Of Coulommiers. We Flew a Northeasterly Course for Our Home Base, at 150 M Altitude
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
of Coulommiers. We flew a northeasterly course for our home base, at 150 m altitude. After a brief flight time, Reinnagel spotted the airfield 10–15 km up ahead and made me aware of it. Heidenreich wanted to call the ground station and report us in. After we checked out from Villaroche the ground radio operator there called up Coulommiers right away and advised them that we’d be coming but that we probably had a hostile intruder on our tail. He would have noticed this as we flew off but would no longer have been able to notify us. In looking over the airfield, I stopped weaving. The enemy used this brief moment of straight and level flying for his first burst. Excellent shooting, hits in the port wing between the cockpit and the engine, right away a long flame. I saw how the F/Lt. Clement DFC and his crew in 106 Squadron Lancaster JB641. panelling rolled back, like opening a sardine tin. Hans Reinnagel They were shot down by Lt. Plass in a Bf110 G-4 of 1./NJG5 during the 7-8 July 1944 St. Leu raid. JB641 hit the ground at Bures-en- reacted immediately. Floor hatch cover jettisoned with his left Bray with the loss of the seven-man crew (Coll. Trevor Clement). foot, wireless operator unbuckled, pulled from his seat and allowed to drop through the open access hole. He unbuckled me right away, grabbed me by the chest and side and fell back, pulling me out of my seat, so that we abandoned the burning machine together. While I was falling and pulling the rip cord, the Mosquito flew over me and fired again. Where we landed, there was 200 m between Heidenreich and Reinnagel, 100 m between Reinnagel and me, and the burning aircraft lay 500 m further on. It was Reinnagel’s seventh parachute jump. Straight after the telephone call from Coulommiers mentioned above, the Kommandeur, Major Semrau, and the Meteorologist, Dr. Coponi, had rushed to the tower to see how things were going to develop. Their comment on our machine’s crash: “Nobody got out of that””. Ofw. Lüddeke of 5./NJG2 destroyed a 57 Squadron Lancaster that hit the ground in Grid Square SC 1 for his ninth confirmed victory, his BF Fw. Wacker recording in his Flugbuch: “Ofw. Lüddeke, Uffz. Hess, Ju88 4R+AN, Feindflug, Coulommiers 8.7. 00.00, Lt. Elsässer in his Ju88 C-6, taken in the spring of 1943 when Coulommiers 8.7. 02.40, 160 mins, 1 Abschuss 01.28 north of Rouen”. The Gruppenkommandeur of I./NJG5 Major Hoffmann and his he served with E./NJG2 at Gilze-Rijen (Coll. Stefan Elsässer). crew (Ofw. Köhler and Uffz. Modl), who were scrambled from St. Dizier at 00.03 hrs in Bf110 G-4 C9+AB, claimed three Viermots shot down on the bombers’ homeward leg, before they touched down at Coulommiers at 02.40 hrs. Their second victim, 44 Squadron In the hour after the Main Force of the battered bomber stream Lancaster LM631 was engaged four times by fighters (probably single-engined Jäger) attacking from the port quarter above before it had re-crossed the French coast (at 01.58 hrs), at least three was mortally hit by Hoffmann. I./JG301 tallied 20 Abschüsse, all over the target and on the return flight, for the loss of two Bf109s and stragglers were finished off by night fighters in the Senarpont four injured pilots. Fw. Gromoll of the 3. Staffel claimed two Lancasters shot down. When Manfred Gromoll was taken prisoner of war area. The 59th, and final, Abschuss over the St. Leu force was later in July 1944, the British secretly recorded his conversations with other prisoners of war. In one of these (which is preserved in the submitted by Fw. Koch of 1./JG301 at 02.50 hrs. National British Archives in AIR 40/3098), he gave a graphic account of his second Abschuss on 7/8 July: “Then the second Lancaster Comparing the Nachtjagd Abschuss figures (39 Viermot approached. I was in a good position, because I could cut it off. I climbed slowly... then I curved in..., but then it made off out towards claims by twin-engined fighters, all but one of which were the sea - it was near the coast where I had shot down the first one, about ten kilometres inland - and towards the coast there were always subsequently anerkannt, and 20 Viermot Abschüsse by I./JG301) less searchlights. It was at a height of about 1000 metres, there versus actual RAF Bomber Command losses (31 ‘heavies’ from was still one searchlight which had got it in its beam; it was the St. Leu raid), the conclusion must be drawn that the Gruppen rather a long way off and therefore the cone of dispersal was involved in the battle against the St. Leu raid over-claimed by large. By the time I got within range and wanted to fire, it was almost 100%. The overclaiming on the part of I./JG301 was out of the searchlight beam and I couldn’t see it any more. I went especially heavy: just two of the 20 heavy bomber Abschüsse down a little and flew out over the sea - suddenly it was to the (by Fw. Gromoll at 01.36 hrs and Lt. Brinkmann at 01.39 hrs) right of me, flying straight on its course. I gained height to be were subsequently anerkannt by the Abschusskommission, both above it, quite a long way off, and shot down straight at it from on 8 December 1944. Another of these doubtful claims was above. The aircraft was hit immediately, I saw the bullets go into submitted by Ofw. Winn of 1./NJG2. Flying Ju88 G-1 R4+DH, the fuselage, the wing, the engines and so on. It immediately Winn engaged a ‘Boeing’ over the WSW city edge of Paris, began banking and then as I pulled out, I fired again, because I delivering one attack from below and behind at 01.45 hrs. The was then behind it. At the second left bank - it was not on fire - it Nachtjagd crew observed strikes in the rear gun turret, fuselage went down lower and lower. Down on the water a sort of flame and wings of their quarry, followed by an explosion in the rear shot out of it and then after the flame it vanished from sight. gun turret and pieces of the tail unit falling off. Within seconds, The victory was confirmed by the coastal batteries. We have they attacked a second ‘Boeing’, but were immediately subjected got searchlights stationed all along the coast, at Dieppe for to accurate return fire which caused one of the Junker’s engines instance there are two, they are called ‘Gabel’. I said it was near to burst into flames. The crew were therefore unable to observe On 7-8 July 1944, Major Vowinckel of Stab I./NJG4 achieved his 28-year old Lt. Siegfried Elsässer (on right) and his 24-year old Dieppe, it was approximately Q(uelle) C(äsar) 5 - the second only confirmed night victory in WWII. Günther Vowinckel flew 62 Bordfunker Lt. Peter Raupach (on left, who also served as a JLO) the crash of their first adversary and limped to Bretigny airfield aircraft was shot down at 01.48 hours. Of course they made operational sorties as a Zerstörer pilot in ZG76 and ZG2 during of Stab II./NJG2 shot down two Lancasters on 7-8 July 1944, flying where they performed a belly-landing. Remarkably, their first 1939-40, and was trained as a Nachtjagd pilot during the second enquiries and it was confirmed. The other crashed aircraft was a Ju88 C-6 and using Schräge Musik armament. Almost one month claim was officially anerkannt as a full victory by the I. Jagdkorps half of 1941. Serving as St.Kpt. of 12./NJG3, he achieved a rejected raised from the sea; it was a Lancaster and there were seven men later, shortly before 03.00 hrs on 7 August, Elsässer and his crew on 28 November 1944, whilst their second claim was logged as a night Abschuss on 4-5 April 1943 and a confirmed victory in Stab of Lt. Raupach and Uffz. Kugler (BM) were shot down in Ju88 in it. I believe they were all dead. We don’t know for certain. I./NJG4 on 7-8 July 1944 before being posted back to the Tagjagd C-6 R4+CC by a 488 Squadron Mosquito during a sortie in the Feindberührung. (A Lancaster Abschuss by Lt. Teschner of 11./ They didn’t find any who had baled out, but I think some did in late 1944. He was posted missing in combat with 352nd FG Invasion area and taken prisoner of war. It was Elsässer’s second NJG1, also at 01.45 hrs, was denied to the claimant). Mustangs in the Maastricht area on 1 January 1945, on his 124th bale out. That is quite possible”. experience of being shot down, the first time having been on 17 Feindflug (Coll. Jörn Junker). August 1943 (Coll. Stefan Elsässer) 98 99 SOUTHAMPTON 0° 1° E 2° E 3° E SWEDEN Mosquito MM146 139 Sqn N ° 1 DENMARK BALTIC SEA 5 NORTH SEA B-26 Ju88 G-1 µ 42-107751 712204 452 BS/322 BG 8./NJG3 7th/8th JULY 1944 Lancaster PB207 Mosquito 49 Sqn MM147 692 Sqn Mosquito ML968 Berlin UNITED 571 Sqn KINGDOM LILLE NETHERLANDS Diversionary Sweep * Scholven/Buer Bf110 G-4 730006 2./NJG3 GERMANY Bf110 G-4 BELGIUM 720174 Ribeaucourt 3./NJG3 Diversionary Sweep Saint-Leu-d’Esserent Bf109 G-6 163236 Vaires-sur-Marne 1./JG301 N FRANCE ° 0 5 2° W 1° W FF Skorpion Ribeaucourt B-26 02:35 to 02:55 hrs.