[Larry Hickey]

Brian,

Peter Cornwell and John Vasco, both experts on the Bf110 have both looked at this issue in the past and have not found a resolution. As John points out, this can only be a I./ZG26 aircraft due to the white ring on the rear fuselage, which is diagnostic to that unit during the BoB period. III./ZG26 did not carry such a marking. I entirely dismiss the identification of this as a ZG76 aircraft/crew for the same reason.

Perhaps one small additional clue to help ID this incident may be the comment that both crewmen were injured, so there may be a casualty report somewhere in the German system if the injuries were serious enough. There is no surviving KTB for I./ZG26 for this period, at least that I know of, in the hands of the BA. Perhaps reporting at a higher level might detect this loss, which appears to have been missed in the German QM records. I've tried to get at this one through the SNFlKdo records, but the existing KTB for SNFlKdo 3 (covers the eastern channel area) at the BA does not start until 05-09-40, which is too late for this incident. The SNFlKdo 2 KTB for the BoB, covering the central channel area out of Cherbourg, does begin on Aug 12th and goes to mid-December, 1940, but we have this and the He59 NE+?? does not appear as an aircraft in their records, and it records the unit codes of pretty much all of their aircraft active on operations during this period. So, it appears, with the missing time frame for SNFlKdo 3, where I would expect this rescue to be documented somewhere in the mid-August time frame, we're not going to find the answer unless someone comes up with some of that unit's records stretching back to the beginning of the BoB. If anyone knows of such records, I'd certainly like to hear from them. Not only is this incident not documented but there are numerous other ditchings by Bf109s, with pilots being subsequently rescued by the He59s, for which the German QM records do not provide identification of the pilots. These missing SNFlKdo3 records would likely fill in many missing details for these 109s during July/August, 1940, perhaps including unknown pilot's names.

One other possible way to solve this would be if we can find a crewmen's Flugbuch from I./ZG26 for the respective period that mentions something about this incident. At the moment, I'm not aware of any FB records that would solve this mystery.

Regards,