cables were also repaired. Returned on 12 April, the strut was reinstalled and an attempt was made to take off the following day after all excess equipment was removed to lighten the plane, The clearing was too short, the B-24 bogged down in mud, and the nose strut again broke. The crew destroyed the airframe by punching holes in the fuel tanks and setting it alight with a flare pistol. 18 April Luftwaffe experten (ace, with 176 victories), Oberst Johannes Steinhoff of the jet experten Jagdverband 44 had a tire blow out on take-off from Munich-Riem Airport when his Messerschmitt Me 262 hits a bomb crater. Steinhoff took off, but could not reach sufficient flying speed and crashed. Severely burned, he spent two years in hospital. 19 April During an Eighth Air Force raid on a marshaling yard in Aussig, Czechoslovakia, Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Me 262s shot down five Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. The fifth, Boeing B-17G-5-BO Flying Fortress 42-31188 ("Dead Man's Hand") of the 709th Bomb Squadron, 447th Bomb Group (piloted by Lt. Robert F. Glazener on its 111th combat mission), was the last 8 AF heavy bomber lost to Axis fighters in the European theatre. Seven of its eight crew members escaped from the plane. 21 April As the Red Army closed in on Berlin, Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann implemented Operation Seraglio: a plan to evacuate keyand favouredmembers of Hitler's entourage from the Berlin bunker. Junkers Ju 352, c/n 100003, KT+VC, loaded with Adolf Hitler's personal property, left Berlin at about 5 am for Ainring (near Salzburg) piloted by Major Friedrich Gundlfinger. Among 16 passengers were Hitler's valet, SS Sgt Wilhelm Ardnt, and Hitler's bodyguard Max Fiebes. The plane flew low over the Heidenholz Forest, clipping treetops and tearing loose one of its three engines, before crashing and burning near Börnersdorf (south of Dresden). Of its two reported survivors, one later died of their injuries. "A farmer from nearby Bernersdorf [sic], supervising Russian and French forced-labourers, heard screams and hammering from the Junkers, but was able to help only the tailgunner who was able to crawl clear. On hearing of the disaster Hitler was devastated by the loss of Arndt, rather than of his archives." Deutsche Luft Hansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200B-2 Condor D-ASHH, c/n 0009, "Hessen", hastily loaded with the baggage of the Berlin Headquarters Staff as part of Operation Seraglio, left Berlin Tempelhof Airport for Barcelona via