He111 WNr4531 or 4581, mot.No 17541 3/4.Apr.1944

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Hello!

At night 3/4.Apr.1944 Soviet AAA shot down a He111, fell 7km west of Luga (SSW Leningrad).
WNr 4531 (or maybe 4581, poor copy), mot.No 17541 (2nd motor apparently burned out).

Any info about this aircraft (unit, crew, etc.)?

Best regards,
Andrey

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

As the plane was shot down by AA armored train at night near railway station, most probably it was 14.(Eis)/KG55's plane.

Nevertheless, all questions remain.

Best regards,
Andrey

[Jim P.]

Are you sure about the date? I have a couple of damaged He 111s from 2. & 5./KG55 on 3-Apr-44 via Balss, Deutsche LW Losses & Claims, V.31-1 (1 - 15-Apr-44) & BAMA RL 10/120, KTB I./KG 55, but nothing shot down. (There are other KG55 KTBs out there, but don't have the BAMA RL ref numbers to hand at the moment. There are no other He 111 losses that fit those dates (yet). (Also have WNr.4531 still flying with KG4 in 1945, but nothing for WNr.4581.)

[INM@RLM]

A thought. 4xxx-series He 111 Werk-Nummern were assigned to H-5s & H-6s delivered by EHF during 1940/41. The chance of one of them still being used operationally by a Luftwaffe unit in 1944 is probably vanishingly small.
The greater likelihood is this was an H-16, either 8531 or 8581 (coming from an EHF batch seemingly of 70 H-16s spanning WNr. 8521 - 8590).
Per Holm, at this date 14.(Eis)/KG55 was based at Jakobstadt (Jēkabpils) and that Staffel reported two H-16s lost to enemy action during April 1944.
Perhaps Jim can tell us more?

[ju55dk]

14.(Eis)/KG55 reported 2 He 111 missing. 6. april and 8. april 1944.
Junker

[Stig Jarlevik]

Originally Posted by INM@RLM

The greater likelihood is this was an H-16, either 8531 or 8581 (coming from an EHF batch seemingly of 70 H-16s spanning WNr. 8521 - 8590).

Volker Koos claims the H-16 batch only went to WNr 8556 (WNr 8456 - 8556)

What is your evidence the batch went all the way to 8590?

Cheers
Stig

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Friends!

Thank you for your efforts!
I'm so sorry. It was a Ju88. The report from which I took this info was written a few days after the downing of the plane. Now I have checked everything that can be found quickly about this episode.
It was a raid of two fours of Ju88 on the Luga railway station at 22:15-22:33 msk (21:15-21:33 DSZ) 4.Apr.44, so it was at night 4/5.Apr.44, not 3/4.Apr.

Interestingly, the same staff, which later wrote about the He111, wrote about Ju88 in the first report, as well as all other sources.
Apparently He111 is just a strange typo. But WNr of the plane and motor are mentioned only in this report.

I am somewhat justified in saying that so far I have never seen an error in the type of aircraft in such reports when WNr is given.

The question about the unit and the crew remains.

Best regards,
Andrey

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Ju88A-14 WNr.144531 (6./KG3) got 15% damage on 7.Jul.43, maybe this one made his last sortie on 4.Apr44.

[INM@RLM]

LOL
For Stig:
"Volker Koos claims the H-16 batch only went to WNr 8556 (WNr 8456 - 8556)" the answer is nothing in the way of individual identities. So Volker could be absolutely right.
This is a Griehl block, hence my inclusion of the word seemingly.

[Merlin]

Andrey,

A-4 WNr. 4531 18.12.43 100% loss
A-4 WNr. 4581 22.01.43 100% loss
A-4 WNr. 144531 07.07.42 15% damage and repaired afterwards at Kiew
A-4 WNr. 144581 05.05.43 75% damage

The only remaining possibility is WNr. 144531.
The unit was most probably 5.(F)/122 from Mitau.