In cooperation with
Omrop Fryslân
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NOS News•yesterday, 22:00
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SMAMF
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The German pilot Konstantin Benzien crashed in 1943 in the Frisian Opeinde. –
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SMAMF
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A German fighter aircraft Messerschmitt 109 –
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A German pilot who crashed his plane at the Frisian Opeinde in the Second World War has been identified after 79 years. Research by the Missing Airmen Memorial Foundation (SMAMF) has shown that it concerns non-commissioned officer Konstantin Benzien.
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His Messerschmitt Bf 109, a fighter plane, crashed on December 11, 1943 on a butcher’s shop near the village. Because it happened at high speed, the aircraft ended up deep in the ground.
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“Some wreckage parts were found on location, including a part of a propeller that shows the enormous impact this Messerschmitt has made”, researcher Alexander Tuinhout tells. Omrop Fryslân. “The most important object for us that was found here is a ring that Konstantin had on his finger. This brings you very close to the pilot.”
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Only some remains of the pilot were found. He was buried in an anonymous grave at the German War Cemetery in Ysselsteyn, Limburg. The SMAMF then tried for a long time to find out the name of the pilot.
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SMAMF
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The ring of the crashed German pilot –
Benzien’s plane was not the only plane to crash in the area on December 11. According to the SMAMF, at least twenty American and ten German aircraft crashed. This was because the Luftwaffe intercepted a group of American bombers, after which fierce dogfights broke out.
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Most victims could be identified fairly quickly. Archive research by the SMAMF shows that only two German pilots were missing on 11 December 1943: Friedrich König and Konstantin Benzien. One of them had to be the victim at Opeinde.
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In 1999 it became clear that König had died at the Drentse Peest. According to the SMAMF, this made it clear that it was Benzien who died at Opeinde. However, the German authorities only identify people on the basis of DNA evidence and that was not there yet.
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Oldest sister
According to Tuinhout, finding out the DNA of the Benzien family was not easy. “In the end we traced another sister in America, but she had also died,” says Tuinhout.
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Her grandchildren were no longer eligible to provide a DNA sample. “But they had envelopes that she had sent during her life and the National Forensic Institute was able to find DNA under the stamps and glue edges.”
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The DNA profile of the unknown pilot’s bones matched the DNA profile of the sister. This made it clear that it was Konstantin Benzien.
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Benzien is still buried in an anonymous grave, but according to Tuinhout that is about to change. “There it says now a German soldier a nameless grave,” says Tuinhout. “It has always been our goal to have that grave cross replaced by a cross with the name Konstantin Benzien and we have now received the green light for that.”
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