ARCTIC FLIER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21245, 27 July 1932, Page 11

ARCTIC FLIER

GREENLAND TO CANADA LANDING IN LABRADOR (Received July 26, 5.5 p.m.) VANCOUVER. July 25 A message from Cartwright, Labrador, states that the German airmaji, Captain von Gronau, landed there this evening from Greenland. He is flying to Montreal and has travelled via the Arctic. In 1930 Captain von Gronau flew from Greenland to America with J,hree companions. •Captain Hans Wolfgang Von Gronau, who was born at Berlin in 1893, entered the Navy, serving in various ships as lieutenant and first-lieutenant during the Great War. After the armistice he left the service and managed his estate of Schonwaldchen, in the Osterode district of East Prussia. In 1925, however, ho took up flying, winning a seaplane contest in 1926. In that year he became secretary of thp German Civil Aviation School at Warnemunde. In 1930, after secret preparations, Captain von Gronau set out in a two-motor Dornier-Wal seaplane, ostensibly for Iceland, but really for Greenland, landing at Ivigtut on August 22. He then flew via Cartwright and Battle Harbour to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and thence to New York, which he reached on August 26, alighting on the water near the Statue of Liberty. Ilis companions were a copilot, Zimmer, a wireless operator, Albrecht, and a mechanic, Hack. His seaplane, the Dornier-Wal 1422, had already been used by the Arctic explorer Amundsen on his flight to the North Pole, and by the Norwegian airman Lutzow-Holm for various explorations. Later it was employed by Captain Courtney on his unsuccessful Atlantic attempt. Piloted by Captain Gronau, it was the first seaplane to cross that ocean.