Operation Seraglio

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'Seraglio' was a German air undertaking to evacuate high- and middle-ranking members of the Nazi party and civil administration from Berlin to supposedly safer locations in southern Germany during the closing stages of the war (20/23 April 1945).

The task was entrusted to a force of 10 Junkers Ju 52/3m transport aircraft operating from Berlin-Gatow airfield. The last of the aircraft, flown by Major Frederick Gundlfinger and carrying the original shorthand notes of Adolf Hitler’s 'table talks' from 1942, took off on 23 April and was shot down by an Allied night-fighter over a forested area of Bavaria.