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Henschel 129's in France & Family History
Good Evening,
I ask for your assistance in helping me with some research relating to my grandfather, Franz Wondrak. My Grandfather now passed away flew for the Luftwaffe during WW2. He did not talk much about the war however the information i do know is that he flew Henschel 129 "Tankbusting" aircraft and was stationed in France. He was in fact shot down by an American P47 Thuderbolt He was then captured by canadians in or around falaise and eventually became a POW in Bristol near Frenchay. I am attending a battlefield tour of Normandy where i also have a great uncle Anton Wondrak who is buried in one of the cemetaries outside of St Lo who i am also going to visit. I am kindly asking prior to my trip, does anyone have any info or can anyone aid me in where best to look in order to source information on my Grandfathers unit, its fate and even a combat report from the p47 that shot him down. I know there is limited detail on the Henscel 129's service record in Normandy from another forum: "In Smith and Kay German Aircraft of the Second World War p337 noting the moves of german units to the west a reference is made to "erganzungsgruppen" being made operational including a "Hs 129 unit, probably a staffel of III. / SG 151" this formation was based at Caen -Carpiquet and appeared over the allied beaches during the D Day landings. One aircraft was captured in July 1944, but its subsequent fate is not recorded" (i believe there is a photo of this aircraft on canadian forums of the aircraft being assessed at Carpiquet) There is also a photo of a Henschel in July 1944 at Carpiquet at this link... http://collectionscanada.ca/base-de-don ... 9c8buu9994 Thanking you so much in advance any help or even ideas of where to look would help me so much. Matthew Wondrak (Grandson of Franz Wondrak) |
Re: Henschel 129's in France & Family History
Meaningful information about Hs 129 operations is rather hard to come by. In the past the best single book on the subject was the magnificent:
Pegg, Martin. Hs 129 Panzerjäger! (Burgess Hill (West Sussex): Classic Publications, 1997). ISBN: 0-9526867-16 [PzJgr] Unfortunately this big book is out of print, but as fate would have it, it is effectively about to be replaced by our new book: Dive-bomber and Ground-attack Units of the Luftwaffe by Henry L. deZeng IV and Douglas Stankey, published by Classic/Ian Allan. See: http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/pr...9&cat=0&page=1 and http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/pr...at=1003&page=1 Volume one began to be available in Europe in November 2009 but it is not yet available in North America. However, the part you want is in Volume 2 which is supposed to be released in March 2010. This deals with the SG units including the Hs 129 unit IV./SG 9. The 1942 usages of the Hs 129 are covered in our Volume 1. These books cover the units operations, such as where they were based, what actions they undertook and who commanded. This should help you out about the general activities of Hs 129 units. If you could get ahold of the Martin Pegg book that would also help. |
Re: Henschel 129's in France & Family History
Quote:
Hi Matthew, If you have problems accessing a copy of Pegg, Martin. Hs 129 Panzerjäger! contact me via the pm function. cheers Jerry |
Re: Henschel 129's in France & Family History
A brief re-read of Pegg's book indicates no HS 129 losses in combat in the Caen / Normandy area. In fact, there is virtually no discussion of the Hs 129 in Western France. There are picture of the aircraft you linked at the Canadian archives. The aircraft is simply noted as W. Nr. 140492 coded DO+XE. The aircraft was merely said to have been bombed and then looted. No unit is given to which that Hs 129 may have belonged.
As for III / SG 151, Pegg indicates that these were training units and they shifted and were redesignated so much that units were hard to follow. It seems that III / SG151 became part of I / SG 152 in February 1944 as 3 (Pz) Staffel. At the end of July it became 14.(Pz)/Sg151 and disbanded in October 1944. Unless I am missing something, there seems to be no combat loss of an Hs 129 in the west of France. |
Re: Henschel 129's in France & Family History
As for Dive-Bomber and Ground-Attack Units of the Luftwaffe 1933-1945, it is available from Amazon US. I received my copy yesterday.
The monograph is overwhelmingly about the untis rather than the aircraft. So if you are looking for a monograph on aircraft and their development, this is not your book. First impression only, but the unit operational histories appear to be quite straight forward and would provide a quick reference. But as with all first impressions, I had a couple of "what the ..." experiences. For example on page 40 at the top is an ordnance diagram for the Ju 87. The authors note that on the Ju 87D-1 there was no instillation of the trapeze bomb carrier. Is this true, or is it just that the diagram did not show it? Also,on page 28 there is a picture of a captured Ju 87G-2 at Pilsen with the yellow nose band. The cation indicates that the band was adopted on the Eastern Front in the autumn of 1944 to distinguish German aircraft from Russian aircraft. A bit late I think. This was the Luftflotte 4 adoption of a marking to differentiate German aircraft from Romanian aircraft, that may be still in German marking, on the Romanian Front. Sorry if knit picking, as I noted I have merely scanned it so far and those issues are clearly unrelated to the purpose and intent of this monograph. |
Re: Henschel 129's in France & Family History
Hi
just browsed a few books, from martin peggs book SG101 was at clermont ferrand in 1944, it had some HS-129's Osprey Aviation Elite Units 13 - Luftwaffe Schlachtgruppen - John Weal, mentions 08 june 44 , SG101 having to send 12 ju-87's to a forward landing ground in normandy, apparently only one made it, ( presumably 11 crashed/shot down ? ) So, it is possibly not beyond reason, that some of the units HS-129's went north also ? As to being shot down by a P-47, would the P-47 pilot have been to identify a HS-129, from other luftwaffe a/c, for example he may have claimed a Bf110, Ju88, etc.. cheers Jerry |
Re: Henschel 129's in France & Family History
Hi,....
Re: Franz Wondrak Somewhere in my archive I have some correspondance from Franz. He wrote to me regards some of his experiences in fighting in the Henschel, from memory he told me of the dogfight with the P47, and what happened as he set his crippled bird down. I will see if I can find it for you. I do remember him telling me that the Henschel's massive pilot's back armour saved his life as it took at least one of the 50 cal rounds. I have almost finished restoring mine, its massive and I can easily believe him. Hope this helps,..... |
Re: Henschel 129's in France & Family History
Hi
an interesting story, any chance you can post here if you find it ? cheers Jerry |
Re: Henschel 129's in France & Family History
Hi Jerry,
I will have a look thru my archive and will post when I find it. It was an interesting story, certainly would be no fun being chased by an angry P47! Regards, Martin |
Re: Henschel 129's in France & Family History
Hi Martin,
Many thanks Jerry |
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