613 Sqn claims July 18th 1943 07.15 hrs.

[wwrsimon]

Hello all

Early on July 18th 1943 four Mustangs of 613 Squadron sighted a convoy off Ijmuiden and were intercepted by four Bf-109Gs after they'd photographed the ships.

In the ensuing combat the 613 Sqn pilots claimed one Bf-109G destroyed (F/Lt W. T. Hawkins) and two damaged (one each by F/O S. T. Sitwell and F/O J. B. Dalgleish) four miles west of Ijmuiden at 07.15 hours.

Can anyone give a possible ID for the unit the Bf-109s may have come from?

Thanks

Simon

PS - I also asked over on the RAF Commands Forum as I thought this one was scheduled to be down for a while.

[Luc Vervoort]

Hi Simon,

This was probably one of the victims of the attack

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...99/erwin-roden

Unit: 7./JG1

Best regards

Luc

[wwrsimon]

Hi Luc

Thank you for your reply.

I think he's a victim of events much later in the day - it notes 7.15 p.m., not 07.15.

I did find another 7./JG1 pilot, who has the same date and time:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...ther-hasenfuss

Regards

Simon

[Leendert]

Simon, IMHO 7.15 p.m. on findagrave (taken from the SGLO website?) should be a.m.
Losses of Roden and Hasenfuss are the only ones in general area that day ("Nordsee, 20 km Westl. Den Helder")
Roden was flying in Bf-109G-6 Wnr. 19853 and Hasenfuss same type Wnr. 20085.

There also was an emergency landing of a III./JG 1 Bf-109G-6 (Wnr. 15441) at De Kooy Airfield (Den Helder) after same (?) air combat, 15% damage.

Leendert

[wwrsimon]

Thanks Leendert.

I also wondered if it was perhaps an error on the Findagrave entries - the 7.15 times seemed a bit co-incidental to 07.15 on the Combat Reports and 613 ORB entry.

Here's the entry from then ORB Form 540:

Snailwell
July 18th 1943
Two Lagoons were flown from TEXEL to the HOOK. At 06.00 hrs. F/Lt. W. T. HAWKINS (R.N.Z.A.F.) F/Os S. T. SITWELL and T. W. KEMPIN and P/O J. B. DALGLIESH (R.C.A.F.) took off and at 07.07 sighted a convoy of 18 ships including minesweepers and two escort vessels moving slowly North off IJMUIDEN. The pilots closed in to 1500 yards and climbed to 1200’ to take photographs. As they turned for home 4 Me-109Gs dived at them out of a cloud. In the combat which followed the e/a lost the initial advantage and F/Lt. W. T. HAWKINS shot one down into the sea and F/O SITWELL and P/O DALGLEISH (R.C.A.F.) each damaged one. F/O KEMPIN used cloud cover to shake off two e/a and flew to SNAILWELL independently.The remainder went to NORTH COATES where the photos were developed.

The ORB Form 541 has the following:

Up: 06.10
Down: 08.10
Convoy of 18 ships sighted North of IJMUIDEN, Combat with 4 Me.109G’s.
1 Me.109G destroyed by F/Lt HAWKINS W. T.
1 Me.109G damaged by F/O SITWELL S. T.
1 Me.109G damaged by F/O DALGLEISH J. B.

Here's the Combat Report
(Intelligence Form F - Air 50/174/18):

July 18th 1943
07.15 hours
Four miles west of IJMUIDEN
Cloud 10/10th at 1500 feet – visibility 6 to 8 miles
Blue and yellow Sections 613 Sqn, led by F/Lt. Hawkins sighted convoy of 18 ships off IJMUIDEN proceeding North at speed of 5-6 knots led by ‘M’ Class M/S in wide V i.e. covering width of convoy, 9 M/V’s in 3 lines abreast, largest about 4000 tons in centre – 2 E/V were placed on either flank and one at the rear. Later, photographs were taken which show M/V’s on two lines of 2/3000 tons each. Four ‘M’ Class Minesweeper reported are not shown in photographs. Large M/V 4/5000 tons coming obliquely from direction of shore, apparently to join convoy accompanied by 2 a/s vessels probably trawlers – 7/8 balloons were seen flying 600 ft.
On sighting the convoy the Mustangs closed in to about 1500 yds. And climbed to 1000[?] ft. in order to take photographs from this height. After taking photographs they set course for NORTH COATES diving to sea level. As Yellow 2 [Sitwell] dropped back a little on the turn the leader, Blue One, throttled back to allow him to catch up. When Yellow Two crossed over to his right position on the starboard flank he gave warning that 4 Me.109G’s were diving from 6 o’clock out of cloud at 1500 ft. Blue One gave order to break starboard to engage enemy aircraft. Yellow One was engaged by two enemy aircraft but pulled up into cloud and set course for base after firing a few rounds. In the ensuing combat – E/A made use of cloud as the only evasive action. Yellow 2 [see below] and Blue 2 claim damage to 2 separate Me.109G’s, and Blue 1 claims 1 Me.109G destroyed. Yellow 2 set course in cloud for COLTISHALL and eventually landed at NORTH COATES. Blue Section set course at sea level for NORTH COATES landing there with Yellow 2 at 08.15 hrs and 08.18 respectively.
Camouflage: all enemy aircraft had noses painted bright yellow.


Regards

Simon

[wwrsimon]

I'd forgotten to check, but the Kracker Archive has this for Roden, which implies it was indeed later in the day?

KIA 18 July, 1943 during aerial combat in his G-6 with Beaufighters and Spitfires over the North Sea, 20 km W of Den Helder. Buried Ysselsteyn BT/2/39.
He crashed his A-4 at Zierikzee, with injuries, 1 km southeast of Haveningang Holland on 5 October, 1942 (DeSwart).
One known victory, his 1st, a Mosquito IV "DK 332" of RAF No. 105 Sq. near Tourinnes-la-Grosse, 11 km SSE of Leuven Belgium, on 6 September, 1942. His 3rd & 4th, a Ventura and a P-38, on 4 April, 1943.
Note: The Dutch research group identified the G-6 as Wk# 19852, where another source revealed the Wk# as 19853.

[Leendert]

Claims of Beaufighters and a Spitfire are recorded at around 20.45 hrs in the Den Helder area (among more (?) 143 and 236 Squadron).
German claims that day and time mentioned here: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/232736962?objectPage=86 and top of following page.

Also note that report has a shoot down of a Mustang at 07.15 off Scheveningen. Don't know if any such RAF loss indeed?

Leendert

[wwrsimon]

Thanks for the link Leendert, what a fascinating record.

For some reason your link took me to page 83, but I think I found the relevant info on page 445:

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2327...objectPage=445

613 Sqn lost three Mustangs on the morning of July 18th, but later than 07.15:

Following on in the ORB entry in my post #5:

...went to NORTH COATES where the photos were developed.
In the meantime the Y Service had reported that a large merchant ship had joined the convoy and the Squadron was ordered to check. F/Lt. H. GORE [AG656], F/Os J. S. TRESEDER [AG568], C. H. PIGG [AG567] and H. G. TAVERNER (R.C.A.F.) [AM175] took off at 10.10 hrs, made landfall at DEN HELDER and flew South sighting the convoy South of EGMOND. The pilots climbed to 500’ to take photos and were just turning for home when they were attacked by about 8 enemy aircraft including Me.109Gs and FW.190s. The dog fight lasted 8 minutes, and F/O C. H. PIGG was the only one to return. He made a head-on attack on a FW.190 but did not observe the results and suffered damage to his own propeller. He then made two attacks on a Me.109 and saw it dive into the sea. He also saw one Mustang with Glycol streaming from it making for the Dutch coast and another aircraft which was possibly a Mustang dive into the sea. Unable to make R/T contact with the others he turned for home and landed at COLTISHALL.
The convoy was attacked in the evening by Beaufighters with fighter escort and two ships were damaged.

According to the ASN:

Three P-51 Mustang MkI (AM 175 AG 568 and AG 656) of 613 Squadron, shot down on 18 July 1943 by either flak or fighters during a low level sortie over Scheveningnen, Netherlands, probably in order to carry out attacks on ships near Den Helder. All three pilots were posted as missing/killed in action as all three aircraft were reported to have crashed into the North Sea.

Regards

Simon

[John Manrho]

The Loss Register of the SGLO is continuously being updated. This is done by a group of approx. 5-6 members. In essence this group is checking every loss again and adding data when applicable. I am responsible for the Luftwaffe losses from 1.1.1943 until end of war. I had not reviewed these 18.7.43 cases until today, but I spent most of this evening looking into these losses. It is my strong belief that both Roden and Hasenfuss were lost in the evening combat around 20.45 hrs. Both washed up a few weeks later. I could not find any reliable source for the 19.15 hrs time and therefore changed it.

[wwrsimon]

Thanks for the update John. Do you have any ideas about the combat that took place early in the morning at 07.15 at all?

Was it likely to have involved JG1 as well?

Regards

Simon