Luftwaffe losses in Norway on 17 April 1940

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello,

I have some questions about Luftwaffe losses on 17 April 1940:

1) During operation Duck on that morning, the cruiser HMS Suffolk shelled Sola airfield, missing it but scoring against floatplanes moored at "Sola See" hydrobase, a lake near the airfield. All my sources agree that this attack destroyed 4 He 115 of 1./KüGr 106 and 4 He 59 of KG zbV 108 See, while a Ju 52 of Stab KG 30 was destroyed by fire after flares dropped by a Hudson of 233 Sqn over the target fell on it.
But my sources gave no numbers for damaged German aircraft. And when I checked the database of German floatplanes at http://historisches-marinearchiv.de/....php?flugtyp=% I find that three He 115 (WNr 1878, 1898 and 2087) are shown as being heavily damaged by this attack, but then were repaired and resumed service. Source listed in the three cases is: KTB Gen.d.Lw.b.Ob.d.M. O.Qu.

So I wonder if these three He 115 are extra losses, or if at least 3 of the 4 He 115 usually counted as destroyed were in fact just heavily damaged and later repaired ?

2) On this date a Ju 88 A crashed while attempting to land on the frozen Lake Jonsvannet (used by the Luftwaffe as an airfield at the time) on return from a sortie, and later sank when the ice melted.
Most sources say that this aircraft was belonging to I./KG 30, but the following webpage, providing more details (WNr and so on) says it belong to Ergänzungsstaffel KG.4 (KG.100).
http://ktsorens.tihlde.org/flyvrak/jonsvatnet2.html

Can anyone confirm the unit of this bomber ?

Thanks in advance

[Adam]

I'm not at home with all my files at the moment, but with regards to Operation Duck, British Intelligence noted (NA HW 5/1) on 19 April that the Germans claimed four He 59s lost while two He 115s suffered shell fragment damage to the floats. According to the Gen.Qu.6.Abt four He 115s were listed as destroyed while they say the Ju 88A-1 was from I./KG 30, but no information on Vkz or WNr.

Obviously there is more information than this but until I get home I can't help further at the moment, sorry.