Trying to ID photos of 8./KG54 He111s downed 10.5.40

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

For a photo data base I'm trying to ID two photos of force landed He111s of 8./KG54, probably down during May-June, 1940. One, is certainly B3+KS, which apparently force-landed on what appears to be an airfield. It appears that a building in the background is a control tower. A second is probably B3+DS, which made a good forced landing, but then the center section burned our or was set afire by its crew. It has a three-digit W.Nr. poss beginning with a 2. This could also be B3+DD, as the last letter in the code isn't very clear.

Either of these two could be one of six 8 Staffel aircraft shot down by fighters during the afternoon of 10.5.40 in the Courtrai area.

These were Hptm Stadeimeyer (prob St Kap and likely flying B3+AS); Oblt Riedesel Frh.z. Eisenbach; Lt Jansen; Uffz Vogel Uffz Zenner; and Uffz Reinhardt. Several members from these crews were captured.

Only one other 8./KG54 aircraft was lost durng the May-June period, this being on 19.5.40, Lt.Mellhorn in the Arras area.

Can anyone associate any of these losses with the crash photos? Does anyone have other photos of any of these crash or force-landings?

Thanx,

[Wim de Meester]

Larry

regarding the Stadelmeier crash please look into the file I made available to you some time ago.

regards
Wim

[Larry Hickey]

Wim,

Thanks, I'll do that. Haven't processed a lot of that info yet.

Regards,