16 Ar196s damaged, Ratzeburgersee, 24 April 1945

[Steve Brew]

Thanks Gents

I appreciate your helpful feedback. This would definitely have been in the British / US zone rather than the Russian.

There were actually 20 of the aircraft lined up along the shore, but as only 16 were hit, they went back past the following day and shot up the remaining four. On this occasion, however, they were met with Flak and one of the aircraft was hit, making an emergency landing at Fassberg.

This second attack serves as a confirmation of the location, so I wonder what happened to the aircraft between 24 April and 5 May? Almost two weeks, so if the aircraft were only holed they probably took little to repair and could've flown just about anywhere. I wonder if any of those listed by 'Seaplanes' were some of 'my' 20 on Lake Ratzeburg...? Guess that fact is impossible to discover today.

'Seaplanes', any indication of which unit/s the Schleswig-See, Kiel-Holtenau, Sylt and Tarnewitzsee aircraft were with?

Failing that, is there another similar floatplane, that the Ar196 could have been confused wit by 41 Squadron's pilots?

Thanks
Steve