Oblt. Horst Max DÜMCKE, KIA 19th September 1944

[BABIN]

Hello,

Oblt. Horst Max DÜMCKE, born 17 May 1911, was KIA in Italy on 19 Septembre 1944.

Could anybody give me the follwing info about him :

- his unit in Sept. 1944 (may be I./KG 200)
- the aircraft he flew
- the circumstances of his death : technical failure ? allied AAA ? air combat ? ...
- the precise place of the crash of his aircraft in Italy

Thanks in advance

Pierre BABIN

[Larry deZeng]

Pierre -

DÜMCKE, Horst. 07.43 Oblt., appt Leiter Einsatzkdo. “Toska” of 2./Versuchsverband Ob.d.L. 19.09.44 Oblt. in I./KG 200 (Kdo.Führer of Kdo. Carmen), KIA - in Ju 188 D-2 crash near Bergamo/Italy.

If you discover any further information about him, please let us know.

Larry

[Andy Mitchell]

Guys,

This from "Airwar Italy 1944-45" by Beale, D'Amico and Valentini -

19th Sep 1944 - "Kommando Carmen lost Oblt DÜMCKE and Uffz Bomke killed, as well as Ofw. Gladeck severly injured when their Ju 188D-2 (W.Nr. 160062, A3+RD) crashed 2.5km west of Bergamo. They had been on a night practice flight, lost orientation on their landing approach and hit a high tension cable; the Junkers was destroyed in the ensuing fire."

Hope that this helps.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Andy Mitchell

Guys,

This from "Airwar Italy 1944-45" by Beale, D'Amico and Valentini -

Hope that this helps.

Well it saved me looking it up for a start!

[Andy Mitchell]

Found another reference to DÜMCKE in Thomas and Ketley - "KG200 The Luftwaffe's Most Secret Unit".

Page 44 - Photo caption 48 - "Trials with an He 111 towing an Fi 156 and Bf108, similar in style to that shown here with a Go 242, were a necessary part of the preparations for the Abwehr operation names "Hopping Hare" which was to be carried out by Kommando Toska. On the actual operation , the towed aircraft was a Bf 108, flown by Horst DÜMCKE, the CO of Toska. DÜMCKE had earlier been a pilot with Wekusta 2./Ob.d.L and had ditched in the Atlantic from where he and his crew had been eventually rescued by a French fishing vessel and an ASR Breguet Bizerte flying boat of Seenotstaffel 1."

Page 43 - "On 12 November (1943), Oblt. Paul Karker flew an He 111 towing the Bf 108, piloted by the commanding officer of "Toska", Oblt. Horst DÜMCKE, south-westwards across the mediterranean. Over the Gulf of Sirte the Bf 108 was released to fly on while the Heinkel turned away to distract Allied radar. The chosen objective was an emergency landing-ground by the airfield of Tamet, near El Makarem in Tunisia, abandoned since its use by the Italian Regia Aeronautica in 1942. There DÜMCKE landed safely and radioed his arrival, but a supply drop planned for the following day was abandoned when air-raids on Kalamaki damaged two of the supply aircraft. No further flight was undertaken until 17 November, by which time DÜMCKE and his observer, Lt. Kussmal, had used up all their water. Karger flew a sand camouflaged He 111, coded T9+NK, across the Mediterranean early in the morning but mist hid the Libyan coast and, as he was unable to obtain a "fix" by radio, Karger landed in the desert. After dark, he was able to locate his position by the stars as only 30km from DÜMCKE's camp, Lager 1 (cover-named "Traviata") in the Wadi Tamet and flew the heinkel there the followign day. On 19 November, having camouflaged the Bf 108, the advance reconnaissance party returned in the He 111 to Athens-Tatoi."

Hope that this helps as well.

[Andy Mitchell]

And some more......

This from "Wekusta" by Selinger and Kington.

Page 56 - "On 23 September 1940 a remarkable two-fold incident ocurred over the western Approaches in which Wekusta 2 Ob.d.L suffered its first losses. Fw Horst DÜMCKE, Reg Rat Dr Hans Sigmund, Ofw Hans Giermann and Uffz Deike, and an unidentified navigator, were making a routine met recce flight in He 111H-2, RH+NT, when, owing to the loss of power in one of the engines, they had to ditch 800km west of Brest.

Limping along on one engine and losing altitude, they approached a french fishing fleet returning to Brittany from Newfoundland and ditched near one of the ships."

There is then a detailed description of the incident by one Ofw.Max Mrochen a surviving member of Wekusta 2 Ob.d.L.

Page 234 - this lists the known personnel of Wekusta 2 Ob.d.L and records against DÜMCKE that he transfered in from Westa 1 Ob.d.L

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I also have the following from notes on Kdo.Götz which may or may not be connected to Horst DÜMCKE , I'll leave you to decide.

26 Apr 1943 - Ju 88 (Lt. Dumke) crashlanded due to wing icing.

The source of this snipit is "On Special Missions".

Again I hope that this is of assistance in building a picture of Horst DÜMCKE.

[Larry deZeng]

A big 'thanks' to Andy for all the additional and very interesting information. To the last part of his last post, there was another fellow who probably is the right one - note the different spelling:

DUMKE, Horst. (DKG). 12.07.43 awarded the DKG (recommended while an Oblt. in 4.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 122).


The Horst Dumcke Abwehr story first appeared on pages 28-31 in Günther W. Gellermann’s Moskau ruft Heeresgruppe Mitte book on KG 200 that was published by Bernard & Graefe in 1988. Gellermann attributes the “Etappenhase” (Hopping Hare) Lager 1, 2 and 3 story to Paul Karger fully supported by his Flugbuch. Duncke also flew a captured B-17 from Athens-Kalamaki to Lager 1 on 16 May 1944. On approach all looked peaceful, but when he touched down all hell broke loose as British infantry opened up from all sides. Fortunately for those aboard, Duncke had not killed the engines and he was able to quickly bring her back up to full power, turn and make a run for it. The Fortress was badly shot up while taking off and Duncke and another crew member wounded. They made it to the Greek coast but were forced to ditch in Kalamata Bay (Out of fuel? Undercarriage hydraulics shot out?). The B-17 was lost, of course. Dumcke’s death on 19 September is noted on page 79, but without the details provided by Nick Beale and his co-authors.

The Gellermann account is more detailed, but my old acquaintance Geoff Thomas (deceased – RIP) nicely summarized most of it.

Larry

[BABIN]

Many thanks to you, gentlemen : it's much more I hoped !

Pierre

[RT]

After dark, he was able to locate his position by the stars as only 30km from DÜMCKE's camp, Lager 1 (cover-named "Traviata") in the Wadi Tamet and flew the heinkel there the followign day. On 19 November, having camouflaged the Bf 108, the advance reconnaissance party returned in the He 111 to Athens-Tatoi."

The camp was invested by the brits , they found there the Bf108 Wn 1680+ a SM75 Wn 32090
+ some personal on/after the 14.march 1944

Remi

[RT]

Further if he hv to play with Traviata, he was 'interpreting" Tosca"

Remi