Crash of H. von Holtey on 11.5.1940

[Larry Hickey]

Vinnie,

I have long sought a photo and further details of this May 11, 1940, a/c loss and incident. There has been a local book in Dutch about this incident, but it doesn't make it clear exactly where it came down. In it, they published a photo of Black 14 from 2./JG21 that was supposed to be the force-landed a/c, but this is obviously in error. When I made a TOCH request some time ago about this, I got no resolution. I still want to locate a photo of this a/c on the ground after it came down, but so far I don't know of one's existence. I've found photos of almost all the other Bf109s that came down in Holland during the Meidagen except that one. If you find one, I'd greatly appreciate a copy. The fact that no photo has surfaced makes me suspicious that perhaps he did land in the IJsselmeer lake. Like you, I would sure like to know the answer to this. Why do you think he came down in the IJsselmeer?

A photo of what was von Holtey's Black 1 at about this time was sold on eBay a couple of years ago. This was not of the crash, however.

In our EOE Luftwaffe loss data base we have this loss reported as:

May 11, 1940: 5./JG26 Messerschmitt Bf109E. Shot down during attack on AA battery south of the Ijsselmeer. FF Oberleutnant Hubertus Fr von Holtey (Staffelkapitän) captured wounded – later released. Aircraft 100% write-off.

This would suggest that the crash was on land, but we really don't know that for sure.

Regards,