Webmaster's Comments: - There are many who believe that modern day journalism leaves a great deal to be desired when it comes to accuracy of detail.
It would appear that someone had an excellent idea in running a follow-up article pertaining to the crash of a U-2 at Rockenhausen. The follow-up article, however, has many errors in detail. First and foremost is the fact that the U-2 crash took place on 17 September 1956, not March 1955 as mentioned in the article. Then we zero in on the comment that the U-2 was shot down by our own interceptors. The actual "cause of the crash" has never been determined (to the best of my knowledge). There are a number of "generally accepted theories" discussed on this web site, the Internet, and in books - but, there has not been (again, to the best of my knowledge) a difinitive explanation as to what really happened. Let us assume that the U-2 had been shot down by friendly forces - I would expect that this would be the last thing that American sources would admit to the public at large.
We have been able to determine where the crash point was located, and we have been able to determine the time of the incident - but it is doubtful that we shall ever determine the true cause of the incident.
50 years ago.
When an airplane exploded over the North palatinate
Rockenhausen: Eyewitnesses tell about a fall of an US-Reconnaissance airplane in March, 1955. Fragments scattered up to Langmeil.
During these days it is the 50th anniversary of a spectacular event which put the North palatinate at that time in excitement. However, it was subjected to the classification secret and the public was not informed.
It was a clear day in March 1955. Armin Engels taught as a young teacher in the elementary school (today vocational school) in Alleestrasse in Rockenhausen, which was a year before put in service. From the schoolyard he observed with a colleague how an airplane high in the sky broke and became to spin down. The policeman Willi Jost saw from the police station at the Winnweiler market place more accurate details. He saw two airplanes flying very high in the sky. Suddenly one airplane started to a curve and exploded in the air. Jost informed immediately the Americans in Sembach. He met the Air Base Commander and he set off with him to the Reiterhof, there in the near he supposed, the crash site would be. The court inhabitants had also got the crash and sent the uniformed in direction Hintersteinerhof where they also found the place. However, they were not the first.
Rubbernecks were sent away. Kurt Janz, the fire brigade commander of Rockenhausen was already there. He was immediately sent away too, like other sensation-seekers, who had appeared. Nobody was allowed to approach the site of the crash. The face of the American commander fell, remembers Jost. It was namely the American reconnaissance plane U-2.
The flight had not been announced and so our own interceptors had shot down the plane. Fragments were scattered because of the high flight altitude from Langmeil to Rockenhausen. One found a piece of the wing near the churchyard in Langmeil. Siegfried Scheu from Rockenhausen succeeded in spite of American military police in taking photos unnoticed. On his snapshot one sees two American soldiers in front of the aircraft wreck.
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Updated: May 2, 2005
