[DR40eghs]

Hi Rémi,

i have Ulf Balke's chronicle "Kampfgeschwader 100 >>Wiking<<" in front of me. On page 266 Balke writes upen the loss of Ltn. Michelis. The 7./KG 100 used Foggia as basis, whereas the rest of III./KG 100 was in Istres/F at this time. Only 10 days before, the group sank the italian battleship "Roma" between Corse an Sardinia, and 3 days before, the "Warspite" was hit by the PC 1400 X (Fritz X) gliding bombs of KG 100 and heavily damaged.

Balke writes, that the British took Foggia on 27. Sep. 1943 (!), one week after the loss of Michelis. And he writes, that Foggia was one of the storage sites for the Fritz X gliding bombs.

The "Beobachter" during the loss of Ltn. Ernst Michelis, i.e. Uffz. Eugen Degan, was "on loan" from the crew of Ofw. Kurt Steinborn, since the normal Beobachter of Michelis' crew had an attack of Malaria. Steinborn had to do a flight (wihout navigator, only with his engineer (BM)) to Istres from Foggia to re-calibrate (compensate) the mother-compass of his Do 217.

Probably the Do 217 and crew of Ltn. Michelis was lost during an attack on the allied ships at Salerno and crashed into the sea ...

Unfortunately, there is no Werknummer or Do 217 subtype (K-2 or E-4/5) listet for the loss of Michelis in Balke's superb KG 100 chronicle.

Regards,
Uwe from Karlsruhe, D