He 219 found in Denmark !!!

[Brian Bines]

As Marcel says photo 3 shows the twin wheel undercarriage of a He 219 which along with his other comments would appear to confirm type identification. On Soren's site 'Airwar Over Denmark' he described the shooting down of He219 A-O 190107 on 21-5-1944 and says the Mustang of F/Lt Shirreff (19 Sqd) was hit by return fire from the rear gunner (Bf Uffz Tants) of what they initially thought was a 'Leo 45'. The aircraft attacked being the He219 190107 crashing south of Herning. If this He219 had a rear gun fitted is it possible MG15s may have been field-fitted on some aircraft for use by the Bf. Would the use of this older weapon offer a quick and simple fitting and the saddle drums would not have needed ammo boxes being fitted in the rear cockpit, as for later belt feed weapons, assuming any such fitting may have restricted the ejection seat. I know this does not help with the identity of the aircraft Kim found, but as this is a Discussion group the finding of a MG15 saddle drum is in itself of interest and queried by Kim.

[ClinA-78]

Mutterkompass?

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi.

Just curious - who is and how are you preserving the parts lifted from the wreck?

To my experience a panel like the one shown on the curb will be eaten up quite fast when exposed to air... It should be preserved in water and oil before you only have dust left of what seems to be part of an unique airframe...

Regards,
Andreas B

[Kim Christiansen]

Hi

For your information this part of the panel has been stored for one year now.

We have been diving for more than 20 years, and has restored many things from shipwreck etc.

Please see new pics.

More information will come during this summer

URGENT:
We still need to find information of this He-219 ???

Regards
Kim C

[Brian Bines]

Kim, is there any evidence of radar on the wreck as l believe some early examples were being flown on pilot familiarisation ( from Grove?) with the radar removed,

Regards

Brian Bines

[Kim Christiansen]

Hi

For the moment we have not seen any radar, but we are still looking .

The visibility in the water makes problem for us !!!

Rgds
Kim C

[thlund]

LOL - came in here to see if you had something more than I - to see my post at hyperscale linked here :-)

Quite a day!

[thlund]

I was thinking after going to the salvage yesterday - and I have to stress that I'm just shooting off my mouth:

The 219 was odd in a couple of ways - the before mentioned MG15 magazine found and only the belly guns were mounted - schräge musik and wing guns were not there. Second I think the plane came down in some kind of controlled (some kind) landing. It was close to shore and heading along the shore, which would make sense when making an emergency landing. But the ejector seats had not been fired so the pilot chose to stay with the plane. Parts of the canopy's were there too.

So here's where I'm just fantazising!! What if this one was one of those at Grove/Karup earmarked for transport to the US? Could explain the partial disarmament (partial dismantlement for transport) and why the pilot - likely an allied test pilot not trusting the ejector seat - chose to stay with the plane.

The current 219 is unknown - no record exist of a crash in those waters. Naturally records could have been lost, but it could also be that in the rather unorthodox days following the end of the war in Europe, a loss of a foreigh aircraft would not be consideret important enough to record, especially if you had enough to go around?

[SES]

Hi,
Very relevant considerations, I would however suggest, that the a/c could be on transfer from Norway to Denmark. The Grove He219 are all accounted for.
The lack of the S.M. Mk108 is not unusual, they were very unpopular with the crews and frequently removed at Staffel level.
The lack of wing guns is very odd, AFAIK they were the basic armament.
The Mg15 could be explained by a ventral gun position found on some samples of the He219.
bregds
SES

[thlund]

Originally Posted by SES

The Grove He219 are all accounted for.

Must confess I dont have any reference books on this, but my search on the net talks about Whatson's Whizzers picking up 3 He 219's at Grove. All references talk about A-2 290202 / FE-614 which is the NASM and A-5 290060 FE-612 with unknown fate. Whatever the last bit means, it still leaves one (FE-613?). I also found A-2 290126 but I dont know if it became a FE aircraft or it was discarded at Grove.

BTW the plane recovered is definately not an A-7 as the air scoops on the wings were of the plain type (leading edge, no boxy scooops below)

Getting somewhat fired up here - what is the best book on Whatson's Whizzers ?