He 111 crew murdered

[Pieter H]

Let's again get back to the original question: which could have been the Heinkel of which Sqn Ldr Halahan supposedly witnessed the decapitasion by Senegalese troops.

What seems to be facts:

• Halahan was shot down on May 12 around 09.30 local time by Bf109's of I/JG21
• He came down west of Maastricht, where he said to witness a fight between french and german tanks
• he was reported back to his base at Berry-au-Bac, which is close Reims
• the Heinkel of which the crew was killed landed near the road along which Halahan was returning to Reims

Now it becomes trickier, but let's give it a try:

• As already suggested, Halahan landed somewhere in the area between Hannut and Waremme, where at that moment the Pz Rgt 5 and 6 had broken through the belgian defenses along the Albert channel. No big tank battles took place on the early morning of the 12th, that would take place on the 13th just west of Hannut against de french Corps de Cavalerie.
• The voyage of Halahan from the Waremme area to Reims was not a short one, and to be able to get back (probably late) on the 13th he must have taken the main roads. However these were full of troops marching up to the front as well as fleeing refugees. To make the trip in 2 days he must have taken the main roads behind the front line. The most logical path is then Waremme-Namur, behind the 9th Army towards Philippeville and then Montherme, then Charleville-Mezieres, and there Vouziers-Reims.
• I checked the French order of battle, and there was only 1 Army that contained a large and distinct contigent of Senegalese troops: The 1st and 3rd Division d'Infanterie Colonial (DIC) of the 2eme Armee. This Army had positions starting on the left side just above Sedan, along the frontier to the east. The 3eme DIC was operational and probably positioned along the frontier, but the 1eme DIC was part of the reserve. Given the situation at the front this unit was probably moved towards the front at Sedan around the 12th or 13th of May
• Now the Heinkel. The list of Heinkel losses on May 12 provided by Peter Cornwell shows that no Heinkel landed in the area just behind the 9eme Armee front west of the Meuse in Belgium. So my conclusion is that it then must have been a Heinkel either in France of on the 13th. For a Heinkel in France that landed along the probable road of Halahan there is one candidate: the machine of 4./KG55.
• This Heinkel, G1+DH, made a fairly intact belly landing at 14.30 on May 12 in Machault, a place right along the route from Vouziers to Reims. The book "Batailles Aeriens and Rupture sur la Meuse" of Jacques Sacre shows a picture of the plane which shows it made a good belly landing.
• However, of the crew (Lt Johannes Juenk, Uffz Ernst Rasper, Uffz Heinz Thoene, Uffz Wilhelm Ege, Gefr Harald Wendt) all but the 2nd were reported killed. Rasper was wounded and made PoW. Now this is strange, that of a plane which made a nice belly landing the whole crew died. To me this is therefore a likely candidate for the incident IF it happened at all.
  There are also KG55 Heinkels that landed roughly in the same area on the morning of the 13th, but none of these have "unexplained" crew faiths.
• One contradiction to be solved then: it seems unlikely that Halahan was at Machault only 4 hours after being shot down, a distance of a few hundred kilometers. My interpretation is that Halahan did not witness it himself, but saw of course the plane, the corpses and probably heard the story from people around. In other words a hearsay story. Interestingly, IF it happened Uffz Rasper should have been able to say something about it.

So far my reconstruction, which is admittedly highly speculative.
But at least a first attempt.
Hope somebody can confirm or reject the assumptions with hard facts.

Pieter

[Marius]

Pieter,
there is a problem regarding German losses reported to the OKL at that period, which I will describe in another thread. If possible you should compare the He 111 losses on later days, maybe there is one of many date errors again (late reports noted on the day they arrived at the OKL without the correct date of the loss).

And I would look for a twin engined airplane, not only He 111, but maybe a Ju 88A or Do 17Z. In Poland for example the recognized "He 111" were often just ... Ju 87 or even Bf 109!

I hope you will find what you`ll looking for.

Many regards,
Marius

[Brian Bines]

Pieter,
'KG 55 In Focus' by Hall and Quinlan also has a picture of the bellylanded GI+DM and of Ltn Hans Junk . The text states Junk was hit in the head and died instantly Uffz Thone , Uffz Ege and Gef. Wendt were killed with only the Observer Uffz. Rasper surviving. Crash location is given as near Rethel NE of Reims. If this crew was the the one that is the subject of this thread as your well reasoned post suggests then it would appear that three Luftwaffe airmen met this unfortunate fate. It would also appear that Rasper may have landed the Heinkel if the pilot Junk? died instantly in the fighter attack.
The incident was first reported in a book published in 1941 when the exact truth may well have been exaggerated, or the story added to with the telling.