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Re: Uffz. Herbert Koch, III./JG76
Dear Gary,
i'll try to translate/explain ...
"F" means "Feindflug" (combat mission). The alternative would be "H" for "Heimat" (Home), the latter was used for "routine flights" (technical, transfer, practise flights ... etc.).
"in den Berg" can be translated as: "into the hill".
The dogfight happened over a hill called "Idsteiner Klotz", which is close to Wintersweiler, Freiburg area. Koch managed to jump off his ship, but the parachute didn't open, so he fell to his death. His Bf 109 chrashed into the hill.
"RLV" stands for "Reichsluftverteidigung" - defence of the Reich,
and "Trendle, Brennendes Land" is the reference to the source of the information. Fritz Trendle wrote a book upen the air war in south-west Germany called "Brennendes Land" (burning country).
It's always a difficult decision what is better:
- either to write the original text in German, as given in the loss report. This includes the "full historical correctness"
- or to translate into English - which means some sort of "interpretation"
Good luck with your research, and
best regards,
Uwe (Karlsruhe, Germany)
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