On august 7th 1942 a Focke Wulf 200 C4 "Condor" smashed into the mountainside of Danielsenkrateret (the Danielsen crater).
Th plane had serial number 0104 and was registered NT+BD with squadron number F8+AB of staff 1/KG40.
The plane had a crew of nine including its captain Ofw. Alfons Kleinschnittger. All 9 were killed in the
crash.
Officially the plane was on a reconnaissance
mission with a crew of 6 men, and German sources referred to it as lost or
disappeared. A crew of 6 was usual for these planes on a reconnaissance
missions.
The fact that this plane had a crew of 9 men could be for
several different reasons; The flight could be doing weather observations, they could be on their way to drop supplies to one of the German
weather ships outside the Greenland coast, or they could
be on a bombing mission against the Norwegian garrison on Jan Mayen. The latter
is probably the most plausible explanation since it later was found at least one unexploded
bomb at the crash site. The plane's elevation and course also indicates
a bombing mission, however the area was hidden in dense fog this day, so it wasn't
possible to bomb. For the same reason the Norwegian troops did not fire a single
shot against the plane. It was impossible for them to decide if the plane was
friend or foe.
The 9 were buried with full military
honours at the site, but were in 1958 moved to Norway an reburied at the
military cemetery in Narvik.
Today there is not much left of the plane. Later during the war parts of it were used for shooting exercises, and some of the metal were also used to make various items. Pieces of the plane is scattered over large parts of the northeastern side of Danielsenkrateret; of larger parts a wing, parts of the tail section and an engine can be seen today. Closer to the summit of the mountain, at the crash site the ground is scattered with small fragments. (See below).
Further down in the mountainside one can see larger parts as an engine, a part of a wing, parts of the tail section and other fragments:
