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Hidden German jet bunker surprised Erie tank driver
By KEVIN FLOWERS
Morning News staff reporter (1994)
It was a sight Army Sgt. Al Guzowski still cannot forget. From 1943 to 1946 Guzowski, an Erie native, was a
tank driver for the U.S. Army's 14th Armored Division 48th Tank Battalion, Company C.Between April 21 to May 8, 1945, the 48th Tank Battalion moved across Germany, seizing crossings over the Danube River,
advancing to Postbauer and captured the only known German jet-propelled wing in the Luftwaffe, the German air force. But the capture of a well-camouflaged German airfield and hangar several miles outside
Jettenbach, Germany is Guzowski's most vivid memory. "I would estimate the hangar there could have held 50 to 60 planes. It was just an awesome sight,'' Guzowski, a retired Hammermill Paper Co.
employee, said. "You know, when you fight all the time for half a dozen months, you have to go into battle thinking it's just like another day. You cannot be shocked or scared by too many things. "When I first saw that complex though, boy, I was shocked. I just could not believe how big it was.'' The airfield consisted of a single runway and a one "huge'' hangar which contained
"jets in various stages of repair,'' Guzowski said. "Everything was well camouflaged, so that it could not really be seen. Our airplanes couldn't see it from the air,'' he said. "There
were people all over that complex. We captured at least a thousand (Germans) there. They were pilots, soldiers, maintenance men.'' Under the command of Lt. Col. John C. Cavin, the 48th crossed
the bridge at Jettenbach and traveled 35 kilometers through enemy territory to accept the Germans' surrender that day, according to Guzowski. Death was a constant, but as a soldier "you could not afford to
think about it,'' he said.
"We had been fired on by a lot of those planes we seized, and a lot of our people were killed by those bombs they dropped. It was nice to see that all put out of action,''
Guzowski said. "In war, you have to go in fighting. You have to come prepared every day, like we did that day at Jettenbach.''
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