[HarryB]

Robert,

That's interesting!

Here is the quote from Martin & Orpen:

"Maj. C.A. van Vliet and Lt. A.L. Basson, operating from Lampi, intercepted seven Bf109s south of Kos, and Basson was shot down into the sea, apparently by III/JG27 (ref Ring p.275). He was picked up by an Italian caique [a type of sailing boat...Harry] and taken to the nearby island of Kalimnos (Calino). Balancing this, Maj. Van Vliet destroyed a Bf109, probably that of Unteroffizier Jakob Herweg of III/JG27, who baled out and was also picked up about 20 km from Kos by an Italian boat which already carried some "Engländer". Herweg jumped overboard and swam to an Arado 196, when it alighted on the water near by (Ring p.275), but the intrepid Luftwaffe pilot lost his life a few days later when Mitchells raided Argos (Ring p.276)"

REF: Ring, H., Jagdgeschwader 27 (Motorbuch Verlag) Stuttgart, 1975.

Assuming Dr. Prien to be correct about Herweg on the 28th, I'm still left having to make the same conclusion, namely that Bassie was brought down by Löffler 10-15 km north of Kos on 27 September 1943. If he had been brought down SOUTH of Kos (where Martin & Orpen say the interception took place), then why would a sailing boat go out of its way to go to Kalimnos!? Take a look at the map on Google Maps. Again, if he was downed 1-2km from Kos, why would a Caique plod onwards to go to Kalimnos if Kos was a stone's throw away? Also, I'm not convinced an Arado 196 pilot would try to alight 1km from an enemy controlled coast to pick up an enemy pilot...makes no sense to me....and Bassie was adamant about the Arado trying to pick him up. Hence I say Bassie is the Löffler-10-15km-from-Kos case...and then it was NOT he who was in the boat with Herweg the next day.

The only other solution I see here is that Martin & Orpen have the date wrong. In that case all bets are off. The point is that they DO specify the losses on the 28th and do NOT confuse the loss of Bassie with those. For this reason I have taken the date of 27.9.43 as fixed.

SO, maybe Herweg was downed on the following day and NOT by Van Vliet. On the 28th Lt. E.M. Taylor of 7Sqn. SAAF baled out over the sea. Captain E.A. Rorvik was shot down and did not survive. Eight more 74Sqn. RAF Spitfires arrived at Lampi the afternoon, apparently in time for a 5.45pm Ju88 bombing run on the Lampi airfield escorted by Me109s.

Bassie never told me about an event in which he shared a boat with a German pilot....then again, he never told me the specifics of his baling out at Kos...and now it is 25 years too late.

He DID tell me about being intercepted by a Me262...but that's a story for another day.

Harry
Vancouver
CANADA