[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

As a follow up to Peter Cornwell's posting of the salvage photo of the Ju88A-1 shot down during the I./KG30 attack against shipping in the Firth of Forth on October 16, 1939, has anyone located any intelligence reports resulting from the recovery of this aircraft? Assuming that it was recovered soon after it was shot down, this would have been the first substantial remains of a Ju88 recovered by the British, and presumably would have been the subject of detailed inspection and additional photography.

1) For captioning the photo that Peter shows above, does anyone know when the a/c was actually recovered from the sea? It is possible that this was not close to the time it was actually shot down.

2) Has anyone located in British historical files the intelligence reports based upon the recovery of this a/c, hopefully including additional photos of it's markings? These reports might well have included the W.Nr. of the a/c, and close-up photos of the shield emblem visible on the starboard nose.

3) Does anyone know if either in 1939 or since any effort has been made to locate and salvage the remains of the Ju88A-1 of Hptm. Pohle, the Gr Kdr, "ditched in the sea off Crail" during the same action? It reportedly carried the code 4D+AK. This may lie in very deep water.

Peter has now updated the info on this loss as follows:

"October 16, 1939: 1./KG30 Junkers Ju 88A-1. Shot down by Spitfires of ‘B’ Flight No.603 Squadron (F/L P. Gifford, F/O K. MacDonald, and F/O C. Robertson) and crashed in sea 4 miles north of Port Seton following attack on HMS Southampton in the Firth of Forth 2.55 p.m. Also engaged by elements of Yellow Section of No.602 Squadron. FF Oberlt Siegmund Storp (Staffelkapitän), BO Oberfw Hugo Köhnke, and BF Oberfw Hans-Georg Hielscher all captured slightly injured - rescued by trawler Dayspring, BS Obergefr Friedrich Krämer missing. Aircraft 4D+DH 100% write-off."

Thanx for any assistance,