Fw Harbach of JG 77, Norway 1940
 

Hello

I have two questions about this pilot:

_ has someone his complete name ? And his fate after the Norway campain ?

_ according to Tony Wood's claimlist, he claimed a victory against a Skua SSW of Bergen at 1750 hrs on 3 October 1940. The day before (2 October), in a raid on German shipping in Bjornefjord, south of Bergen, by the British 801 Squadron from Hatston, the Skua II L2929 was shot down and S/Lt Alan Hartoch and Naval Airman Eric J. Adlam were killed. All my sources agree that the Skua was lost on the 2nd, and some say Harbach shot down it, but then the date of his victory in Tony's list is wrong. I don't have the Prien & co book on Norway 1940, so can someone check if this victory is still shown on the 3rd there ?

Thanks in advance

Laurent

Re: Fw Harbach of JG 77, Norway 1940
 

Laurent

Don't know what happened to the pilot, but all British secondhand sources I have claim it happened on October 2nd and all my German second hand sources states October 3rd (even Prien in Die Jagdfliegerverbände etc Vol 3). It is pretty obvious it is the same incident but I cannot of course say which date that is correct, although the British seems in my own opinion in this case to have got it right...

B Rgds
Stig

Re: Fw Harbach of JG 77, Norway 1940
 

Laurent,

German first hand sources date this incident as October 3rd, 1940; I have the combat report from Lt. Arnoldy who led the German formation of 4./JG 77 and

Re: Fw Harbach of JG 77, Norway 1940
 

Laurent,

sorry, somehow the beginning of my post just went off, so here we go again:

The date of this incident according to first hand German sources was October 3rd, 1940. The very detailed combat report of Lt. Arnoldy, who led the German Kette formation of 4./JG 77, the Lagebericht West Nr. 463 and the OKW Bericht of October 4th all give the 3rd as the date.

Hope this helps

Jochen Prien

Re: Fw Harbach of JG 77, Norway 1940
 

Thanks Jochen,

I will be very interested in the combat report of Lt Arnoldy, if you can send me a scan or picture. And I guess my friend Brian Cull will be interested too to include it in his "Flying Sailors" serie.

As for the date I have now several German documents giving the date as 3 October and several British sources giving the date as 2 October. Maybe the way to settles this case will be to search if Norwegian sources exist.

Best regards

Laurent

Re: Fw Harbach of JG 77, Norway 1940
 

A topic on RAF Commands (http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/sho...3-October-1940) confirmed that this action took place on 3 October 1940, as this was found in British reports.

Still looking for the full name of Fw Harbach, by the way.

Best regards