9./JG27 under Fritz Gromotka over Kos Island in 1943

[HarryB]

Hi! I hope this is the right place to ask.

My father-in-law was a member of the South African Air Force 7th squadron that was severely mauled by Jagdgeschwader 27 'Afrika' during Churchill's crazy Agean adventure in 1943. We are trying to get as much info as posible about the events of the day of 27 September 1943, when my father-in-law, Lt. Arnold Loubser "Bassie" Basson was downed as wingman to SAAF 7th Sq leader Maj. Van Vliet. By the end of that day, 7 Sq. SAAF had only 4 serviceable Spitfires left.

I am trying to uniquely identify who shot "Bassie" down and what the circumstances were. After that I hope to find out as much as I can about the invidual. In the end, I believe my question reduces to whether anyone here has the following two books, as I badly need a page from each:

1. Jagdgeschwader 27: Die Dokumentation über den Einsatz an allen Fronten 1939-1945 by Hans Ring. I am looking for the page describing the events of 27 September 1943 over Kos and Kalimnos.

2. Jagdgeschwader 27 'Afrika' by John Weal. Page 99 ( the same day)

------------ My picture so far for those interested ----------------

Using just the Internet and my copy of "Eagles Victorious" about the SAAF, I have so far:

1. "Eagles Victorious" acknowledges 3 Spitfires shot down that day. Two were downed just as they were taking off from Kos. Both pilots died. The third one was Bassie over the ocean, after he and Van Vliet intercepted seven Bf 109s. The book lists no loss of a 4th Spitfire.

2. On the Internet (http://www.cieldegloire.com/jg_027c.php) I find four Spitfire kills claimed for JG27 on that day. The two Spits shot down at the airport happened at 15:17 and 15:20 and were credited to Gromotka and Scheit. Gromotka is credited with another Spitfire 1-2 km from Kos at 600 foot at 11:20 in the morning. The fourth was at 11:18 10-15 km Northwest of Kos by Hannes Löffler.---the question is, which of the last two kills was Bassie?

3. We know that an Arado 196 tried to pick up Bassie, but he kept dodging under the plane until the Germans flew off and left him. An Italian caique then picked him up and took him to Kalimnos, the big island northwest of Kos. It seems very unlikely that the boat would have taken Bassie to Kalimnos if he were shot down "1-2 km from Kos" as was supposedly the case for the 11:20 claimed kill on the part of JG27.

4. It seems (though I can only see snippets on Google Books) that Unteroffizier Jakob Herweg must have been the single JG27 man that was downed by Van Vliet, the SAAF Squadron Leader, to whom Bassie was flying as wingman that day. Herweg was picked up by an Italian boat which "already contained some "Engländer" " (Bassie?). When the Arado put down on the water nearby, Herweg jumped overboard and swam for it. He was killed in a bombing run by Mitchells a few days later.

From the above I conclude that Bassie, as Van Vliet's wingman, would have been shot down near Van Vliet's own kill, who was most likely Jakob Herweg. I also conclude that the "Engländer" was none other than Bassie. "Eagles Victorious" says that Herweg was picked up some 20km from Kos. This also checks roughly with the distance at which Bassie was downed, placing both somewhere between the island of Kalimnos and the Turkish mainlaind.

If this is correct, then my father-in-law, Bassie, was the Spitfire kill by Uffz. Hannes Löffler of 9/JG27 under Gromotka 10-15km Northwest of "Insel Kos" at 100 m.

I know "Harry" Löffler went on to become an ace and listed 11 kills, seven of them heavy bombers, and that he went MIA over Paris on 29 June 1944. Bassie evacuated via Turkey and was declared MIA [I have the actual notice to his father], but was actually ok. He then went on to fight in Italy in a ground support role to the Canadians in the 8th Army. There he went down to ack-ack in early 1945 in a bizarre case where he took rounds thorugh both wings and his ammo box blew up. This jammed his aileron, forcing him into flying in a circle through the ack-ack. He eventually baled near his base, barely missing the powerlines and ending up in an Italian hospital with a bust back, which plagued him (along with malaria) for the rest of his life. I have Bassie's tattered flight log for Italy. The Kos log was unfortunately destroyed in the evacuation.
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I should be able to confirm all these kill-circumstances if I could lay my hands on the two pages of the two books I refer to above. I would really appreciate it if someone could help. I have ordered the Weal book from Amazon.com, but it has been months in arriving and I have nothing yet. I am starting to despair. Meanwhile I have two super pictures of (i) Bassie posing in full kit and (ii) of him next to his "personal" Bf 109 ("My and my 109"). He was qualified on that plane which they took in the African campaign.

Harry