First use of Ju 88 A-4 in KG54

[RudiS]

According to Radtke, I./KG54 started converting to the Ju 88 A-4 in August 1941 and II./KG54 in November 1941. In Bomber Units of the Luftwaffe by de Zeng, Stankey & Creek the same info can be found.

However on July 19th 1941 Ju 88 A-4 B3+BH WNr 1210 of 1./KG54 made a belly landing in the Ukraine. Pilot was Oblt Bengt Gante. This is a month prior to the above date.

So there is something wrong here:
- Did I./KG54 converted to the A-4 much earlier?
- Is 1210 the wrong WNr for the a/c that belly landed July 19th 1941?
- Or was WNr 1210 not an A-4?
- Did Gante transfer from another unit to KG54 and bring “his” A-4 along? The Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries of deZeng and Stankey don’t mention any other unit then KG54 and in the Kracker Luftwaffe DB his name can not be found.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[Larry deZeng]

Rudi -

I./54 seems to have had Ju 88 A-5s as late as May and possibly June 1941, and Ju 88 A-1s as late as 8 August 1941. So, of your 4 possibilities, Nr. 3, that WNr 1210 was not an A-4, seems to me the strongest. An interesting Ratzel!

Cheers,

Larry

[Dan History]

I./KG51 was the first Ju 88 A-4 unit, looking at losses. It was a Lutfflotte 4 unit, so may have shared one or two aircraft with I./KG54. As for I./KG54 itself, it started reporting Ju 88 A-4 losses in October, after the single loss in July. It also had a few Ju 88 A-6s, a rare sub-type. II./KG54 had even more of these and was probably the last unit to use them in combat. The last loss was in late October.

Regards,

Dan

[RudiS]

It seems this will stay an enigma. Thanks everyone for your help. Very much appreciated.