[Larry Hickey]

Brian,

A loss during the last week of September is ruled out by the publication date of 1 October for the Dutch issue of "Signaal" that was my photo source, give production lead times. I completely concur with John Vasco's statement about the thin white rear fuselage band only being used on I./ZG26 aircraft during the Battle of Britain (but not the Western Campaign). This does not appear at any time on any photo that I know of for II or III./ZG26. Also, the absence of white nose markings, known to be carried by I./ZG26 aircraft from the first week or so of September onward, confines this incident to about Sept. 4th at the latest, and probably more likely sometime in August, 1940. So, that still leaves this certain Bf110 loss as unidentified. It seems unlikely that a ditched and unrecoverable Bf110 would have been left off the QM loss reports, even though the crew clearly survived. But I see no likely candidates among what we currently know about I./ZG26's plane losses during August to very early Sept. during the Battle of Britain.

Unfortunately, the unit diary (KTB) for I./ZG26 did not survive the war, so we aren't gong to get an answer there, and we haven't been able to find a KTB for the German air sea rescue service operating in the Pas de Calais area, which might also have provided an answer. If someone knows something different than that about either of these possible sources, I'd sure like to hear from them.

Both John Vasco and Peter Cornwell are similarly at a loss to explain this one. What are we missing here?

Regards,