JU 88 4D+DR 15 August 1940

[Andy Saunders]

It probably adds little, but the RAF Intelligence Officer who inspected these crashes located them as follows:

1) Hamilton Hill Farm Barnstown, four miles south of Brigg (4D+KL)
2) Fraisthorpe, nr Bridlington
3) Bridlington Road Reservoir, Fraisthorpe (4D+DR)

If transcripts from the IO's notebook are helpful I can post them.

[edNorth]

Originally Posted by Chris Goss

An account from one of the crew of 4D+DR (which I have as Wk Nr 5648/Ju 88 A-4 but I am sure Ed will correct me!) is in my book 'The Luftwaffe Bombers Battle of Britain'

Chris, may I ask how you arrived at this sub-type and number? Any info or clues is valuable in this case. Corrections are never too late to make. A few Ju 88 A-5´s are indeed reported in GQM losses in BoB period (certainly one of KG 30 on of 15.08.40) but there were no Production A-4´s flying yet (only from about February 1941), and only from mid summer 1941 (Barbarossa) they began to appear in quantity.

5648 was Ju 88 A-4 of I/KG 60 (Luftflotte 3) Non-OPS (H) crashed and burned (100%) at Cazaux Airfield 19.02.1943 (F Lt. Peter Gebhardt, B Uffz. Walter Fritsch, BF Uffz. Friedrich Stephan and BM Gefr. Erich Preuß killed)

Andy, It certainly will be interesting to see these notes. I did not know any of such existing.

Best regards
ed

[Andy Saunders]

Ed

Will post in next few days. Prob not until mid next week now. Meanwhile, for what it is worth, 4D+DR was built by Siebel Flugzeugwerke, Halle AG.

[edNorth]

Andy. No problem. Siebel was mass-producer (builder) of Ju 88 wings, also assembled whole Ju 88´s, but yes, this is then were that info comes from. But this is far from conclusive in determining the W.Nr.!

[Chris Goss]

Ed: I said you would correct me. I am not sure where the A-4 came from but I have a photo of the ac on display and looking at the stencilling on the cockpit, can read:

744 5648 (or possibly 5049)

There are another 3 digits under the last digit but these I cannot read

[edNorth]

Didn´t want to let you down Chris, but can you send a detail (or crop) scan of this lettering into my e-mail box. Printed copies are too unclear for me to guess at what this is. But 5049 does not fit, It was still flying in late ´41.

[edNorth]

Thanks Chris. From what I can now read (it´s not entierly 100% clear), but "possibly" this plane might have been Ju 88 A-1 W.Nr. 8043. But W.Nr. 8043 has a twist. W.Nr. 8o43 4D+HM 4./KG 30 is reported lost 06.10.40 (Likely the one crashed at Netherstead Fram at 00:55 hrs) but later entries in GQM losses have this number amended to 8045. But now another problem arises. The A-1 8045 also has another crash reported (now as Ju 88 A-5) with FFS C 6 on 04.05.43. But many other duplicate entries are known from GQM losses. But the plane at Netherstead had at least some Dornier parts "11.39" so that also indicates the GQM number might have been wrong (despite amendment).

[ju55dk]

Highly interesting tread. I will ad some more information when I'm back from holiday. But I can confirm that KG 30 used both A-1 and A-5 in this attack, wich was carried out by I. Gruppe reinforced with 4. Staffel, and III. Gruppe reinforced by 6. Staffel.

Junker

[Peter Cornwell]

Gentlemen,

I make it 744 5848/95 beneath the cockpit but whatever the WNr, and I'm confident that will be resolved eventually, the last two digits were certainly '48' as these were also prominently displayed on the tailplane.

[edNorth]

Peter, Yes, I can agree with that its now likely resolved. Only all the digits you qoute are not correct, this should be (judging from other info I have) be "744 5048/95". I do not have an image showing the tail number ("48") but that then indicates this was W.Nr. 8048 (Siebel assembled). I very much like seeing this photo (or parts of it).