unidentified 25-26 June 1942 Bremen raid Flak claims

[Theo Boiten]

Dear all,

I have been working on the RAF Bomber Command 25-26 June 1942 Bremen Raid for the NJWD 2nd edition, and so far have failed to identify the following 7 Flak victory claims. Who can help matching these Abschüsse to actual British losses:

-Halifax at Juist 01.55 hrs; identity of a/c?
-Hudson near Farmsen 01.55 hrs; identity of a/c?
-Wellington near Kirchseelte-Harpstedt 02.08 hrs; identity of a/c?
-Halifax near Lohnar (place hard to read on faded microfilm) 02.21 hrs; identity of a/c?
-Whitley at Dwoberg/Delmenhorst 02.30 hrs; identity of a/c?
-Wellington near Aschhausen 02.30; identity of a/c?
-35 Squadron Halifax W1105 crashed in Oldenburg area, but exactly where & at what time?

Cheers and thanks for any information!

Theo

[Larry deZeng]

Theo B. -

I am surprised you can read ANY of those microfilmed Flak claims. I was told that they were written in colored pencil in many or most cases so not only has the microfilm faded badly with time, but colored pencil writing does not film well to begin with. To make matters even worse, the quality of the handwriting varies and some of it is very difficult to decipher even when it's legible. That is especially true for the place name locations, which more often than not are some unfamiliar suburb or village. I did the best I could with 1 roll many years ago but then gave it up as a lost cause. So we wish you the best of luck in trying to read those!

Larry

P.S. - I hope your 2nd Edition data includes the identity of the Flak-Battr. making the claim.

[Theo Boiten]

Hello Larry,

You are quite right that the hand-written Flak and Flak searchlight claims are, in many cases, hard to read, and many of them are faded on the microfilms. However, I have now been working on these claims (especially those covering the Battle of Berlin period, 2nd half of 1943 to March 44) for the last three months and have positively deciphered about 95 % of all the entries. Some with the aid of German linguistic specialistst and experienced German researchers. I have decided to edit all the available information about these Flak claims into the narratives and Abschuss listings in the manuscript of the NJWD 2nd edition -together with the other primary sources available to me, I can now make excellent reconstructions of even the hardest to reconstruct 'Wild Boar' air battles over the German cities under attack in 1943-44. The research results are astonishing, and will all be presented in the NJWD 2nd edition.

Cheers, Theo

[Larry deZeng]

That sounds like a big step forward, Theo, and we all anticipate the final product!

Larry