[Stig Jarlevik]

Peter/Chris

The pertinent question is to me what 248 Sq ORB says (if anything) regarding the orders received by the the three Blenheim crews.

According to Foreman they were patroling the North Sea, which is quite a large area. However I don't believe that aircraft from Stavanger area attacking the British northern Islands and perhaps northern Scotland pass over the North Sea (maybe they just touch it?)

At this point in time 248 Sq was based at Bircham Newton which is nowhere near Scotland or northern England but well based (if not excellent) to patrol the more eastern/south eastern coastal area of England. It should also be noted that III./JG 54 was based almost opposite along the Dutch coast line.

So to my mind whatever He 111 they intercepted that day was much more likely to be an aircraft from mainland Europe rather than Norway.

Again according to Foreman, Uffz Woick made his claim at 14.10H while Prien says just like Peter 18.28H. I am not sure what Foreman is trying to do here since he also claims that 248 Sq did its patrol during the mid-afternoon. Possibly he is trying "his best" to find a solution to the loss of one Blenheim and also a victory claim of one Blenheim from the German side.

I can to a certain point understand Foreman since we either have a scenario where one Blenheim is last seen chasing a He 111 which presumably at this point is going full speed back 'home' at around noon British time (13.00H German time) and possibly gets shot down by return fire, and a German claim much, much later basically into thin air since we don't have any relevant British loss/damaged aircraft. Since it seems Woick's claim was accepted and he then must have had witnesses to his claim, he must have chased at least something and the question is what?

Since I believe we can rule out Foreman's scenario completely, there are basically three roads to follow
a) There was in fact a British patrol/attack at this time (17.28H GMT/18.28H German time). No losses, but the Germans still believed they had shot down one aircraft.
b) The German stated time is wrong
c) The claim is a total fabrication from a very junior pilot making his second claim on this day, supported by witnesses etc.(unless this claim also belongs to another day entirely....)

Cheers
Stig