Information Concerning Gef. Josef Perl - lost over England on 20.07.1940/41

[rickback4444]

Hi,

Have asked about this man before but have now bought a second sterbebild showing a different year date.

Both say he was lost on a mission against England and both name the 20th July but one says he was lost in 1940 and the other 1941.

Could you provide information on his unit and how he was lost and which year he was killed.

Many thanks

Rick

[Clint Mitchell]

Taken from The Blitz Then & Now Vol I, Edited by Winston Ramsey, (After the Battle):

Friday July 19th 1940 -

1./KG40 Focke-Wulf Fw200C. Brought down by AA fire during a mine laying sortie and crashed into the North Sea between Hartlepool and Sunderland 11:55 PM Fw H Kulken and Fw K Nicholai both captured unhurt. Fw W Meyer killed. Hptm R Stesszyn (Staffel-Kapitan), Gefr S Zaunig and Gefr J Perl all missing believed killed. Aircraft F8+EH lost.

The body of Willy Meyer was later washed ashore on the Yorkshire coast and originally buried at Driffield. Undercarriage leg trawled ashore and now in the North-East Aircraft Museum?

[bill norman]

Rick,
As Clint points out, Perl was lost off the Durham coast in July 1940. The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge lists Gefr Joseph Perl as missing over the North Sea on 19.07.1940. The same site lists only two 1941 losses with the name J. Perl: One of them was lost in Russia; the other in the Western Desert.

BN (www.billnorman.co.uk)