Four Do 24 destroyed by a sole mysterious B-24

[Guy JULIEN]

I look for details about four Do-24 seaplanes belonging to Seenotstaffel Berre reported destroyed by "an american B-24" ont the 10th of September 1943. The float planes tried to rescue survivors of the Italian Fleet attacked on the previous days by KG 100 in the straits of Bonifacio's area.
Did someone confirm theses claims and indicate the so called B-24's unit ?

Thanks for your help
Guy

[Seaplanes]

The three aircraft were all Do 24T machines from 6. Seenotstaffel. They were in the process of rescuing 52 seamen from a sunken italian destroyer when attacked by a B-24D Liberator from USAAF's 1st. Antisubmarine Sq. piloted by Capt. McKeown. This squadron was operating out of Protville in Tunisia at the time of this incident. The three aircraft were W.No. 0073 (VH+SM), W.Nr. 0105 (DM+RE) and W.Nr. 1001 (GI+GO). The only casualty was Uffz. Jochen Lambrecht, the pilot of VH+SM, who was wounded. The German crews and at least some sailors were rescued by Flygbetriebsboot Fl.B. 604.

[Guy JULIEN]

Thanks a lot for your quick answer.
Guy

[Stig Jarlevik]

Hallo again Seaplanes

Perhaps now is the right time to ask you some questions about the the WNr of the Do 24. From published sources:
1) Why did the V-2 receive WNr 782 when V-1 was WNr 760 and V-3 761?
2) Why did Dornier assign WNr 700 all of a sudden to the Dutch X-37
3) Aviolanda licencebuilt many Do 24 and also built the type for Luftwaffe after the occupation of Holland. Why did RLM assign their own WNr to them and thereby creating a double system? "Your" numbers 0073 and 0105 were also Aviolanda c/n 145 and 177 respectively.
4) With regard to WNr 1001 this one seems to have been built in France. It's code is usually listed as CI+GO and not GI+GO. Is this a typo in my sources or from you? All the codes in this range starts CI+xx in my sources.
5) Other WNr in this range, 1003 and up are also quoted with dual WNr, ie 1003/3381, 1004/3382 etc. Can you explain why some but not all in this range were given two Wnrs?
6) Is it known how many French Do 24 that were built? Did the WNr range go all the way from 1001 to at least 1151? Did all of them get a second Wnr from RLM?
7) Is it known how many Do 24 that were built by Fokker? WNr range seems to have started at 2101 and moved to at least 2135.
8) Aviolanda seems to have continued to build the Do 24 for Germany starting with Wnr 3211 and moving up to around 3435 (see also question 5 above). Any comments regarding this batch?

Cheers
Stig

[Dennis Peschier]

I think that the best course of action would be to contact André de Swart, webmaster of http://www.dornier24.com/

Dennis

[Seaplanes]

At least I can give you the actual production figures for the Do 24 in Luftwaffe service:
The two RLM-ordered prototypes were: Do 24V-1 W.Nr. 760 D-AIBE and TJ+HR. Do 24V-2 W.Nr. 782 DP+BH. There were no further prototypes.

The first production batch built by Aviolanda was actually dutch aircraft imptessed by RLM. They received the designation Do 24N and the first three to four aircraft were initially allocated civil registrations in the summer of 1940. When Seenotdienst abolished the use of civil and red-cross marking in July 1940, the Do 24's was allocated a series of Stammkennzeichen in the KD+GA to KD+GJ for the first 10 aircraft of this batch of totally 13. Approx. Dec. 40 or Jan. 1941, it was decided to modify these flying boats with german armament and some improvements of instruments and german engines. Quite unusually, this series of 13 aircraft the was then allocated a new series of Stammkennzeichen in the
KK+UH (W.Nr. 003) to KK+UR (W.Nr. 013) at least. This series was also the only one were both Aviolanda and RLM W.Nos. were used by Luftwaffe. All remaining production was given RLM W.Nos. The Aviolanda W.Nos. was only used for internal factory matters.

The remaining production was:
Do 24T-1 Aviolanda total delivered 11 aircraft
Do 24T-2 Aviolanda total delivered 38 aircraft
Do 24T-3 Aviolanda including Fokker total delivered 125 aircraft
Do 24T-3 SNCAN total delivered 47 aircaft

Strangely enough, the Fokker producion was never reported separately
in the RLM production charts, only Aviolanda who was the main contractor.