He 111 crew murdered

[Chris Goss]

Bernard asked a question on this subject which then went off on a tangent and was quite rightly binned by John Beaman. However, of interest, whilst delving at the AHB a number of years ago, I came a cross a captured file concerning the murdering of a KG 54 crew by French civilians.Although the content was quite gruseome, there was a photo of the crash-landed aircraft. The details of this are 18 May 40, He 111 P coded B3+JT of 9/KG 54. Beleived shot down by 56 Sqn and crash-landed near Vimy on the Lens-Arras road. Uffz Otto Ellinghaus, Gefr Ernst Reczniczek, Ogefr Helmut Jentzmik, Gefr Josef Bradack

[Brian Bines]

Some time ago the ' After The Battle ' magazine featured an article 'Show Trial At Luchy ' concerning the shooting of Uffz. Ross pilot of a Bf 110 of 9/ZG 26 shot down on 20-5-40. The article covering the incident and subsequent investigation dy the Germans.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Both incidents can't be related to the one seen by Hallahan, that should have taken place on 12 or 13 May between Maastricht and Northern France....

Maybe those of us with extensive loss databases (sadly, not me) can list the German bombers lost with all crew killed in this area, and then we may eliminate well-known cases to try to find a crashplace....

[Jim P.]

Ah Laurent, there is the rub - the actual loss reports for that timeframe, while they list numbers of casualties, hardly ever give any names beyond officers and in most cases do not list a specific location or cause of the loss. There are several publications out there that have made a great strides in filling in the holes, 'Twelve Days in May' and Gillet's 3-part series on French fighter actions in which I have just recently picked up, along with the works of Prien, Taghon and others, but there's still lots of work to be done. I know of at least 2 projects in the works to fill out this time period though I'm not sure that they've been publically announced as of yet.

[Brian Bines]

If the alleged event happened on 12th. May , from a list of He 111 losses kindly supplies by another researcher, a crew from I(F)/122 were reported Killed/missing. Hopefully someone may have more information that could clarify details on the loss of this crew.

[Peter Cornwell]

Brian,

The crew you requested was as follows: (Ff) Uffz Otto KARNAPP, (Beo) Hptmn Edgar CAESAR, (Bf) Uffz Hans-Joachim MUELLER, and (Bordwart) Uffz Georg ABLEITHER. All reported killed, the only problem being it was on a sortie over Narvik - Tromso.

Happy hunting guys.

[RT]

You are right Peter for area, 1.F121 belonged to X.FL.KORPS, thks names nd location are new for me, what about the Kgr.126 he lost 2 He111 one near Beveland maybe a bit too much north ???

remi

[steve sheridan]

With regards to Chris Goss's original post, that of Uffz Ellinghaus's loss on the 18.5.40. with KG54. Could anybody provide details of this units losses the day previous 17.5.40.
I understand 3x a/c from the I/KG54 were lost nr Valenciennes.

Any help gratefully accepted.
Regards,
Steve.

[rob van den nieuwendijk]

Hello Remi,

On 12 May 40 3./K.Gr 126 lost two planes - "beim Angr. a. Kapelle auf Beverland."

1) Abgeschossen durch feindl. Jäger - Hoogerheiden Calfven
FF Ofw Herbert Widmayer - POW - UK
Obs Oblt (Stkptn) Fr Wilh Sawade - KIA
Nav Ofw Herbert Klabunde - KIA
BM Uffz Jakob Dethlefsen - KIA

2) Abgeschossen durch feindl. Jäger - Woensdrecht Doelstraat
FF Uffz Otto Kippschull - WIA
Obs Ofw Paul Wittich - WIA
Nav Uffz Ernst Fischer - KIA
BM Uffz Heinz Gutteck - KIA

Regards,
Rob

[Bernard]

Good evening,

I am quite glad this thread has come up again.

Here are some clues.

Extract from AIR27/1 No 1 squadron ORB.

12th may :
…….The C.O. S/Ldr. Halahan, led a patrol over Maastricht on the border of Belgium and Holland and the Flight had much excitment in combat with various types of e/aircraft. The C.O . ( S/Ldr Halahan ) destroyed an Me.109 and an Arado, but being hit in the engine he force landed succesfully wheels up…………..
The C.O ( S/Ldr Halahan ) had a grandstand seat after landing and witnessed a battle royal between French and german tanks and remarked that the the belgian troops were running faster than the refugees. …..

After this force landing, Wing Commander Walter ( O.C 67th Wing ) forbided S/Ldr Halahan to fly operationaly.

Extract from Paul Richey in Fighter Pilot :

….A short time after I was told all this ( the 12th may air battle ) the Bull ( Halahan ) rolled up unheralded in a belgian car. He had crash-landed with his engine riddled with bullets. He had witnessed some rough scenes in Belgium, among wich he described four regiments of French Senegalese troops proceeding to the front at the trot, looking neither to right nor left, with implacable expressions on their faces. A Heinkel crash-landed in a field beside the road, and a section of Senegalese doubled across to it, dragged the german crew of four and promptly decapitated them on the spot. They then resumed their progress, without a word or even a change of expression.
That same day- 13th may………


It is to note that No1 squadron ‘s O.R.B Was rewritten in England after evacuation from France. Sometimes there is some mixing in the dates.
The tanks battle could be the first squirmishes of Montcornet.

Bernard.