Chapter 1
1These lightweight aircraft were used primarily for coastal patrol and reconnaissance. Having a small bomb-load capacity, an FF 29 flown by Leutnant Alfred von Prondzynski was the first German aircraft to bomb England when, at 11am on 24 December 1914, a single bomb landed in the garden of the house belonging to Mr Thomas Terson in Leyburne Road, Dover. There were no serious injuries, though John Banks was blown out of a tree next door at St James’ Rectory, where he was collecting holly, and suffered some bruising. Little damage was caused beyond a ten-foot crater in the lawn and smashed windows. On 10 November 1918, just before the war ended, von Prondzynski was hit in the face by shrapnel. The somewhat basic treatment available at the time involved the insertion of a metal alloy to replace parts of his broken jaw, and subsequent septicaemia killed him a few years later.
2James S. Corum, The Luftwaffe; Creating the Operational Air War, p.45.
3Oblt.z.S. Friedrich von Arnauld de la Perrière was captured in December 1915 after his FF 33 aircraft came down near Nieuport with engine trouble. A French ship took him prisoner and landed him at Dunkirk. U12 was rammed and sunk on 10 March 1915.
4Both Osterkamp and Christiansen became major figures within the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. Sachsenberg, however, decried the drift towards war evidenced by the re-establishment of the Luftwaffe, and was secretly tried in abstentia by the Nazis for defeatism. He worked in the design and production of hydrofoils and saw no further military service.
5This latest defeat left many Freikorps men with a burning hatred of Ebert’s Weimar Republic, which they believed had stabbed them in the back. It also left many longing to ‘liberate’ the lands of the East from Bolshevik domination, a theme that would resonate loudly with future right-wing politics in Germany.
6Peace Treaty of Versailles, Articles 159-213, Military, Naval and Air Clauses, http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versa/versa4.html
Chapter 2
1Heinkel’s contribution to the rearmament of the Luftwaffe can barely be overstated. He was later designated a Wehrwirtschaftführer (defence industry leader) by the Reich government for his commitment to rearmament.
2Quote from Leutnant Winfried Schmidt, Luftwaffe; A Pictorial History, p.14.
3‘Application of Article 198 of the Treaty of Versailles’, Conference of Ambassadors, Paris, 31 August 1926.
Thirty-six existing members of the military were listed as already being trained pilots, twenty-four of them members of the Reichswehr, and the following from the Navy: Oblts. Coeler, Ritter, Siburg, Bruch, Krueger, Geissler; Lts. Roth, Bischoff, Schroeder-Zollinger; Fhr. Jordan, Ferber and Edort.
4‘The Lohmann Affair’, Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol4no2/html/v04i2a08p_0001.htm
5David Isby, The Luftwaffe and the War at Sea, p.25.
6Mewes was finally persuaded to leave Heinkel in 1933 when Blohm & Voss formed the Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmBH to build seaplanes and flying boats. Later he was chief designer for Fieseler and partly responsible for the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch. Mewes was also largely responsible for the design of the Fi 167 torpedo bomber planned for service on the Graf Zeppelin before the carrier’s construction was suspended.
7In German military nomenclature, ‘F’ denoted 45cm diameter (as opposed to ‘G’ for 53cm), and ‘5’ gave the approximate length in metres, in the case of this weapon, exactly 55.5cm.
8Erich Raeder, Grand Admiral (first published as My Life), p.233.
9 Ibid, p.234.
10Ibid, p.246.
11Figures from The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force, 1933-1945, British Air Ministry publication No.248, 1948.
12Hardegen subsequently served in 1./Kü.Fl.Gr. 106 and 5./Bo.Fl.Gr. 196 before being posted to the position of Intelligence Officer and company commander at the Seefliegerhorst Kamp. Severely injured in an aeroplane crash, he spent several months hospitalised and was left with a shortened right leg and bleeding stomach that required a special diet to manage. He transferred in 1939 to the U-boat service, and though his injuries would normally have disqualified him from active duty, later captained the famous U123 and received the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves. He died on 9 June 2018.
13Aircraft were moored in a small harbour at the northern end of the seaplane base at Kiel-Holtenau, able to taxi straight out from the two slipways and take off. A crane was adjacent to the larger of the two slipways and thirteen large open shelters were provided for aircraft dispersal.
14Nuremberg, Germany: International Military Tribunal, 1945-09-20, Cornell University Law Library, Volume: 014, Subdivision 35/Goering, Section: 35.04 (Kessler interrogation, 20 Sept. 1945). Kessler had served with the Seeflieger during the First World War and was promoted Kapitänleutnant post-war, becoming a specialist in the development of observer’s equipment for Marineflieger before transferring to the Luftwaffe in September 1933.
15Possibly one of the more unusual ideas put forward by Göring to Ernst Udet, a former First World War flying ace and head of the Luftwaffe’s technical development section, was for the establishment of a private ‘Luftwaffe Navy’ under the command of Ulrich Kessler, who would be designated ‘Commander of Security Ships’. These were to be fast patrol boats of over 1,000 tons displacement, armed with flak weapons and torpedoes and capable of circumnavigating the British Isles, in Göring’s words, ‘faster than any warship’.
16Berichtigungen der Anlage 2 zu A IIa 3530/35 GKdos. Vom 11 November 1935.
17Walter Gaul, Navy-Air Force Planning and Build-up of the Naval Air Forces; Their Disbandment, and the Transfer of Naval Air Commitments to the Operational Air Force. Essays by German Officers and Officials on World War II, Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc., Delaware, p.8.
18Wever was killed in a flying accident in 1936, his place being taken by Albert Kesselring. The latter’s forceful personality saw him replaced by Stumpff during 1937, who was finally succeeded by Generaloberst Hans Jeschonnek, former commander of the Greifswald training unit.
19The seaplane base at List experienced large North Sea tidal changes and rough waters, as well as pack ice, between December and March. There were two launching ramps for the seaplanes immediately north of the harbour, with a large girder-type crane adjacent to them. Five large hangars and one small one were available.
Chapter 3
1Wilberg had been one of Germany’s first military pilots, transferring from the infantry to the Luftstreitkräfte in 1913. Later he headed the Reichswehr’s air staff for eight years during the 1920s, and was initially considered for the post of Chief of Staff by Göring after the creation of the Luftwaffe. However, Wilberg’s mother was Jewish, which nullified this opportunity, though Göring had him reclassified as ‘Aryan’ due to his obvious talents, and he joined the Luftwaffe in 1934. He subsequently played a major role in the drawing-up of Luftwaffe operational doctrine, becoming a major strategist of the Blitzkrieg style of warfare. He was killed in an air crash near Dresden on 20 November 1941, while en route to the funeral of Ernst Udet, who had committed suicide. Coincidentally, the premier Luftwaffe air ace at that time, Werner Mölders, was also killed in an air crash two days later while heading to the same funeral.
2Scheele was a former army pilot of the First Word War who had commanded a Schutztruupe air unit of two antiquated biplanes in German South West Africa. The small unit surrendered in July 1915, two months after Scheele had been injured in a crash. Time spent after the war in Argentina gave him a command of Spanish, and he had returned to Germany and joined the Luftwaffe. He was killed as a passenger in an air accident shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.
3Klümper had joined the Reichsmarine in April 1932 as an officer candidate, and was one of only forty survivors of the sinking of the training vessel Niobe. He transferred to the Luftwaffe in April 1935. He later commanded the torpedo-plane squadron KG 26, and became one of the Luftwaffe’s leading experts in torpedo attacks.
4On 15 November 1938 he was transferred to the Staff of Führer der Seeluftstreitkräfte. He was killed in a friendly fire incident on 5 September 1939, when Junkers Ju 52 WL-AGZG, in which he was travelling as a passenger from Kiel to Jever, was mistakenly shot down by anti-aircraft fire from the Admiral Scheer near Wilhelmshaven.
5General Staff Bulletin, Cadiz Maritime Department, 9 June 1937. AS/88 p.30.
6Hefele attended General Staff training after departing Spain in February 1938 and was subsequently appointed provisional commander of I./Tr.Gr.186. Eventually he became commander of II./KG 26, and was captured on 3 April 1940 after his He 111 (1H+AC) was shot down by Spitfires of 41 Squadron.
7Somewhat cynically, among the twenty-seven nations’ signatories were Italy, Germany and the Soviet Union, all directly aiding the opposing sides.
8A single Danish crewman had been injured in the bombing attack and subsequently died of his wounds after having been rescued by fishing boat and hospitalised.
9Evening News, Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, USA, June 22, 1938.
10The Morning Tribune, Singapore, Friday 24 June 1938.
11‘Ha’ was the abbreviation of Hamburger Flugzeugbau, which in 1937 was renamed Blohm & Voss Schiffswerft, Abteilung Flugzeugbau.
12Both Kleyenstüber and Brey retained connections with Spain. The former was enlisted into the Abwehr during 1941 and made head of its Spanish office on 1 July 1944 with the rank of Oberstleutnant. Brey, too, later worked for the Abwehr while serving as the Assistant German Air Attaché in Madrid from October 1944.
13David Isby, The Luftwaffe and War at Sea, p.86.
14Ibid, p.33.
15Ibid, p.34.
16Luftflotte 4 was established on 18 March 1939 in Vienna, commanded by Generaloberst Alexander Löhr and responsible for south-east Germany, Austria and Czech territory.
17Text from ‘Section III: Organisation’ of the joint declaration, quoted in David Isby in The Luftwaffe and the War at Sea, p.37.
18Umfang und Ausrustüng der Marinefliegerverbände: T-1022, Roll 2033, PG- 22046-NID.
19The Messerschmitt Me 210 was designed as an upgrade of the Bf 110, with an internal bomb-bay, high-speed streamlining and a dive-bombing capability. In reality it was a compete design failure, taking sixteen prototypes and ninetyfour pre-production machines before being put into production, which was soon halted, as the aircraft as the aircraft remained extremely unpopular with pilots, who reverted to the elderly Bf 110. Messerschmitt’s chief test pilot stated that the Me 210 had the ‘least desirable attributes an aeroplane could possess’.
20Karl Dönitz, Memoirs, pp.134-135.
21Air force planning etc pdf, p.23.
22Helmut Mahlke, Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot (Kindle Locations 1260-1261). Frontline Books. Kindle Edition.
Chapter 4
1The seaplane base at Kamp offered ample take-off and alighting room on both the Baltic and Kamper Lake (Kamper See), each with its own concrete slipway, although icy conditions were a potential hazard during the winter months.
2The spacious Nest seaplane base allowed take-off and alighting on either the Baltic or Lake Jamunder, but dangerous ice conditions existed during winter months. A single concrete slipway was available on both sides, connected to hangars by tracks.
3Moreau had been responsible for the co-ordination of the airlift of Franco’s troops from North Africa to Spain, and subsequently commanded the Condor Legion’s VB/88 (Versuchsbomberstaffel 88) of Ju 52 aircraft. He died, aged 28, on 4 April 1939 in Rechlin, in a crash while testing the new Ju 88.
4Paul Just, Vom Seeflieger zum Uboot-Fahrer, p.13.
5Ibid, p.13
6Helmut Mahlke, Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot (Kindle Locations 1375-1377). Frontline Books. Kindle Edition.
7Von Wild had served as a naval cadet during the First World War, being commissioned in the Reichsmarine in 1923 and taking part in fighting in the Baltic as part of the irregular forces and as a member of Erhardt’s Naval Brigade in Upper Silesia and Berlin. In 1934 he had transferred to the Luftwaffe.
8KTB der Küstenfliegergruppe 506, 5 September 1939.
9KTB der Küstenfliegergruppe 506, 6 September 1939.
10SKL KTB 25 September 1939.
11Helmut Mahlke, Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot (Kindle Locations 1525-1531). Frontline Books. Kindle Edition.
12Just, Vom Seeflieger zum Uboot-Fahrer, pp.14-21. Just was later observer aboard an He 111J and Ju 88 as part of Kü.Fl.Gr. 806 after 1./306 became 3./806. He took part in the bombing of London and anti-shipping strikes before he was ordered on 1 January 1941 to report for transfer to the U-boat service. He later rose to command U546, which was sunk on 24 April 1945, twenty-six of the crew being killed and thirty-three being rescued by American destroyers, including Kapitänleutnant Just.
13Edwards was initially incarcerated in Itzehoe before transfer to Spangenberg Castle, near Kassel, designated Oflag IXA/H. He was repatriated to the UK in 1944 owing to poor health, and later resuming a post-war flying career with the RNZAF. Edwards passed away in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 8 July 1994.
14Berichte des Kommandanten zur Notlandung der He 59 M2+SL am 26.9.1939, KTB Staffel 3/Kü.Fl.Gr. 106, PG-80059-ND.
15Kapitzky was later promoted Oberleutnant zur See in October 1940, and returned to the Kriegsmarine the following year. After training for U-boat service he was promoted Kaptlt. and given command of U615. On a mission to the Caribbean U615 fought a week-long running battle with enemy aircraft which resulted in the vessel being sunk on 7 August 1943. A popular commander held in high esteem by his crew, Kapitzky was killed on the bridge while directing the defence of his boat north-west of Grenada. Hit by machine-gun fire, he bade farewell to his crew before dying. Three other crewmen were killed (one while outbound after the boat was strafed in Biscay), and forty-three were rescued by the USS Walker.
1620 September 1939. Sgt F.A. Letchford, the observer in Fairey Battle K9243 of 88 Sqn, piloted by Fg Off Baker, claimed the first RAF victory of the war. He claimed a German Bf 109 during a patrol near Aachen. The claim was later confirmed by French troops. In fact there were no Luftwaffe losses.
17SKL KTB 26 September 1939.
18Francke became almost a household name, but, as news of the continued existence of HMS Ark Royal gradually became known, his position within the Luftwaffe became more difficult. Facing derision from some other pilots for his promotion and decoration for a fictitious sinking, he later returned to aircraft testing at Rechlin, becoming involved in the development of the He 177.
19Naval Air Force Planning pdf, p.41.
20PG-80323-NID.
21SKL KTB 9 October 1939.
22Jolly was posthumously awarded Medal of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
23http://australiansinthebattleofbritain.blogspot.it/2012/10/australians-in-battle-of-britain-21.html
24Jak Mallmann-Showell, Führer Conferences on Naval Affairs, p.53.
25SKL KTB 8 December 1939.
26SKL KTB 24 December 1939.
27Helmut Mahlke, Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot (Kindle Locations 1068-1074). Frontline Books. Kindle Edition.
Chapter 5
1SKL KTB 6 January 1940.
2Bordfliegerstaffel 1./196 KTB, 9 March 1940, T1022 R-3360, PG-80297.
3Report on the Interrogation of Survivors from U-595 Sunk on November 14, 1942, January 30 1943.
4Stab/KGr.126 was formed from Stab III./KG 26, 1./KGr.126 from 7./KG 26, 2./KGr.126 from 8./KG 26 and 3./KGr.126 from 9./KG 26.
5The 62-year-old Merchant Master was posthumously awarded the King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct.
6Kalgoorlie Miner (WA), Friday 12 January 1940.
7SKL KTB 30 January 1940.
8See Bill Norman, Luftwaffe Losses over Northumberland and Durham: 1939-194’, pp.27-34, for eyewitness accounts of the loss of two Heinkels and the rescue of Schnee’s crew.
9Exhaustive post-war analysis by a number of authors and historians has established that the probability of the Max Schultz detonating a British mine remains the highest, though it is possible that the destroyer also entered the German minefield as it strove to assist drifting survivors from the Leberecht Maass.
10Sunday Herald, 12 March 1990, ‘Orkney’s first war victim’.heraldscotland.com/news/11935500.Orkney_apos_s_first_war_victim/
11SKL KTB 16 March 1940.
12KTB Küstenfliegergruppe 506, 9 April 1940. PG80099.
13Eight such ad hoc transport units were established for Weserübung: Kampfgruppen z.b.V. 101-107, established by the Luftwaffe, and Kampfgruppe z.b.V. 108 by the Kriegsmarine.
14Peacock’s aircraft was part of a 9 Sqn detachment based at Lossiemouth, Scotland, to support the Allied expedition to Norway. Peacock was awarded the DFC almost immediately, and his Navigator, Sgt Ronald Hargrave, was awarded the DFM shortly thereafter. Both were killed on 6 June 1940 after being shot down during a bombing raid on Duisberg Railway Freight Terminal; the remaining crew given time to bale out by Peacock’s actions, and later captured.
15Kampfle was promoted to Oberfeldwebel, and in April 1941 transferred to the Bordflieger complement aboard the battleship Bismarck. He was killed in its sinking a little over two weeks later.
16The specially created transport units attached to X.Fliegerkorps were administered by Lufttransportführer, Obstlt Carl August Freiherr von Gablenz, former technical director for Lufthansa before transfer to the Luftwaffe in 1935, and former commander of the Blind Flying School.
17Ledet Roba, Hydravions de la Luftwaffe, LeLa Presse, 2010.
18All crewmen from both aircraft were taken prisoner, although Oblt. Hans Hattenbach, the pilot of M2+FH, was shot by a Finnish Ensign volunteer on 6 June, when he approached the perimeter fence at Skorpa prisoner-of-war camp and failed to heed orders to stop. Hattenbach was buried with full military honours in the presence of thirty prisoners and a fourteen-strong Norwegian military honour guard. The remaining prisoners were freed by the Norwegian capitulation not long thereafter.
19Hugo Bracken, Imperial War Museum Oral History, www.iwmcollections.org.uk/collections/item/object/80011093
20HMS Suffolk’s Report of Proceedings, J.W. Durnford, Captain, 26 April 1940.
21Geirr Haarr, The Battle for Norway: April-June 1940, p.15.
22ADM 199/476 pp.169-175 inclusive. ‘A Report on the Namsen Fjord actions, the embarking and disembarking of Troops at Namsos, the manning of a shore defence position and experience gained against aircraft.’ Lt Richard Been Stannard, RNR.
23KTB F.d.Luft Ost, 16-30 April, 1940, pp.77, 86, 87.
24HMS Seal was repaired and subsequently commissioned into the Kriegsmarine as UB during 1941. Despite hopes that the Grampus-class submarine would help the German war effort, it was of limited value and eventually decommissioned in 1943, later being sunk by an RAF bombing raid on Kiel as it lay abandoned in a corner of the harbour. Lonsdale was held as prisoner of war until the end of hostilities, whereupon he and Lt Beet both faced courts-martial for the surrender of the boat. Both were honourably acquitted of all charges.
25Although Horst Schwilden’s military record remains murky at present, it appears that he was killed as Staka. Of 3./KG 26 on 25 June 1940, when his He 111H-3 was shot down by a Spitfire of 603 Sqn south-east of Turnhouse, Scotland.
26‘Pitt’ Midderhoff was subsequently killed in action south-west of Hourtin on 22 February 1941, when his aircraft capsized during another attempted rescue mission. Rembert van Delden was later captured as IWO aboard U131, sunk on 17 December 1941. Franz Augustat was killed in 1944. Willi Schönfelder survived the war to enter politics in Zeven as a member of the Social Democrats. The wreck of van Delden’s Heinkel lay undisturbed in 220m of water until it was discovered by oil workers in 1985.
2710th Engineer Sub-Lt Ron Walter Purdy was among the surviving crew. A previously active member of the Ilford branch of the British Union of Fascists, Purdy was later recruited to make radio broadcasts for the German Propaganda Ministry, before being arrested by the Germans in 1944 after an unexplained absence in Berlin. After a brief and contentious stay in Colditz, he was moved to the post of translator for the SS Britische Freikorps unit. Tried after the war for treason, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in 1954.
28Subsequently, Sharp briefly captained the Antonia, before being transferred to command another Cunard vessel, the SS Laconia. This 19,695-ton ship was torpedoed by U156 on 12 September 1942, its heavy loss of life becoming the second most costly British maritime loss of the war. Sharp did not survive this second sinking.
29Geirr Haarr, No Room for Mistakes: British and Allied Submarine Warfare 1939-1940.
30Stoker James Walsh also died later of his wounds, on 7 July.
31Among the North Sea anti-shipping missions carried out by KG 26 was an unsuccessful one on 22 July, after which a single Heinkel jettisoned its unused bombs on a target of apparent importance; a large manor house surrounded by wire and Nissen huts. It was in fact Duff House at Banff, serving as PoW Camp 5. Eight men were killed: two British guards and six prisoners from the recently sunk U-boat U26 (MaschObGfr. Hermann Ackerman, MatrGfr. Heinz Heymann, MechGfr. Conrad Marschall, MatObGfr. Günter Nordhausen, MatrGfr. Rudolf Popp and MatrHptGfr. Kurt Redieck).
32Sub-Lieutenant Richard V. Moore, RNVR, was the third and only surviving volunteer from this trio from HMS Vernon travelling across London, Essex and Kent hunting the unexploded mines. He was also awarded the George Cross.
33OP1666: German Explosive Ordnance, US Navy, 11 June 1946, p.14.
34SKL KTB 3 July 1940.
35SKL KTB 18 June 1940.
36David Isby, The Luftwaffe and War at Sea, p.52.
37Hahn was killed on 3 June 1942 as Kommodore der Kampfgruppe 606 on the Eastern Front.
38http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/belfast-lough-condor.20367/
39It was Doran who had led the first offensive strike mounted by British bombers of the war, when twenty-seven Blenheims of 110, 107 and 139 Sqns attacked Wilhemshaven on 4 September 1939. He remained a prisoner of war until 1945, and was killed in the Ermenonville air disaster, near Senlis, France, on 3 March 1974.
40For example, on 17 September the Master of the SS Fireglow reported that two mornings previously he saw Convoy FS81 ‘machine gunned by an enemy aircraft painted white with a superimposed Red Cross’ (Admiralty War Diary, 17/9/1940).
41Brian Cull, Battle for the Channel: The First Month of the Battle of Britain, 10 July-10 August 1940, p.230.
42Anderson was later awarded the British Empire Medal, along with Fireman Berth Whyman. The Master, Capt William Gifford, received the OBE, and Able Seaman William Birnie, Stewardess Miss Cockburn and Steward Laurence Smith Halcrow all received commendations.
43Werner Baumbach, The Life and Death of the Luftwaffe, p.102.
44Dyrcks later wrote a 69-page memorandum on techniques to be used by torpedo-plane pilots, and in December 1941 was moved away from the front line to become an aerial torpedo specialist in the Reichs Air Ministry.
45Karl Barth was transferred to the Luftwaffe on 1 February 1942 with the rank of Hauptmann. He was killed over the Mediterranean on 9 November, 1942, as Staffelkapitän of 6./Kampfgeschwader 26.
Chapter 6
1Pilot Leutnant der Reserve Otto Emmerich, observer Oblt.z.S. Helmuth Groos, wireless operator Stabsfeldwebel Christian Graf, second wireless operator Feldwebel der Reserve Erich Gruber, flight engineer Feldwebel der Reserve Heinz Hingst and second flight engineer Feldwebel der Reserve Heinz Rautenberg. The bodies of all but Rautenberg and Graf were recovered and later buried at Ploudaniel-Lesneven.
2B.d.U. KTB 2 December 1940.
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
5David Irving, Göring, p.465.
6Jenisch himself was sunk two days later by the destroyers HMS Harvester and HMS Highlander. The wreck of the liner has since been explored by divers searching for the reported bullion. They found no trace of gold, though they did enter the bullion room, finding it empty apart from a single skeleton whose identity remains unknown.
7On-board radar was still some time in the future for the Condors. Experiments with the air-to-sea Atlas and Neptun-S systems produced disappointing results later in 1941, and it was not until 1943 that the first effective radar sets began to be carried.
8B.d.U. KTB 11 February 1941.
9Admiralty War Diary, 21 February 1941.
10Ibid.
11The Scottish Standard was later found by Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock’s U96, bow down in the water and with obvious bomb damage to its superstructure. After the tanker was sunk by two torpedoes, U96 was detected by a nearby destroyer and slightly damaged by depth charges.
12Karl Dönitz, Memoirs, p.137.
13Italian losses amounted to more than 5,500 men killed, 10,000 wounded, 133,298 captured, and 420 tanks, 845 guns and 564 aircraft destroyed. The Allies had lost 500 men killed, 1,373 wounded, 55 missing and 26 aircraft destroyed.
14Admiralty War Diary, 10 January 1941.
15Kowalewski had already earned the Knight’s Cross on 24 November 1940, while part of Stabstaffel/X.Fliegerkorps. His award was granted for the sinking of 83,680 GRT of enemy merchant shipping, the damaging of a British cruiser, the shooting down of both an enemy fighter and flying boat, and successfully returning his crew on only a single engine following a successful raid on the Moray Firth.
16Observer, Oblt. Walter Gensch, wireless operator Uffz. Ferdinand Paul Holec, Gunner Fw. Hans Janzen.
17On 1 November 1942 Bertram was promoted to Oberstleutnant while prisoner. Transported to an ‘Officers Only’ prisoner-of-war camp in Dhurringile, Australia, he was part of the most successful escape from that particular camp on 11 January 1945, when seventeen officers and three adjutants tunnelled from a large crockery room, under the perimeter fence and emerged beyond the wire. After breaking out, the escapees scattered, Bertram running with Fregattenkapitän Theodor Detmers, commander of the sunk raider Kormoran and senior officer of the camp. They were recaptured after a week at liberty. Detmers was sent for a punishment month at the Old Melbourne Gaol, but after returning suffered a stroke and was partly paralysed. Bertram assumed the role of camp leader until the war’s end and repatriation.
18Official History, Vol. 1, pp.165–6, or Official History, Vol. IV, p.133.
19The Royal Navy had lost contact with Bismarck after it altered course for Brest, unaware of the ship’s new destination. Somewhat ironically, it was the decryption of a Luftwaffe Enigma message that provided the British with the ship’s new direction after General Hans Jeschonnek, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, radioed Berlin for the latest information on the whereabouts of the Bismarck on behalf of one of his staff, whose son was serving as a Fähnrich aboard the ship.
20The aircrews were: Ar 196A-2 T3+IH, pilot, Uffz. Ernst Lange, observer, Lt. Günter Lademann; Ar 196A-2 T3+AK, pilot, Fw. Oskar Andersen, observer, Lt.z.S. Rolf Hambruch; Ar 196A-4 T3+DL, pilot, Fw. Josef Kempfle, observer, Oblt.z.S. Siegfried Mühling; Ar 196A-3 T3+MK, pilot, Fw. Werner Seeliger, observer, Lt.z.S. Martin Lange.
21The aircraft originated from: 14 from KGr. 100; 13 from I./KG 28; 6 from KGr. 606; 5 from KG 1; 10 from KG 77; 7 from Kü.Fl.Gr. 406; 8 from KG 54.
22http://www.thememoryproject.com/stories/136:sidney-robert-dobing/
23HMS Tartar’s Appendix II to Letter of Proceedings dated 31 May 1941.
24Admiralty War Diary, 27 May 1941.
25The survivors were Obfw. Otto Kroke (second pilot), Obfw. Erich Kielke (mechanic), Uffz. Erhard Milde (second wireless operator), Fw. Kurt Brattke (gunner) and Friedrich Keller (metereologist).
Chapter 7
1Hajo Hermann, Eagle’s Wing: The Autobiography of a Luftwaffe Pilot, p.98.
2Unhappily for Army and Luftwaffe co-operation, Rommel’s apparent arrogance and frequently brusque way of dealing with other officers left a lasting antipathy between him and Fröhlich, who loathed the Afrika Korps commander to such an extent that he avoided personal dealings with him at all costs.
3Admiralty War Diary, 27 March 1941.
4Patrick Bridges, diary, 1941, in private hands, reproduced at https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/multimedia/publications/greece-and-crete/chapter-4-piece-australia
5KG 51 operated under the control of Luftflotte 4, handing over its serviceable machines to LG 1 at the end of the Balkan campaign and refitting and relocating to Poland in June 1941.
6Ken Otter, HMS Gloucester; The Untold Story.
77.Seenotstaffel had been formed from five He 59s that flew from Amsterdam to Salonika via refuelling stops in lakes and riverways to provide air-sea rescue facilities after the beginning of Marita. Operational by 22 April, and later moved to Phaleron Bay near Athens following the Greek surrender, the Heinkels were joined by three Do 24Ns transferred from Sicily. The basing of 7.Seenotsaffel in southern Greece paid huge dividends during the invasion of Crete, when it rescued 175 Gebirgsjager from a caique convoy intercepted and sunk by the Royal Navy on 22 May. A further eighty-four were picked up by local fishing boats requisitioned by the Seenot service, including sixty-five British sailors from HMS Gloucester.
8Brenner was promoted Oberleutnant and was later shot down by Sgt George Tuckwell in a 272 Sqn Beaufighter on 14 June 1942, as the Ju 88s of LG 1 attacked the Malta convoy codenamed Operation Vigorous. The crew were seen to escape their ditched aircraft and take to their dinghy, but were never recovered.
9Correlli Barnett, Engage the Enemy More Closely, p.364. Taken from the Roskill papers.
10PG-80321-NID, Luftwaffe and Naval Services Supplement to the list ‘Compilation of Activities by Formations of S.O. Naval Air Forces, 1941.’
11Coastal Command, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, p.108.
12The F5b was an improved variant of the F5a, with an increased capacity air tank and higher-performance engine. Weighing 750kg instead of the previous 775kg, the warhead weight was increased by 25kg and the torpedo could travel 4,500m at 30 knots, or 2,000m at 40 knots. However, the whisker-type detonator was often found ineffective if the torpedo struck at an acute angle, rendering the weapon unreliable once more.
13The remainder of Neumann’s crew were: Obfw. Martin Heidenreich, Co-pilot; Obfw. Willi Laufmann and Uffz. Johann Schneider, Radio Operators, Fw. Willi Schilf, Mechanic, and Uffz. Franz Rabensteiner, Gunner.
14From August 3./Aufkl.Gr. 125 was based at Helsinki. It was replaced during September by 1./Aufkl.Gr. 125 and an accompanying detachment of 9.Seenotstaffel.
15On 1 July Emig was posthumously promoted Oberstleutnant. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross on 21 August 1941.
16Generalleutnant Hermann Plocher, The German Air Force Versus Russia, p.175.
17David Isby, The Luftwaffe and War at Sea, p.62.
18Krupka was replaced by Oblt. Wilhelm Kleeman, who was also awarded the DKG, on 10 July, before being transferred to the Fliegerwaffenschule (See) and in turn replaced by Hauptmann Karl Barth in time for a brief reappearance of the Staffel in Sicily.
19The various components of KG 28 can be difficult to trace, as it underwent a dizzying number of redesignations and transfers before finally being disbanded at the end of 1941; Stab/KG 28 becoming temporarily Stab/KG 26, I./KG 28 becoming III./KG 26, and Erg.Staffel becoming 11./KG 100.
20News of the sinking, one of the worst maritime disasters in history, was supressed by the Soviet government for decades. Although treasure hunters have searched for the wreck of MV Armenia, its location has not yet been confirmed.
21David Isby, Luftwaffe and the War at Sea, p.64.
22Ibid., p.65.
Chapter 8
1Vgl. Eintragung ins KTB; OKW, Volume. I, Pg. 214 f.
2The three Staffeln of II./KG 26 would not be reunited until March 1942, at Saki, Crimea.
3While incarcerated at Murchison, Haubold committed suicide. He had received a letter from his fiancée, breaking off their engagement, and hung himself at approximately 2100hrs on 10 August 1943. He was buried in Murchison cemetery.
4Roth had previously commanded Kustenfliegergruppe 106 before the outbreak of war, and had been deputy Kommodore of KG 40 and Kommodore of KG 28. He was awarded the German Cross in Gold on 17 November 1941.
5This marked the end of a Geschwader whose history is very complex, various subordinate components having undergone at least ten redesignations between the outbreak of war and end of 1941.
68./KG 26 was disbanded during July 1943 and re-formed from 1./Kü.Fl.Gr.906.
7Among the German prisoners aboard was Generalmajor Johann von Ravenstein, commander of the 21.Panzer Division, who was rescued after two hours in the water by the ASW whaler HMS Thorgrim.
8http://asasdeferro.blogspot.it/2015/06/focke-wulf-fw-200-condor.html
9Führer Conferences on Naval Affairs, pp.274-275.
10Hajo Herrmann, Eagle’s Wings, pp.138-139.
11The nine survivors that made landfall were treated for injuries by Norwegian civilians before being taken to the German naval hospital in Tromsø.
12Interestingly, one of the British merchant seamen, Able Seaman Alfred Minchin, later joined the Waffen SS as a member of the Britisches Freikorps in November 1943. Indeed, it was Minchin who suggested that the unit’s name be changed from the original ‘Legion of St George’ to the ‘British Free Corps’. He survived the war.
13https://www.world-war.co.uk/trinidad_loss2.php3
14Generalleutnant Hermann Plocher, The German Air Force versus Russia, 1942, p.37.
15Pilot Hptm. Walter Staack, observer Lt.z.S. Peter Kruse and wireless operator Fw. Friedrich Ossenkopp.
16SKL KTB 28 May 1942.
17David Isby, The Luftwaffe and ahe War at Sea, p.67.
18Quoted by Roskill, The War at Sea, op. cit., p.130, Tovey Despatch, 2 August 1942.
19SKL KTB 8 June 1942.
20SKL KTB 9 June 1942.
21Ibid.
22Burmeister was awarded the Ehrenpokal on 10 August. He had already distinguished himself in September 1940 by flying from Tromsø to Kapp Linné in southern Spitzbergen to assist in determining the feasibility of establishing a weather station, flying on to the Soviet weather station at Barentsberg in Grønfjord, before returning to Tromsø. Arabin was later promoted Leutnant and, towards the war’s end, posted to fighter aircraft, flying an Me 410 in 2./SAGr. 126. Vater was appointed Staffelkapitän 1./KG 26 in August 1942.
23Observer Lt.z.S. Hugo Siegl, pilot Uffz. Walter Kahl, wireless operator Herbert Jacob, flight engineer Ogfr. Helmut Bernhardt and gunner Uffz. Helmut Zellner.
24Images of War, Eyewitness Accounts of World War 2, Volume 15, p.415.
25Hajo Herrmann, Eagle’s Wings, pp.149-150.
26SKL KTB 6 July 1942.
27ULTRA, ref. 1282/T5, T8.
28Images of War, Volume 13, p.356. Stamp was awarded the German Cross in Gold on 24 March 1943 and the Knight’s Cross for successful attacks on enemy shipping on 30 March 1943. In August 1943 he transferred to fighters, and by the war’s end was credited with 400 combat missions (300 in bombers), five air victories and sinking 35,000GRT of shipping, heavily damaging another 45,000GRT and three cruisers.
29The LT 350 was cleared for use by the Ju 87, Ju 88, He 111 (H-5, H-6 and H-11), He 115, Do 217 and Fw 200.
30Mar. Gruppe Süd op B. Nr. 627142 gKdos, in BAIMA RM 35 111./21: Kriegstagebuch des Marinegruppenkommando Süd, für die Zeit vom 1.-15. Februar 1942 (under entry for 2 February 1942) - Hayward thesis, p.69.
31Admiral Black Sea KTB 5 March 1942.
32Erfolgsübersicht des Fliegerführer Süd vom 19.2 - 9.8.1942, III/L14-1, Aul.5. Bibliothek fur Zeitgeschichte, Archiv.
331./Aufkl.Gr. 125 remained in Norway, its headquarters at Billefjord, while 2./Aufkl.Gr. 125 operated in the Aegean, based at Scaramanga/Athens, after spending the November and December at Akkermann, Ukraine.
34Surgeon Captain J.L.S. Coulter, The Royal Navy Medical Service. Volume 2. Operations, HMSO, London, 1956, pp.45-46.
35Cajus Bekker, Luftwaffe War Diaries, p.330.
36https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?37345.
37SKL KTB 24 September 1942.