[Marcel van Heijkop]

Brian, Jaap,

You are correct that during this early period target marking was also carried out by the bomber units themselves (such as KG2 or KG6), probably because I./KG66 was not up to strength yet. For what it's worth hereby Altrogge's entry in his Leistungsbuch:

"Ziel: Dieselmotorenwerk in Lincoln. Auftrag: Horcheinsatz im Rahmen 2. Und 3./KG2 (II und III/KG2 meant?). Höhen über Ziel von 800 - 5000 m. Abschuss von 7 Maschinen durch Nachtjäger beobachtet. Seenotfall 70 km ostwärts Wash. Starke Nachtjagd vor allem im Wash (Steigraum), am Ziel leichte, mittlere und schwere Flak. Flugweg: Soesterberg - LF Katrin - Wash - Lincoln - Deelen"

As I understand it, a "Horcheinsatz" is a kind of "ELINT" (Electronic Intelligence" mission where the objective is to find out what radio and radar frequencies etc. the enemy (i.e. the British) is using. I don't know if we can conclude from the above that the Ju 188s involved did of did not do any target marking. Altrogge maybe not, but the other Ju 188s?

Which again reminds me how much this early period of I./KG66 is still a "Dark Age" to me. Altrogge is one of the few sources for this period and he was notoriously sloppy filling in the "Zulassungsnummer (aircraft code)"-column in his Flugbuch. That means that I'm not even sure which Staffel he belonged to at the time (2./, 4./KG66, or still E.Kdo.d.Lw. 188?) or whether he was temporarily detached to 3./KG66, the mysterious "Hör- und Störstaffel". (Which seems to have no connection to I./KG66 apart from their unit code.....)

All the best,

Marcel