[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello all,

Recently I have gone through all available late war accounts and diaries of former I./NJG 1 members in which they describe (or recall) the last weeks of the Gruppe at Westerland and Mildstedt. It seemed logical to me, to start with 22 March 1945 when the I./NJG 1 was heavily strafed at Münster-Handorf and preparing to the next move to the north of Germany. As expected, this search revealed no new info, not already been processed in my databases.

I am convinced that I still don't know all He219 losses in those weeks up to VE-Day, especially the accident without personal losses. So there is still a theoretical chance, that some minor accidents and/or emergency landings (and this ditching of the He219 at Hirtshals) haven't been discovered yet.

We also know that there are large gaps in our knowledge about the He219's used with the I./NJG 3 and (if still existing) Schulstaffel NJG 1. We know further that the most - if not all - He219's found at Grove/Karup were from the I./NJG 3.

Summarizing: I am still convinced that the He219 wreck once belonged to the I./NJG 3 and/or Schulstaffel mentioned and that its loss faded into obscurity because many loss records of the last weeks of the Luftwaffe seems to have been lost forever.

As Jorn Junker knows, I have a list of many I./NJG 3 members flight logs which must be checked for new He219 identities: I hope to visit that collection later this year.

All the best, Marcel