looking for the Wnr of the He177 crashed on 22 July 1944

[gilles collaveri]

On 22 July 1944, a Heinkel 177 crashes upon take off at Uchacq, near Mont de Marsan air base, in the South West of France, most probably because of an engine fire.

This He177 was belonging to Wekusta 2, it was going for a weather reco near Ireland and its pilot was Labmayer. The aircraft burns fiercely and there are no survivors.

It is likely (but not 100% sure) that its mark was D7+HK, and its Wnr is unknown.

Can anybody around here confirm the Wnr of this A/C ? and its marks ?

Thanks, as usual.

GC

[Nick Beale]

I guess you have Pierre Babin's book « La Wekusta 2 au Combat » which has the crew's names and possible unit code (D7+BK) but no Werk Nummer, sadly.

The burnt-out remains of D7+BK were found by the Allies, W.Nr. 332473. I don't have any real knowledge of the He 177 but I have a lot of Werk Nummern of the unit's allocated He 177's here, if that helps you at all.

[Brian Bines]

From a Avions article crew given as Ff Uffz Karl Labmayer , Met Reg.Rat Walter Kuspert , Bf Ogef Siegfried Mattausch, Bm Uffz Heinz Lehmann, Bs Uffz Siegfried Tritschler, Bs Gef Manfred Rehm all killed,

Brian Bines

[gilles collaveri]

Yes Nick, I do have this book from Pierre Babin (a really excellent book, indeed, but in French) ;
If D7+BK was found in Bordeaux by the Allies, then this very registration (D7+BK) cannot the one of Labmayer's aircraft, which crashed on take off at Mont de Marsan on 22 July 1944 (it is Labmayer's aircraft the remains of which I recently found);
Thanks for your link with information on He177.

Brian, that is correct, Labmayer was the pilot of that He177 that crashed on 22 July 1944.
It was only his second operational mission... Refer to Pierre Babin's book on this aircraft and his crew, the full story is in this book "Wekusta 2".

Thanks you to both of you.

GC

[Karsten]

Met Reg.Rat Walter Küspert
DOB 15.03.1911
Rüdiger