Condor Details Required

[schnellmeyer]

Can anybody please give me details on a FW 200 Condor that attacked a ship called The Austvard off the West coast of Ireland on 30 January 1941 . The Austvard was part of convoy SL62 but it had fallen behind and was on its own when attacked . It was hit by four bombs and 16 crew were killed and six survived . The ship later sank and the survivors were landed on the S.W. coast of Ireland . I would be very grateful for any information on the Condor that was involved in this attack , thanks.

[Marc BENOIT]

Hello,

I have a condor that attacked the norvegian ship Austvard, 3677 t, with 2 sc 250, at 380 km W of Donegal ( sank in 8 min )
Hope this helps
Marc

[Chris Goss]

All I have is I/KG 40 ac took off at 0615 hrs and attacked said ship (positively identified as Austvard) at 1050 hrs 380 kms west of Donegal with 2 x SC500 bombs and the ship took 8 minutes to sink

[schnellmeyer]

Thanks for the help Marc and Chris , is there any way of finding out the code of this Condor ? Also from which base did this plane fly from ? Three of the crew from the Austvard are buried in Dingle , Ireland . Last week I met a cousin of one of these men and they want to find out more details about the sinking , thanks again .

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo Schnellmeyer,

There is good information on this ship and its crew on the warsailors.com website. This deals with Norwegian registered ships and there is also an excellent forum covering ships of all nations.

From the above it appears a boat with 6 survivors landed in Co. Kerry, one of whom died shortly afterwards. He is probably buried in Kerry, but where did your information about 3 buried there come from ?

I need to do a bit of digging in my notes. If I find anything I will post it.

Regards for now,

Martin Gleeson.

[schnellmeyer]

Thanks for your help Martin , as for the other two crew member that died , this information I got from the men I met last week . Their cousin was Jens Brandvold who passes away while on the life raft and the other two men were Alfred Andersen and karl Gustav . what I would love to know was what Condor sunk their boat ?

[Larry]

I think KG40 used Bordeaux-Mérignac at this time

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo Schnellmeyer,

Unfortunately I found absolutely nothing on these men landing in Ireland or the burial of any from that crew. There may be other records in our National Archives or Military Archives that I have yet to find. The reporting of such events was very uneven, and sometimes I suspect was not done at all (or at least in a way that is accessible for us today).

Regards,

Martin.

[schnellmeyer]

Thanks Larry and Martin . Martin , the survivors of this incident were landed in Co.Kerry , they were in Dingle hospital where two of them died . I am still trying to find out where in Dingle they are buried . If I get more details I will post them here .I would still love to know the Condor involved in this incident .

[Mark McShane]

According to DFA files from Irish National Archives Jens Brandvold was buried at sea, along with the second crew member who died. The third crew member to die while in Dingle hospital was Alfred Andersen. I do not know where he is buried but if you are local I would suggest checking the following two cemeteries, Cnoca'chairn Famine graveyard or Keel Cemetery, Castlemaine. There is also the possibility that he may have been taken to Dublin for burial or was buried initially in Kerry and then re-interred in Dublin. This was the case for several Scandinavian seafarers during the war.

There are still several grave sites from merchant seamen from the war that have not been properly marked or there final resting place positively known.

Regards,

Mark