KG26. 3rd February 1940

[bill norman]

On 3 February 1940, a Heinkel 111 of KG26 suffered forty per cent damage while attacking shipping off the NE coast of England. It made it back to base, where it force-landed with a damaged engine and an airframe punctured with sixty assorted bullet holes. Anyone have any more information relating to this aircraft and its crew? I am familiar with the other losses incurred that day.
Bill Norman (www.billnorman.co.uk)

[Peter Cornwell]

Hello Bill,

No crew details unfortunately but some extra detail for you:

4./KG26 Heinkel He111H-2. Undercarriage collapsed on landing at Hage with starboard engine damaged in attack by Red Section of No.43 Squadron (F/L C. B. Hull, F/O M. K. Carswell, and P/O H. L. North) during anti-shipping sortie east of the Farne Islands 10.50 a.m. No crew casualties. Aircraft 1H+KM 40% damaged but repairable.

[bill norman]

Peter, that will do nicely, thank you.

[RT]

Hello Peter,


Regarding the code , I hv the same for the plane flown by;

Dietrich alfred uffz kg
Schnee franz fw kg
Thiede karl-ernst uffz x
wolf willi uffz t

???

Rémi

[Larry Hickey]

Bill,

You mention that this aircraft was shot up with 60 holes. Do you, by any chance, have any photos from this incident, or does anyone else?

Regards,

[Peter Cornwell]

Originally Posted by RT

Hello Peter,


Regarding the code , I hv the same for the plane flown by;

Dietrich alfred uffz kg
Schnee franz fw kg
Thiede karl-ernst uffz x
wolf willi uffz t

???

Rémi

Hello Rémi,

Are you saying that this was the crew of the 1H+KM on 3 February 1940 ?
And if so, please inform me of your source. Many thanks.

[RT]

In fact in some diary of the "Seenot" service, one plane 1H+KM sent an S.O.S. at 11h19 on PQ 0511 heading for Holland , I suppose that the crew concerned was that one , but it could be the one that forcelanded at Hage...

Rémi

[bill norman]

Remi,
Obfw. Fritz Wiemer(FF), Fw, Franz Schnee(BO), Uffz Alfred Dittrich(BF) Uffz Willi Wolff(BM) and Uffz Karl-Ernst Thiede(BS) were the crew of 1H+GK of 2./KG26. They were shot down by Carey and Ottewill of No.43 Sqdn (Hurricanes) based at Acklington (Northumberland. Thiede did not survive and now lies in the Scarthro Road Cemetery, Grimsby. The rest of the crew were made PoWs.

Peter,
Your comments re. 1H+KM would seem to be a better fit.

Larry,
I'm sorry, I do not have a picture of this aircraft - and I'm still trying to piece together the tale.

Bill Norman (www.billnorman.co.uk)

[Peter Cornwell]

Hello Bill,

Agreed. I was totally satisfied that crew was correctly documented but wanted to be completely sure that Rémi's source had nothing further to contribute.

[bill norman]

Thanks to 'Junker', I now have a report from the KTB of Seenot NORD that the damaged He111 1H+KM eventually re-crossed the North Sea and landed at Hage. For much of the time its progress seems to have been tracked by Antenna (Roeger). I assume Antenna is 'listening post' or similar, but where was Antenna (Roeger) located? - and where is/was Hage?

BN (www.billnorman.co.uk)