Sturmstaffel 1 - 21 February 1944

[Cees Steijger]

On 21 February 1944 Uffz. Erich Lambertus was killed in action. He took off with Fw 190 A-7 642559 Weisse 3 top engage B-17 on their way back from a raids on Hannover and Braunschweig. They met above Gütersloh.
At the same time Uffz. Walter Köst also engaged the formations. Köst was shot down over Sundern which is approx. 5 km's south/east of Gütersloh.
Erich Lambertus however seems top have crashed his plane 25 km's north/east of Lübeck...say 400 km north of Sundern.

Does anybody know the details? Was he killed in the engagement and did the Fw 190 follow a ghost route?

In Mombeeks Sturmstaffel 1 page. 43 he mentions the town Lübecke and Lübeck. Mombeek says: "...the Staffel did suffer losses over Lübeck." Losses: plural. Is this all based on a typo of the OKW or what?

John Weal writes in Luftwaffe Sturmgruppen : "...Unteroffizier Erich Lambertus (who had transferred in from JG 26 only the previous month) and Unteroffizier Walter Köst were both shot down near Lübeck, on the Baltic coast, in two of the Staffel’s new Fw 190A-7's."

I think they both are wrong. There were no B-17's near to Lübeck at all, they were 400 km's south on their way back from Hannover/Braunschweig. They were attacked from ca 14.00 hours till 16.00 hours roughly on the line Braunchscheig-Osnabrück-Zwolle.

Who can clarify?

--Cees Steijger