II/ZG-1's Swiss Adventure.

[Dean M. Wick]

Greetings: Nice to see the upsurge in interest in Zerstorer Operations on the Forum,Larry Hickey in particular. I share your interest. A couple of years ago I had made a post regarding II/ZG-1 in Switzerland,4.6.40 and 8.6.40. John Vasco kindly provided some info. at that time ,but I have managed to glean some more info regarding Luftwaffe "claims" since then.Alas..,I still have some Questions as well. If Anyone is interested I'll post what I have here. my Wife is harping at me at the moment so must go for now, Cheers Dean

[robert]

Hi Dean,

I have:

04.06.40 15-16.00 Boecourt Bf109D Fliegerkompanie 15 J-310 (probably downed by Uffz.Herbert Kutscha from the 5/ZG1)
On the 08.06.40 the Swiss lost C-125 from the Fliegerkompanie 1 CR-35 between 11-12.00, and later (between 12-13.00) Bf109D from FK15 J-328 and damaged Bf109D from FK21 flown by Olt.Borner. I know that the claims were made by Lt.Hermichen from the 6/ZG1, Olt.Kaldrack from 4/ZG1 and Lt.Tonne from the 6/ZG1 but I`m sure that there were some more claims.

Regards

Robert

[Larry Hickey]

Dean,

Your information on the ZG units would be most appreciated.

Regards,

[Dean M. Wick]

Hello Again: This is what I have, perhaps a little different from Robert's. I have Kutschka's claim( his 5th) for a Bf-109 as being on 8.6.40,Source's Fiest:LW diary Vol.I,Luftw. in Focus 6/2004. Kaldrack,and Tonne(his 1st) for Bf-109's also on the 8.6.40. Ogfr. klinke's claim for a Bf-109(Bf of Fw. Dahne),again on 8.6.40. Hermichen's claim is a puzzle. Was he involved on the 8th,or the 4th? The EKW C-35 shot down on the 8th was apparently" Gang thumped" by a number of BF-110's... So a little bit of mystery yet. Anyone else claim on these dates that have not come up yet? ilook forward to anthing anyone can offer. Of course, we are talking "claims" here. Cheers Dean

[robert]

Hi Dean,

Tonne made his first claim on the 10.05.40 between 05-06.00 against dutch Douglas 8A from the 3 JAVA.

Regards

Robert

[Larry Hickey]

Hi,

Regarding II./ZG 1 claims against the Swiss, the victory lists from the Weiss collection for II./ZG1 have claims of 4 x Bf109Es listed on 4.5.40, none with claimant or any details. One CR-32 is listed as victor "NN" on 8.6.40, and 4 x 109s on the same day, credited to Oblt. Rolf Kaldrack of 4 Staffel, and Oblt. Günther Tonne, Obfw Harras Matthes (5th victory) and Fw Herbert Kutscha (originally listed as NN, but crossed off and Kutscha hand-written in) of 6 Staffel. Handwritten at the bottom of the list is also listed "U (Uffz) Killermann + (Killed by Swiss 109) 4.6.40 - 6 Staffel - 1 (apparently Abschüsse).

Regarding the rest of II./ZG 1 victories, a total of 38 are listed duing May-June 1940, by date and type, with the locations listed for only the six on 10.5.40, all over Rotterdam. The pilots and their victory totals to date are listed for the rest, excepting: "NN" pilots for two Spitfires on 13.5.40, and one Potez 63 on 15.6.40. Unlike the listing for I./ZG 1, there is no confirmation status on any of the II./ZG 1 victory claims.

In addition, at the bottom of the list with no dates or types are listed: Lt Rolf Hermichen of 6 Staffel with 2 victories on unknown dates (plus 2 known, total 4), and Fw Johannes Lutter of 4 Staffel with 1 victory.

If this missing info can be found, the victory lists for I. and II./ZG 1 for the May-June Western Campaign will be complete.

However, at the end of the list for III./ZG76 (renamed from II./ZG1 after the Western Campaign), it indicates that through October 1940, this unit claimed 112 victories. A total of 33 are listed for III./ZG 76 by date and type from 11.7.40 through 11.9.40, only ten of which are attributed to specific pilots. This means that there may be substantially more claims submitted for the entire period, including the WC. The top scorers for the unit through Oct., 1940, were apparently: Fw Herbert Kutscha (11), Lt. Richard Marchfelder (10), Lt. Rolf Hermichen (9), Hptm. Rolf Kaldrack (8), Oblt Gerhard Kadow (6), Obfw Harras Matthes (6) and Fw Johannes Lutter (6).

I will let this stand with this post for a while, then move it to a new post for II./ZG1 victories during 1940.

Thanx,

[Dean M. Wick]

Robert and Larry: Thank you very much for responding to this thread.I seem to recall having written down somewhere that Hermichens 1st claim was on 10.5.40 over Holland,but I'm going to have to go through my stuff and see if I can find it. Based on the large number of German "claims" against the Swiss. Maybe at the time II/ZG1 had felt they had delivered Goring's Message,and had not taken the spanking from the Swiss that history has shown. Cheers Dean

[bearoutwest]

Does anyone have any additional information on the claims against the Douglas 8As? Or any other details of the Dutch operations with the Douglases?

Regards,
...geoff

[Evgeny Velichko]

I beleive this link (In German) will help a little:

http://www.kczum.ch/aviation/content_1940.htm

[Stephane Muret]

Just few informations for Larry,

You wrote "Handwritten at the bottom of the list is also listed "U (Uffz) Killermann + (Killed by Swiss 109) 4.6.40 - 6 Staffel - 1 (apparently Abschüsse)." : Uffz Killerman's crew from6./ZG1 was downed near Morteau, east of France on june 04 1940. All crew KIA.

Perhaps this could helps.
Stephane