Fist NJG claim?

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello Alan,

I am afraid that the loss of Wellington R3175 cannot be linked to any nightfighter claim for several reasons:
- the Í./NJG 1 was not operating near the SW coast of the Netherlands to be near the location where this tragical loss occured. Their first nocturnal victory was the widely published victory of Oblt. Werner Streib (2./NJG 1) in the night of 19/20 July 1940. Their 8th nocturnal victory was in the night of 2/3 September 1940, the next in the night of 18/19 September 1940

- by that time at Deelen the II./NJG 1 was new established because the 'old' II./NJG 1 was renamed into I./NJG 2 and transferred to Gilze-Rijen. They claimed 2 Blenheims around the date of the loss of R3175, one in the night of 6/7 September 1940, the next in the night of 9/10 September.

I also checked the otther nightfighter units but can't find any other claim.

Now that we are in touch, I am still looking for an 149 Sqdn RAF ORB copy of the page(s) about the Duisburg raid 20 December 1942 in which 5 Stirlings started. There was one early return, 4 were over Duisburg. Most grateful if you could help me with this.

All the best, Marcel Hogenhuis [ marcelhogenhuis(at)gmail.com ]

(airfield Venlo in WW-2, I./NJG 1, He219 project)