Talk:Armin Faber

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Biography: Military

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Military history: World War II

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Oberleutnant or Oberstleutnant?

The lead gives Faber's rank as Oberleutnant (first lieutenant), the infobox as Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel). Which is it?24.108.51.53 (talk) 00:58, 23 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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The rest of the story ...

The story currently ends with "Faber was later driven to RAF Fairwood Common for interrogation" and almost shot accidentally on the way there; the rest of the article relates how the RAF used his aircraft. Since the subject of this article is the person, not the incident or the aircraft, his story should not be cut off there.

What happened to him at RAF Fairwood Common? Was he tortured to death, held prisoner until the war ended, rewarded for presenting the RAF with such a windfall? What did he do after the war? How was he treated on his return to Germany? When did he die? He's a fascinating guy; learning what became of him after such a bizarre incident would be at least as interesting as what the RAF did with his plane (yawn!).—104.244.192.66 (talk) 00:43, 6 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

https://fcafa.com/2011/10/26/unintentional-gift

Roger Bellamy wrote on 19 April 2018 (link above) a much more plausible tale...

Lovely story. However my father, who was actually on the pan as Faber circled Pembrey (he was an armourer returning to his section) ran to the twin-Lewis guns which constituted the airfield defence when he saw the FW bank on final approach, displaying the crosses. He was still running for the guns when he saw the a/c waggle its wings, the agreed signal for surrender, and lower its undercarriage. At this point he turned away from the Lewis guns and ran to dispersal, arriving as Faber was being ushered towards the station commander’s car at gunpoint. He distinctly heard Faber say, in heavily accented English, “Hitler is mad, he must be stopped….he is sending Germany to ruin…” My father, that evening, send the story to my mother in a letter which amazing passed the censor and has since become part of family history. My father was not one to ever make a story up, he was quite an exact, pedantic character. It is interesting that Faber was apparently repatriated under false pretences in 1944 – clearly his countrymen were not aware of the ‘mistakenly landed’ scenario. If ever was an accepted story full of holes it must be this one – on a fine day, with an undamaged a/c, an experienced pilot who has just shot down two opponents mistakes north for south and thus lands his undamaged frame on an enemy airfield without making any attempt to immobilise it before he is taken prisoner. This is instead, the story of an exceptionally brave man who did his best to thwart Hitler – and then went back to continue the fight. My hat off to him. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.149.86.124 (talk) 22:26, 15 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A little more to this

The YouTube channel "Caliban Rising - Aviation History" has a video about the defection/loss incident that Faber was involved in. See "Beyond the Myth: Uncovering Why a FW 190 Really Landed in Wales in 1942". He claims to have spoken/communicated with someone who knew Faber, and the story from that person indicates that Faber realized that he was too far from base to return on the fuel he had aboard, but instead of following standing orders to jump out on a parachute, letting the aircraft crash, in order to deny the enemy the chance to examine the aircraft, decided to land instead in order to surrender. The reason he did this is because he had had a bad experience (breaking his back in two places) in a previous flying accident, and was afraid that a parachute landing fall would exacerbate the previous injury. The whole thing about claiming he lost his way and thinking he was in France was a tactic to disguise his violation of orders to crash the aircraft. The link above includes an image from the report of the interrogation of Faber by the RAF. Cyberherbalist (talk) 18:49, 17 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, Faber's RAF interrogation notes appear to confirm that, by his own account, he was looking after No.1 and, finding himself deep in British territory with insufficient fuel to return to base, so he was bound to be PoW anyway, and not fancying another parachute jump after his previous injury, he decided to land at a British airfield against orders and gift the British an intact Fw190 (which happily revealed that the new Spitfire IX was superior in most aspects except rate of roll and level acceleration).

These things are tricky. The Ju88R radar-equipped night fighter that landed in Scotland in May 1943, and is now in the RAF Museum Cosford, arrived as the result of defection by the crew, but the more advanced Ju88G that landed in Suffolk in July 1944, presenting the British with the latest German radar and homing devices, was the result of a mistake. Khamba Tendal (talk) 19:35, 2 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]