Condor loss February 5, 1941

[Swifte]

Good evening,
I am looking for details of a loss of a Condor for that date, the identity, location and reason for loss.
Thank you.
Swifte

[edNorth]

0042 Fw 200 C-3 SG+KR Luftwaffe - F8+AH 1./KG 40 (Luftflotte 3) Based in France - OPS (F) Shipping off Scotland; hit by AA from ship SS MERCHANT C and crashed 08:00 hrs into hillside between Durrus and Schull, in Bantry County, Cork, Republic of Ireland 05.02.1941 (5 killed, 1 injured POW; Oblt. Paul Gömmert commanding..)

[Swifte]

Merci. edNorth
Swifte

[Laurent Rizzotti]

More details available on http://www.crashplace.de, search by date for 5 February 1941.

The entry source is a site specialized in crashes in Ireland in WWII.

[Swifte]

Thank you Laurent, I had a look at that site but I am a little bit confused.
It has the ship listed as SS Majorca and SS Major C and the Condor commander listed as Gommer. Which may be correct? Was it in a convoy?
Thank you.
Swifte

[Chris Goss]

I have Major C & Gömmert

[dp_burke]

I took the crew names spellings as those presented on the http://www.volksbund.de/
Burial listings in Glencree German War Cemtery here in Ireland.

Nachname:Gömmer Vorname:Paul Dienstgrad:Oberleutnant Geburtsdatum:13.01.1909 Geburtsort:Malstatt-Burbach Todes-/Vermisstendatum:05.02.1941 Todes-/Vermisstenort:Mt. Gabriel

As regards the ship name, as I say on my website, and as copied onto the other one, some sources say the name was 'Major C'. This has been suggested to be an error for the SS Majorca, however that vessel also seems to not be the correct one. Whether this aircraft was damaged by gun fire is still open for comfirmation I think. Or at least the identity of the vessel.

The question of the vessel has been asked a few times online:
http://warsailors.com/forum/search.p...atch_forum=ALL

http://warsailors.com/forum/read.php?1,32721,32721#msg-32721

The convoy SC20 was attacked on this date:
http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/sc20.html

I cannot recall if I know where the reference to Major C comes from.

[Tony Kearns]

The name on the grave marker in the Glencree burial site is Oblt. Paul Gommer (o with umlat)

Dennis,
I first came across the reference to the vessel SS Major C way back in the last century in Kenneth Poolman's Focke-Wulf Condor, Scourge of the Atlantic, at the time I wrote to him and asked him for the source of the vessel ref. He kindly replied but he could not recall the source and I think that vessel's name has been repeated ever since.

The search goes on.
Regards
Tony K

[dp_burke]

Thanks Tony, I went reading through what little I had on this and put two and two together again! The German ones are not my stonrg point!

Does anyone have the Luftwaffe loss records for this aircraft, I can't even recall what they are called again.

I believe he is away buy M Gleeson who if he sees this will post also, looked up the records for the SS Majorca and found that it was sailing in the Irish Sea, close to the English coast and was a smaller vessel. Unless there were two such vessels. I searched ancestry.com records today for ship names and again the Major Wheeler was the only name of that kind I found. Maybe it was a quickly written note by Poolman that he misinterpreted, and thus we have it for posterity. I imagine the aircraft would be/could be hit by fire from a number of ships under convoy conditions??

[Swifte]

Thanks to everyone for your very interesting help.