Info required He 111 (7A+CH) lost 12.03.40
 

Hi to all,

Can anyone supply us with further information regarding the loss of He 111 (7A+CH) of Oblt. Kohnke & crew who failed to return from a reconnaissance sortie on the 12.03.40?

Any help always greatly appreciated!

Melvin

www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com

Re: Info required He 111 (7A+CH) lost 12.03.40
 

1940-03-12, 1.(F)/121, He 111H-2, 7A+CH, Lämershagen bei Bielefeld, Sicherheitshöhe nicht eingehalten und gegen Berg geflogen. Bruch 100 %.
Olt Kohnke, Friedrich, tot
Großmann, Friedrich, tot
Kahlert, Georg, tot
Melzer, Herbert, tot

Matti

Re: Info required He 111 (7A+CH) lost 12.03.40
 

Many thanks Matti.

Regards,

Melvin

Re: Info required He 111 (7A+CH) lost 12.03.40
 

crew picture https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/thread...4#post-1673004

Re: Info required He 111 (7A+CH) lost 12.03.40
 

Melvin, suggest checking the weather this particular day (WX report). Did they lost themselves on the Navigation? Did they tried to pass below the clouds? Seems to be a "Controlled Flight Into Terrain" - CFIT; but they could have suffered a failure on the artificial horizon, etc....who knows?

Re: Info required He 111 (7A+CH) lost 12.03.40
 

Hi Adriano,

they crashed at 22.00 hrs so probably darkness or weather.

Robert

Re: Info required He 111 (7A+CH) lost 12.03.40
 

Robert,

Nice news, the time of crash.

But, there are interesting considerations here. They were on a reconaissance sortie and the sunset in March "may be" (am guessing) around 17-18hs. Considering that the Ju 88 A-4 do have something of around 4-5 hours of autonomy (I know some flights with underwing fuel tanks of 900 liters of more than 8 hours total flight time); it seems weird they would take-off by the end of the day to return by night on a recon sortie...unless they did have auxiliary fuel tanks under the wings...so they would have more drag and weight to deal with.

If they took off by the end of the day, wiht auxiliary fuel tanks...around 16hs to photograph objectives with shadows...they could return up to midnight. The time of crash at around 22hs do fit nicely here, BUT we most know if they did have the auxiliary fuel tanks.

It is unknown to me, if the Germans did have the capacity of photographing by night with the aids of dropping flares, something that some RAF units did, lately (44) in the war...69 Squadron for instance.

A nice topic to dig further....

Re: Info required He 111 (7A+CH) lost 12.03.40
 

They were fling a He 111 Adriano?

Re: Info required He 111 (7A+CH) lost 12.03.40
 

Yeah I messed up with the other loss....guess I need some sleep