[George Hopp]

From ADI (K) Report No. 223/1944 of 20 May 1944:

On the night of 25/26 April 1944, Lw bomber forces made 2 attacks on shipping and concentrations of landing craft in the Portsmouth area. During both these attacks Me 410s of 1 (F)/121 flew strike assessment sorties over the target area, taking photographs with the help of photographic flash bombs. One of these Me 410s was shot down by a nightfighter during the 2nd attack; the W/T operator, who baled out, was picked up later in the sea and taken into Portsmouth.

These attacks were carried out based on cover obtained by a/c of 3/121 in the early morning of 25 April 1944.

The a/c had been flying at 8,000m with the W/T operator freely throwing out Window. But, though the a/c had Neptun, the pilot chose not to use it. The a/c had taken off from Orly soon after 0400 hours.

On the intell report the a/c type was stated to be a Me 410 B-4, a sub-type with which I am not familiar. I note, from the 1944 C-Amts reports, no Me 410B-type recce a/c were ever produced, so I would assume that the a/c was actually an Me 410A-3 -- of interest only, I guess, to us rivet counters.

As with the 109 mentioned earlier, visual observation of this shoot down would have been very problematic.

"The Blitz: Then and Now," vol. 3 says the a/c belonged to 1(F)/122 and was shot down at 05:07, by F/L BA Burtbridge and F/L FS Skelton in a Mosquito of 85 Sqdn. They shot down Oberlt. H Kroll (Staffelkapitan) killed, and Ofrich. W Mayer PoW.