Werner Baumbach ship destroyer

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Andrew Arthy

Hi Stig,

07.02.41: A.Gr. 22 attacked a Handelsschiff with two SC 250 bombs.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

Handelsschiff = merchant ship, if anyone was wondering.

it must have interfered with their main job and in my view also compromised it. Presumably these attacks were a kind of
'opportunity knocks' moments, or was there possibly a pattern?

When you say regularly should that be interpreted as if these units in fact had a dual mission role from the outset? In my mind that would make their missions very complex and not very useful. To me, basically what you are saying is that Luftwaffe then considered their anti-shipping units to be inadequate and they had to ask recce units to step in and help out.

Stig: Just a matter of making the most of available assets, I would think. Someone had to decide to send the aircraft out with bombs on board, so such armed reconnaissances must have been planned.

In the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre report "The History of FAG 122 in the Mediterranean" there is reference to Ju 88s of the unit escorting convoys with 2 x 250 kg bombs for use against submarines wit one confrmed sinking on 30 March 1943 and another (unconfirmed) on 29 April. I can't find a British submarine loss on either date, nor any for March/april 1943 in the Med attributed to air attack.