Luftwaffe bomber raids Leningrad area May-June 1942 ?

[Kari Lumppio]

Hello!

Luftwaffe bomber raids Leningrad area May-June 1942 ?

In the material of a Finnish Air Observation Unit ( 8. Ilmavalvontakomppania ) from 1942 several bigger Luftwaffe bomber raids stand out. There was alltogether seven (eight) raids from starting from Königsberg against unknown targets probably in and around Leningrad. Raids were flown along Gulf of Finland – the reason why Finns were notified about them – during following days:

May 24th ,1942
41 He 111 from Königsberg towards unknown target

June 5th, 1942
40 He 111 from Königsberg towards (Finnish) grid “121a” (Leningrad city area?)

June 7th, 1942
36 He 111 from Königsberg to Narva, from there “probably towards Leningrad” and back the same way

June 10th, 1942
29 He 111 from “91” (Tallinn) to Northeast and back
40 He 111 from “Germany” to Northeast

June 15th, 1942
9 He 111 (22.00) Königsberg – Narva – Finnish Gulf
24 He 111 (21.40) Königsberg – Narva – Finnish Gulf
(Flights notified separately, take-off times in parenthesis)

June 26th, 1942
Unknown amount He 111 over Finnish Gulf

These raids were huge compared to other air activities by Germans during the period in this sector of Front. There was no other bomber flights with bigger than kette size recorded in the source material during mid-February to mid-September 1942!


My questions concerning the raids:

Is the unit(s) known? I/KG 53 is the prime candidate, but they did not posses the amount of He 111s recorded for the raids. What was the additional unit? Especially I am interested about the He 111 unit which flew from Tallinn June 10th. Both Königsberg and Tallinn seem to have been temporary operation bases.

Is there anything written about these raids – books, articles, reports, anything ?

I/KG 53 seems to have suffered loss of five He 111 “Durch Feindeinwirkung” during May 1942 and two He 111 in June. Were they during these Leningrad raids? Were they because of (night) fighters or AAA?


I hope this is of interest and thank in advance for possible replies,

Kari

[Nokose]

I read about two raids intercepted against Kronsadt on the nights of 02Jun and 05Jun42 with large numbers of He-111. 71 IAP KBF claimed to have shot down some of the He-111's.

[yogybär]

I have a diary of a former member of 3./KG53, who passed away some weeks ago. May he rest in peace!
He did NOT fly in any of the missions mentioned by the finnish source, but on dates around. It is rather likely that they attacked the same targets, so I describe them here for the timeframe End of May to End of June 1942:
Take-offs mostly in Koroye Selo, often only in Kettenformation
Targets:
- loading station on western shore of lake Ladoga
- railway stations
- depots near railway at Krestzy (?, handwritten)
- enemy positions in wood @ Wolchow-Kessel
- depot in wood near Kretschno
- road Cholm - Molvwotitzky
- on13.6.42, a night-bombing mission in support of own mine-layers. A enemy submarine was reportedly sunk during that mission. This was confirmed later.

[Franek Grabowski]

BTW
What was his operational career?

[yogybär]

He was a pilot in 3./KG53 from August 1940 (BoB) until June 1943, rank Uffz. & Feldwebel.

Later, he continued his studies at university but was never able to finish... war .

[Andy Fletcher]

Hi Jörg,

What was the pilots name?

Regards

Andy Fletcher

[andrus]

Luftwaffe did also lay mines (KG 4).
I found following: in the night of 27/28.V, 29/30.V, 4/5.VI (41 planes), 5/6.VI (34 He 111), 9/10.VI (not sure it happened), 13/14.VI.

Source: KTB Skl, May, June 1942.

Perhaps somebody with Gundelach's book about KG 4 can add details ?

ps.
Did Luftlotte 1 have finnish liaison officer ? Maybe his papers contain something ?

[yogybär]

Originally Posted by andrus

Perhaps somebody with Gundelach's book about KG 4 can add details

Minimal, but "yes":
- It was called "Unternehmen Froschlaich"
- duration 11 nights
- loss of one crew (+ AC)
- one nightfighter shot down
- they had contact with AA, searchlights & nightfighters from Kronstadt

@ Andy: I got the diary from his grandson and don't know wether it is OK to post this, so I don't. As he was not anyone "special", I think there is no necessity. But maybe later, the whole diary can go public. Let's see.

[Andy Fletcher]

Originally Posted by yogybär

@ Andy: I got the diary from his grandson and don't know wether it is OK to post this, so I don't. As he was not anyone "special", I think there is no necessity. But maybe later, the whole diary can go public. Let's see.

Hi Jörg,

Totally understand, though it's the fact that he was not anyone "special" that is of interest.

Best Regards

Andy Fletcher

[Kari Lumppio]

Originally Posted by andrus

Did Luftlotte 1 have finnish liaison officer ? Maybe his papers contain something ?

Tere Andrus!

Aitäh. Yes, there was Finnish liaison officer with Lfl 1. I have been mostly interested about year 1944 so I do not have the 1942 material handy. In any case the liaison officer reports are more often miss than hit. One gets the feeling that information was not really freely available for the Finnish liaison officers. Will probably check the material during the early autumn, but not sooner.

These opertions indeed seem to be work of KG4, the whole Geschwader being based at Prowehren and Jesau May-June 1942. The announced movements over Gulf of Finland also do fit to minelaying operations. I guess the operation was meant as much against the Soviet submarines than against their surface vessels.


Kari

PS
Andrusele: oleme Tartus ~ 15.-20.7.