6.Minensuchstaffel loss on 18 Februay 1945

[Laurent Rizzotti]

I am searching to confirm the crew list of the Ju 52/3 MS WNr 3437 of 6.Minensuchstaffel that was lost on 18 February 1945.
http://www.luftwaffe-zur-see.de/Seel...n/Jahr1945.htm says that the loss was due to "Absturz infolge Feinbeschuss". The five crew members were all killed. They are listed as:
Ofw Peulster (FF)
Ogefr Ordnung (Bf)
Fw Wastian (B)
Ogefr Lustig (Bm)
Uffz Steffen (Bs)

What I found so far:
FF: no Peulster found on fold3 or Volksbund, but I found a death card for Karl Peuster of 6.Minensuchstaffel (https://www.fold3.com/image/692078209) who was killed on 18 February 1945 in sea off Libau during a war flight (Feindflug). Volksbund confirms with an Ofw Karl Peuster being lost on 18 February 1945 at sea near Libau.
Bf: Volksbund has an Ogefr Kurt Ordnung lost at sea on 18 February 1945. No Ordnung on fold3 but an Ogefr Kurt Ordung (missing an n) of 6.Minensuchstaffel (https://www.fold3.com/image/692751659) who was killed on 18 February 1945 in sea off Libau during a war flight (Feindflug). Both men have same date of birth, so probably are the same.
B: fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/image/691988375) and Volksbund agree on a Fw Alois Wastian dying on 18 February 1945 at sea near Libau. Fold3 adds that he belonged to 6.Minensuchstaffel and as the men above was killed on 18 February 1945 in sea off Libau during a war flight.
Bm: nothing found on fold3, but Volksbund has an Ogefr Erich Lustig dying on 18 February 1945 at sea near Libau.
Bs: nothing found on fold3 or Volksbund. It is a more common name, and none of the war dead I found are at the right date or in the right area.

Thanks in advance

[Laurent Rizzotti]

I found the above loss on the GenQu. loss report of 28 February 1945, entry 14.

It has an important difference with the above website: the air gunner, Uffz Steffen, is not listed as being KIA, he is listed as wounded. That may explain why I did not find him in dead databases.
The four other crew are all listed as KIA, not MIA, the source of the data probably being the survivor.
The cause of loss is listed as "Absturz inf. Feindbeschuss" (crash due to enemy fire), so this aircraft was shot down, not lost operationnally.

[Brian Bines]

The crew list I have is :- Ff Ofw Karl Peuster m b 11-4-16
B Fw Alois Wastian + b. 29-3-14 Weilheim
Bf Ogef Kurt Ordung m b. 18-1-23
Bm Ogef Erich Lustig + b 29-12-07 Lutzen
Bs Uffz Wilhelm Steffen inj. b 12-8-20

The aircraft was attacked by 2 Yak 9s which silenced the Bs the Russian pilots tried to guide the Mausi to a Soviet A/f but after a few minutes the German pilot attempted to escape and was promptly shot down around midday the aircraft crashing 2 km south of Libau Latvia .
Matti was kind enough to check and correct the names for me . I believe the details of the shooting down came from an online source . Initial spelling of names came from the GQM .

[Matti Salonen]

There is a NVM at WAST:
1945-02-18, 6./Minensuchgr. 1, Ju 52/3m g8e MS, 3437, 3K+EP, 2 km südlich Libau (Liepaja)
Flugzeugführer Ofw Peuster, Karl, +
Beobachter Uffz Steffen, Wilhelm, verletzt
Bordfunker Obgfr Ordung, Kurt, +
Bordwart Fw Wastian, Alois, +
1.Wart Obgfr Lustig, Erich, +
Absturz infolge Beschuß von 2 Yak-9. Bruch 100 %.

Matti

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks to both of you. I note that the crew position are not the same in GenQu. loss report and NVM. In NVM Lustig is 1.Wart, what I understand as a groundcrew. That may explain why there is no death card available for him in fold3, if he was listed in another category (by the way, on fold3 only a small proportion of Germans killed in 1945 are there for the moment... Most of the wars from 1939 to March 1944 can be found on fold3 but then the proportion fell to some percent).

Still, flying on daylight with such an aircraft just off Libau in February 1945 was very risky, so I guess that Erich Lustig, if he was effectively a ground crew, was not coming for a joy ride but maybe helping the crew. In all other losses of Ju 52 MS I know, there were 4 crew, not 5.

[ju55dk]

Beware that Ju 52 with minesweeping ring had 4 crew member, but the KKG version had 5.
Junker

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Well, I had never heard of KKG before, but it is a possibility (for those who don't know, KKG (for Knallkörpergerät) was a device that allowed to clear acoiustic mines from the air, the same way that ring allowed to blow magnetic mines. See http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=32522).

As the naval chronicle says Soviet airmen downed 3 Ju 52 equiped for clearing mines, they were probably equiped with rings rather than KKG.

And I always thought that Ju 52 MS in loss lists were the ones equipped with the big ring.