Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

I was interested to find on another website a reference to a Spitfire
intercepting a Ju 388L at 44000 feet over the UK in early 1945 and
successfully shooting it down. I had never heard of this before.
Is it true and can anyone provide details of the aircraft involved and
where it happened.
I am also interested in the aufklarung flights over the UK by Ar 234s
the last of which was as late as10 April 1945.
Beyond looking at Scapa Flow what purpose did these flights serve
at that stage of the conflict?
James Bone

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Several reconnaissance missions were flown by operational Ju 388's, generally believed to be "L" models, in the final days of the war in Europe. Most were flights over England, and were similiar to the reconnaissance missions being flown by the jet powered Ar 234 at the same time period, though at higher altitudes.
In early 1945 a Ju 388 was intercepted while flying at approximately 44,000 ft over the English Channel by a Supermarine Spitfire. The Spitfire, operating above its service ceiling, was not able to reach the altitude of the Ju 388 but was able to fire upon it from below and bring it down. It is believed that this was the highest altitude shoot down of WWII.

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Hi guys

Most interesting. Any idea as to whom the pilot/unit was that shot down the Ju388, and the actual date?

Cheers
Brian

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Does the website in question give an actual wartime source for the claim that the Ju 388 operated over the British Isles?

There is excellent contemporary evidence for such missions by Ar 234s, which were available in far greater numbers than the 388.

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Hi Nick,
No ,it does not and that is why I was enquiring whether
anyone had any concrete information about the action.
In the absence of more detail I regard the claim as suspect.
I wonder if Christoph the author of the Ju 388 book posts here,
and if so what does he think?
Do you have any thoughts on the purpose of the Ar 234 flights over the
UK in 1945?
Regards, James

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

The William Green book Warplanes of the Third Reich states that several Ju 388L's were operated by 3/Versuch.Ob.d.L from late 1944. Has anybody got the late war losses for the unit which might help with this query.

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

These flights come up from time to time in ULTRA. From memory, these usually refer to flights down the East Coast (Hull being about the northernmost point), taking in East Anglia, the Thames Estuary and maybe East Kent.

I have never seen any mention of a Ju 388.

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

The authors of the new Schiffer book on the Ju388 did not come across any information on operational flights of Ju.388s over the UK.

This is reported on the Luftwaffe Experten Message Board.

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Thanks for that Graham.
Were the Ar 234 flights made from Norway, perhaps Stavanger- Sola?Certainly the last recorded on 10 April 1945 took in Scotland
from orkney to The River Tay much further north than the flights mentioned by Nick.
I am still puzzled as to why the flights were made when it was by this time beyond Germany`s military capability to make use of any information
gained with the possible exception of the odd attack by u boats.
James

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Was there not concerns in Germany about another possible Allied invasion of Norway,were the Arado's looking for any shipping build up ?

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Your idea sounds quite plausible to me Brian.
I had thought of the flights as being of an offensive nature
whereas they are much more likely to have been defensive.
Thanks for your contribution.
James

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

What little I have been able to learn about the (few) flights of the last quarter of 1944 and the first quarter of 1945 mirrors Brian's suggestion. The flights were to monitor shipping concentrations on the UK east coast as the OKW feared another landing, either in Norway, or possibly somewhere on the Denmark-North Germany-Netherlands coast might be in preparation. The Arado 234 shootdown near Rheine in Feb 45 was of one such sortie, to Hull.

The OKM were also deploying small submarines of the 'Seehund' and 'Biber' type/class in the N sea at this time and, again, reconnaissance of ports on both sides of the N sea was then the only effective means of finding suitable targets for a last ditch attack. I think ports such as Antwerp were also covered.

On the Ju 388 business -its a conflation of rumour and myth. No such intercepion happened. Would have been interesting.

Mind you, what about that rumoured encounter between that Westland Welkin and a Dornier 635 on May 9th 1945 somwehere off the Scilly isles......?

best

Chris Going

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

The reason for the Ar 234 in Norway is explained in the KTB der Aufklärungsflieger!

Junker

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Come on Chris, don't keep us in suspension! What was the rumour?

Cheers
Brian

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

I think that the key to the rumour may lie in the alleged location.....
However, 23 Ju 388s of all versions are thought to have been
delivered to operational units. They must have done something
with them before the fuel situation became critical?
Thanks to all contributors to this thread.
Jamesl

Re: Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Ha! Ha! Don't be hard on me, Chris & James, I come from Silly Suffolk!

Cheers
Brian

Re: Ju 388 Aufklarung 1945 over UK
 

Hi

As co-autor of the Ju 388 book - now also available in its English version via Schiffer - I doubt that Ju 388 were flown operationally over the UK. However it is not entierly impossible, that VersVerb OKL did fly such combat missions.
Christoph Vernaleken and I did not come across any reliable information on such events.
Moreover there were no such losses recorded by the official General Quartiermeister's Luftwaffe loss records of any Ju 388s.

Regards, from Vienna, Austria
Martin