Fate of 6./KG2 on 19th August 1942

[Steve49]

No worries, thanks for looking.

[Steve49]

Seems that the staffel was destroyed later in the day, than I had thought, Balke gives them a take off time of 11:54.

Does anybody have an idea it how long it would take to fly from Arnhem-Deelen to the Dieppe area? A quick goggle search gives me a distance of about 500km and the speed for a Do217E-4 of 482km/h, so I'm guessing it would take no more than 70 minutes, as the small formations involved wouldn't have required much time to form up. Does this sound right?

Regards

Steve

[Chris Goss]

Too many assumptions-altitude, bomb load, fuel load, route (i.e attacking from sea or land or did they fly indirect due to enemy fighters). You have to also factor in whether they formed up after take off or flew to Dieppe individually in a stream. I do have a series of Luftwaffe reports of who was doing what at what time on this date (which no doubt Ulf Balke also used) but it only occasionally goes below Geschwader level. What times are you interested in and I will see if there is a match?

[Steve49]

Thanks, yes you're right, all a bit too much guess work to arrive at anything remotely accurate.

I've been looking at the whole days fighting, so don't really have a specific time or incident. I'm just trying add more detail to certain parts that to date don't have too much coverage, one of which is the fate of the Luftwaffe bomber crews. Because whilst the experten of JG2 and JG26 were inflicting a heavy toll on the RAF fighters, their bomber colleagues were having a disastrous day. The result of which being that though the Allies lost more than twice as many aircraft as the Luftwaffe, they actually suffered less aircrew losses. The fate of 6./KG2 losing four aircraft on one mission always stood out a particularly grim event.

I've only just started working through the Ulf Balke's KG2 book, but I'd be interested if you could add anything to the actions of the other bomber units involved. I have the following .

KG4 -? sorties
KG40 -15? sorties
KG53 -4 sorties
KG54 -3 sorties
KG77 -? sorties
Ku.FlGr106 -? sorties
Recon -23 sorties
Epro Me210 -3 sorties?? (though this may be an error as I have only ever found one reference in a POW report, to this unit taking part operations)

To allow for the missions flown against the Allied landing force (111?) and those later flown against the UK south coast (50?), I think my above numbers are a bit low.

Regards

Steve

[Franek Grabowski]

Steve

I am not sure if you are confusing sorties and missions or not.

I recall I have went through KG 2 missions, and they were matching well with Allied engagements. I would have to check my notes for details, though.
Unfortunately, the problem with German operations over Dieppe is almost complete lack of details from the German side, be it documents or accounts. Thus Allied reports are paradoxicaly the best source of German operations, despite overclaim.

I think that some potential resource might be German ASR records or local naval records, I believe they were not as much decimated as the others.


Franek

[Steve49]

Yes, I've been able to reconstruct the Allied air operations for the day, due to the presence of the ORB, but like you say much of the German documentation is lost.

Still I keep looking, as occasionally something new turns up. Only last year my attention was drawn to the German casualty cards held by Fold3, which enabled me to identify all the German losses from the battle, including the casualties caused by the USAAF air raid on Abbeville.

Regards

Steve

[Franek Grabowski]

I mean that the Allied records combined with the little available German docs should help faithfuly reconstruct German operations. I am aware of no surviving radar logs, but I expect good info to be dispersed around various files. I can explain it to you on email. There are some mysteries, though, like reported Jabo actions or German airmen seen to bail out to sea. I expect not all of them drowned and must have been rescued.

[Chris Goss]

If I have time I will look tomorrow but will say the Me 210 missions did happen and are listed

[robert]

At least 10 sorties by Me 210 if I remember correctly.

[Steve49]

Originally Posted by robert

At least 10 sorties by Me 210 if I remember correctly.

Thanks. Can you confirm if one was damaged? The POW report said three aircraft were available for operations and that during the day one was hit by AAA, but I couldn't confirm this from the Luftwaffe loss list.