flying at 2,000 feet and fired 32 round, claiming one hit. The plane was last seen loosing height with smoke pouring from it, traveling NE.

They had hit the Me 262A-2A WNr 170120 flown by Uffz Horst Sanio. The damaged jet crashed at about 1000 hrs in front of the farm of H. Wentink, Stuwdijk 5 Vorden (Neth.), 1 km NNO of “De Wildenborch” castle, near Lochem, Netherlands (in German-held territory). The pilot flew his aircraft low from the ZW to the NE, just missing some treetops and made a very heavy crash landing in a field, stopping in front of a farmhouse. One of the bombs, which he was carrying, went through the front wall of this farmhouse and was found in one of the barns at the back of this farmhouse.

Sanio was severely wounded, transported to the farm and collected by the Germans about one hour later. He died of his injuries in the military hospital at Almelo four days later. He was buried in Almelo until 1949 when he was reburied in Ysselsteyn German War Cemetery, as almost all German war dead in the Netherlands.

On 25 July 2006 the ARGA carried out an investigation of the field where this Me 262 was supposed to have crashed according to available data. After aproval of the landowner, the field was investigated with metal detecting equipment during a hot summer evening. The ARGA suspected that the crashsite was very well cleaned by German forces during the war. But one account of an eywitness could could mean that there was more to be found than only small parts! He mentioned that the aircraft was destroyed over a large area and that the Germans had problems to get their vehicles in to the field because of it being very soggy. But it became clear that the assumptions of the ARGA proved to be correct.... only very small remains were found. And these parts didn’t prove that a Me262 had crashed in that field! But, at last, after a long evening three turbine blades of the Jumo004B jet engine were found and proved that the aircraft that crashed there was that of Uffz Horst Sanio.

http://www.arga-nl.nl/pages/vorden_me262a_uk.html
http://www.defensie.nl/binaries/defensie/documenten/brochures/2008/04/08/verliesregister-1944/verliesregister-1944.pdf
"Osprey Combat Aircraft 83: Me 262 Bomber and Reconnaissance Units", by Robert Forsyth. ISBN 978-1-84908-750-6
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=33756
http://www.ghostbombers.com/kf4/KG%2051/kg51fight_1.html
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchwistedt
http://www.maplandia.com/germany/niedersachsen/luneburg/cuxhaven/kirchwistedt/
Foreman, Me262; Horn; RT (HW5/624); GQM (766/12, ber, z; "Lehmann, Heinz"); VDK

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
22-Nov-2018 08:20	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
21-Oct-2019 19:20	TigerTimon	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Cn, Source]
09-Dec-2019 15:23	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]