Karl Waterbeck KG 40 Fw 200 and He 177

[Chris Goss]

All I can add is he was born 1 Jan 15 in Coesfeld, service number 53632/50 and this is what I have included on him in my forthcoming book:

and one crew, commanded by Fw Karl Waterbeck of 3./KG 40, reporting to have sunk an unidentified patrol boat south of Iceland on 26 April 1942. 27 year-old Waterbeck was one of the new breed of Condor NCO Kommandants. He had flown as a second pilot, predominantly with Lt Robert Maly, from 1 April 1941 and was by now an experienced Kommandant himself. He would be awarded the Ehrenpokal on 15 February 1943 by which time he was a Lt and the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 25 November 1943 by which time he was an Oblt and still flying with 3./KG 40. However, by then he was converting to flying the He 177 after which he joined 1./KG 40 but his luck finally ran out on his first operational flight on 21 January 1944. Tasked to attack London, his He 177 was held by searchlights and then attacked by a Mosquito crewed by Fg Off Howard Kemp and Flt Sgt James Maidment of 151 Sqn. With his aircraft badly damaged, he ordered the bomb load to be jettisoned and three crew baled out, two of them, Ofws Erwin Mirbach and Georg Six, had flown with him on Condors. Waterbeck tried to carry out a belly landing near Hindhead in Surrey but crashed into trees. Although the rear gunner crawled from the wreckage with minor injuries, both Karl Waterbeck and another gunner were killed. Waterbeck would be promoted posthumously to Hptm