De Kooy Airfield, 10.5.40

[Dean M. Wick]

Greetings; Inquiring if anyone may know which Bf110 units may have been involved in strafing attacks on De Kooy airfield on 10.5.40. Apparently 2 seperate attacks, at 0800-0840(together with bf109s), the second at 1200-1240hrs. I believe I and II/ZG1 were operating further South, but I know nothing of their missions later this date. Any comments on this would be welcomed. Thank you. Dean

[Hans Nauta]

Hello Dean,

Although airfield De Kooy is part of my research I haven't been succesful to find any references to involved Geschwaders.

Later that day Bf 110's of 2./ZG76 strafed De Vlijt on Texel at 15.30 hrs and De Kooy at 17.00 hrs. The next day the same unit was responsible for strafing dummies at airfield Bergen, so although there's no proof, I guess 2./ZG76 may have been involved in the earlier attacks on De Kooy.

What is your specific interest in this?

Best regards,
Hans Nauta

[robert]

Hi,

I think that 2/ZG76 was also responsible for the attack delivered around 08.40 a.m. But which unit strafed this airfield at 12.40 p.m.?

Regards

Robert

[Pilot]

The book about this airfield history is printed in Netherland in the '50.... I think. By the way- did the Fokker G.I was there and suffer some losses?

[Dean M. Wick]

Gentlemen: Thank you for your prompt response to my inquiry. 2/ZG76 comes as a bit of a surprise to me, as I always considered they were involved in Norway at the time. I'm going to recheck Shores "Fledgling Eagles" as I don't recall mention of them taking part in the Blitzkrieg. Hans, you ask of what interest this is to me... The short answer is that I've always been interested in Bf110 units(my favourite A/C). and, I have a deep interest in the airwar of the early war years(1939-40). I am what most would call,an Amateur historian, but in my own humble way, I've tried to help put food on the table of Shores, Goss, Vasco,Cornwell etc.by buying there excellent books! Thanks again for your response. Dean

[mathieu]

Pilot wrote:

By the way- did the Fokker G.I was there and suffer some losses?

As far as is known there were no Fokker G.1's at De Kooy. This airfield was owned by the Navy, the Fokker D.XXI's were guests at the field. One G.1, the 307, was at the airfield of Texel and this one was caputed intact by the Germans.

Regards,

Mathieu.
www.fokker-g1.nl

[Hans Nauta]

Hi all,

To be more precise, only one G-1 was on De Kooy for a short period. On May 10th Fokker G-1 #315 from 3 JaVA landed on De Kooy for refuelling and new ammunition. During landing however, it run with its propellor in one of the obstacles and had to be repaired. After this #315 was allocated to 4 JaVA at Bergen.

Best regards,
Hans Nauta

[Pilot]

All right- thgank you I will take and see some images of damaged or destroyed G.I, maybe the caption was wrong on it. Last time I was not much tidy with my material and this will take time to find it...

[Pieter H]

Hi,
according my data the attack on De Kooy air field of 08.00 was not made by Bf110's, but by Bf109's of II./JGr186. One of these was probably lost to anti-aircraft fire and made a landing in Friesland. Of course the others were by Bf110's as summarized by Hans.

Apart from that thanks for triggereing this thread, since it made me realize that units of Luftflotte 5 (in this case 2./ZG76 stationed at Aalborg) were used in the initial phase of Fall Gelb and the attack on the Netherlands. As far as I can see they were in that sense the only ones, correct?

Regards, Pieter