KGr.100 August 1940 ??

[BrianC]

May be a well-known story - but not to me!

R.W. Clarke in his book "Battle for Britain" quotes a Major Quedenau as becoming lost when his navigational beam disappeared during a raid on Liverpool, circa August 1940. He then mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel, and then believing he was over Brittany when he was in fact over Cornwall. Finally, when near Plymouth he thought he had reached Bay of Biscay. He later wrote "Then the awful truth dawned - I was near Plymouth, with insufficient fuel to cross the Channel."

Actual date would be appreciated.

I can't find any reference to a Major Quedenau being PoW

Or did he manage to reach France after all?

Perhaps he ditched and was rescued.

I have located three bomber pilots of the period named Quedenau - Helmut, Horst and Siegfried, but which one?

And might the incident be related to KGr.100, possibly 15/16 August (re Nick's excellent site).

Any information appreciated

Brian

[Chris Goss]

Photos I believe in my book on the He 111 pages 104-107. Aircraft captain was a Lt Oswald Lochbrunner and it was 15 Aug 40 but there is confusion as a number crash-0landed/got lost. No idea where Quedenau came from and nothing came down in UK

[SteveR]

Entry for Lt. Lochbrunner from the Luftwaffe Officers Career Summaries:

LOCHBRUNNER, Oswald. 10/11.08.41 Lt., 1./KGr. 100 MIA - He 111 H-3 (6N+MH) lost to unknown cause (AA?) during raid on Moscow.

No entries for Quedenau and none spelled Quednau that seem a match.

[Peter Cook]

This is what I have:

BOB Then and Now - Pg. 573 - 15/08/1940
1/KGr100 - Heinkel He 111H-1 - Failed to return from operational sortie. Exact cause unknown. Lt. Lochbrunner and three NCOs missing. Aircraft a write-off.

BOB Combat Archive - Vol. 4 Pg. 559 - 15/08/1940
August 15th-16th - Night Operations - 1/KGr100 - He111H-4 - Went down in the sea, taking Lt Lochbrunner and his three crew with it. 24 aircraft of KGr100 took off between 20.56 and 23.32 hours for the Midlands. Four aircraft had technical problems... bombs fell near to the Morris Commercial Car Works outside Birmingham where overhead cables were brought down and water and gas mains broken.

Peter

[robert]

BOB combat archive is full of mistakes concerning German losses.
According to logbook of Lochbrunner on 15.8.40 he made back and crashed on landing outside his base with 20% of damage. He was probably posted MIA before he made contact with his unit and this missing report was never cancelled.

Robert

[Nick Beale]

No entries for Quedenau and none spelled Quednau that seem a match.

I just tried both spellings in the German phone book for five major cities and only "Quednau" returns any hits, so that was probably the name of the airman.

[robert]

I checked and there is no such loss for 1./KGr.100 in German loss list. So Lochbrunner was not reported as MIA.

Robert

[Rottler]

Originally Posted by robert

I checked and there is no such loss for 1./KGr.100 in German loss list. So Lochbrunner was not reported as MIA.

Robert

Hello Robert,

your information is not correct, see GQM loss return and the correction.
GQM 18 Aug 1940, item 10:
15.8. 1./Kampf.Gr. 100 Feindflug, Ort und Ursache: unbekannt, He 111 H-1 100%. 4 Vermisste (Besatzung Lt Lochbrunner).
Correction 6 Feb 1941: Besatzung Lochbrunner mit Flugzeug zurück. Streiche: 4 Vermisste, 1 He 111 100%.

Regards
Leo

[BrianC]

Hi guys

Interesting.

Presumably not our man - but at least the correct surname:

Ltn zur see QUEDENAU killed with one other (plus two others injured) in KGr.806 Ju88 crash near Caen on 28 September 1940.

Brian

[robert]

There is simply a mistake in the lost list. He just force-landed outside his base in the early hours of 16.8.40 and somebody reported him as MIA and then forgot to cancel this report. His logbook clearly show that the aircraft was damaged in 20% and not written off. And there is also no NVM for this loss.

Regards

Robert