417th NFS claim 12/18/1944

[Guy JULIEN]

417th NFS operating from southern France was credited to a german four engines plane down at sea on the 28th of december 1944.
I'm intrested in details about this german plane, type, unit etc.
I'm not able to find something with KG 200 or Ju-290 .
May you help me
Guy

[shooshoobaby]

Guy -
12/28/44
417th NFS Crew - Pilot Lt. Campbell , Nav. Lt. McCullen
Shot Down JU 290 nicknamed " Barcelona Charlie " for Flights to Spain.
Crashed in Mediterranean Sea off Coast of Southern France.
Narrative in Book: Beaufighters In the Night , 417th NFS by Brick Eisel
Mike

[Guy JULIEN]

Thanks Mike,
"Barcelona Charlie" seems to be a nickname given to the gerrman flights to Spain.
Did Brick Eisel give a Werk number or a precision about the unit ? In my Knowledge 51 Ju-290 were built but there is no match with this" Barcelona Charlie".
Guy

[Frank Olynyk]

Dec 28, 1944, at 2130 hours. 1st Lt Malcolm D Campbell + 2nd Lt Robert J McCullen
Ju-290
165 deg, 80 m from Hyeres Is
in Beaufighter VI V8568
Sources: CR: MMFB (now in NARA II, College Park, MD); SR: A0801/1131-2 (AFHRC microfilm)

Frank.

[Bruce Lander]

Hi nGuy,

I think this was actually a Fw.200 of Lufthansa ( see KG.200 loss post on the Luftwaffe Forum today)

Cheers

Bruce Lander

[Guy JULIEN]

Thanks Bruce,
I posted the german side of this topic on the right forum . "Barcelona Charlie" was probably a FW 200 but not a Lufthansa one. Three Condor were lost by Lufthansa from september 1944 to May 1945. One of them over France downed by NFS on September fell near Dijon. The two others were lost respectivly in Norway an Germany.
Our "Barcelona Charlieé is still quite mysterious.
Guy

[brickhistory]

The FW 200 downed near Dijon was by then Maj Harold Augsperger, 415th NFS (some unofficial accounts call it a B-17 in Luftwaffe markings).

The 417th NFS victory near the Hyeres was visually positively ID'd as a Ju 290 by the crew.

Not to say that mis-identification didn't occur, but given their report and your accounting of the three FW 200 losses and their locations, I'd lean more towards the -290 ID as being correct.

But I'd love to learn more about the missions and unit(s) involved.

[Guy JULIEN]

Me to,
Strange claim, strange plane, strange Citation for the 417th NFS (it looks like the begining of a Clive Cussler's novel).
Cheers
Guy