Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-06
Won HUENEFELD,
FAMED FLYER, DIES
German Who Won Over At
Iantic on West Flight VIC
tim of Stomach AiIment.

BY the Associated Press.
BERLIN, February 6.-Disease has
cut short a life which triumphed over
some of the greatest hazards of wal
and aviation.
Death came last night to Baron
Ehrenfried Gunther Won Huenefeld. one
of the three men who made the first
westward air passage of the North At
lantic. He died on the operating table
at Berlin sanatorium last night as
surgeons sought to remedy stomach
and intestinal ailment which had
marred his last years. His heart failed
| to withstand the shock Of the operation
Baron Won Huenefeld was only SO
years old, but he had an adventurous
career of soldier, German monarchiSt,
| poet and dramatiSt, and, finally, aviator
Shrapnel wounds tn both legs during
the World War left him with decided
limp. AS vice consul at Maastricht,
Holland, he received the former Kaiser
| and Crown Prince when they sought
refuge on Dutch soil, and he later spent
several years with the Crown Prince in
his exile on the Island of Wieringen.
OF his literary works the drama,
Hagen Of Tronje," based on the Nibe-
lungen legend, was most widely known.
It was produced in Bremen in 1927.
Remembered as Aviator.
But it is as aviator he will be re-
membered. The flight which brought
him prominence took place in April
last year. With Capt. Herman Koehl
and Maj, James Fitzmaurice of the
Saorstaft Air Corps sharing the con-
trolls, the three in the plane Bremen
flew from Baldonnel Air Field Dublin,
to Greenley Island, Labrador, where
they waited two weeks in the ice and
snow to be taken out.
Upon arrival in New York they were
given tumultuous Broadway ticker
tape welcome. This was repeated when
the three returned to Germany, and
accorded Baron Won Huenefeld once
more last November when he returned
to Berlin after transasiatic fight to
Japan.
Sickly as Youth.
Even in youth, the baron was sickly,
and in his last months the illness from
which he suffered inspired unusual dar-
ing in his flying and brought an ex-
preston of his wish that he die in
action, rather than on sick bed, a
wish which at the last was denied him.
The polished suavity of his manner
won him friends everywhere.
In his later years he wore n1onocle
almost perpetually, intended, it was
said, to hide partial blindness in one
eye.
Only Herr Deichmann, the baron's
secretary, was with him when he died,
other friends and relatives having con-
sidered the operation successful and left
the sanatorium. His aged mother, with
whom he lived-he was bachelor-was
hastily summoned. Funeral plans
awaited the arrival of his brother from
Munich tonight.
When Capt. Koehl was informed of
his flying partners death he was not
particularly surprised.
Knew Death Would Be Soon.
"I am grieved and shocked" he said
"But must say candidly it does not
come Unexpectedly. Back in 1927, when
we attempted the first time to ny to
America, Won Huenefe1d told us he
could not live more than q year or two
at the most. During our American trip
he often pointed out his system would
not be able to Withstand continually
the frequent operations on his stomach
to which he had to subject himself.
six days ago, as was leaving on
an out-of-town trip, he telephoned me
good-by, and in the course of the con-
versation mentioned that cramps in his
stomach gave him excruciating pain
and that he must soon submit to the
knife again.
"Yet now that am face to face with
the fact Of his death simply cannot
realize that he is no more"