In 1989, deep in the forests outside Leningrad in the Soviet Union, a relic of the Great Patriotic War was discovered that had somehow been overlooked and forgotten since 1943. Some hunters moving through a silver birch forest far from civilization stumbled upon a "wolf" — not the wolf of fairy tales, but a wolf of metal. It was a Focke-Wulf 190, known by its infamous nickname, the Butcher Bird.
It was a World War II relic find that has arguably never been surpassed. Sitting amid a forest of young birch trees was an almost complete German fighter. Its paint was still largely intact, the national markings bright on its fuselage and wings, and a black swastika adorning its tail.
The aircraft was so well preserved that it looked as though it had crashed only days or weeks before, instead of 46 years earlier. When more qualified experts arrived at the scene, the plane was properly identified as a Focke-Wulf 190 A5 belonging to the fourth Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 54.
Even more incredibly, inside the cockpit the pilot's leather flying helmet had been tossed aside along with his headset. The aircraft was in an extraordinary state of natural preservation. Its only damage, from a wheels-up belly landing, was crushed wing leading edges and a crack.
No one had ever visited the plane since the pilot, Feldwebel or Sergeant Paul Ratz, had staggered away from the crash site after first taking the first aid kit out of its compartment. The crash happened only about a dozen miles from the German front line.
Ratz was an experienced pilot, but he had only joined the squadron on the 9th of July 1943, ten days before his crash. He was picked up by a Soviet patrol and held as a prisoner in the Soviet Union until 1949. He passed away just before his aircraft was found in the Russian forest.
The weather and animals had taken some toll on the plane, which rested in a boggy area. But due to the low temperatures in the region during autumn and winter, and heavy snowfall, it was quite well preserved. The forest had also grown up around the plane in the subsequent four decades, hiding it from view until it was literally stumbled upon quite by chance.
Around 1991, when the Soviet Union broke up, the Fw-190 was removed from the forest, largely by heavy-lift helicopter, for preservation. So why had Ratz bellied in on the 19th of July 1943? He had taken off with other JG 54 aircraft on a mission to attack a Soviet armored train.
Ratz was an experienced pilot who had previously been a ground mechanic before training as a pilot, and he was also a ground attack specialist. Luftwaffe records suggested that his 190 was hit by Soviet flak, causing the crash. But an examination of the plane revealed no flak damage whatsoever.
Instead, in the engine — a brand new replacement — an oily rag had been inserted into a critical section. This meant the engine had been deliberately sabotaged during manufacture by blocking an oil line. BMW used forced laborers from German-occupied countries on many parts of the production line producing the engines, and someone had taken the opportunity to do their bit against the Nazis.
The result was a catastrophic failure of Ratz's engine and a forced landing in the nearest piece of open ground he could find. The recovered aircraft was eventually bought by Paul Allen, the Microsoft billionaire, who had it fully restored to flying condition over a period of 20 years, with most of the work done by specialists in the UK.
Today it is considered the most completely authentic Focke-Wulf 190 that is currently airworthy, and it is based at the Flying Heritage Collection in Seattle in the United States. So the next time you are walking in the forest, keep your eyes peeled — you never know what beasts may be lurking behind the trees.