JG 54 losses on (or around) 10 August 1943

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello,

In the late Gunter Rosipal file of JG 54 losses, there are two entries for 10 August 1943:

Uffz Horst Eckert of 5./JG 54 was killed when his Fw 190 A-5 WNr 1294 crashed in an unknown place due to pilot error. The aircraft was shown as a 100% loss, and an additional comment is "Überführung", a term I am not sure to translate correctly as "overpass".

Uffz Norbert Pfeiffer survived unhurt a crash-landing after engine trouble near Ijmuiden, Netherlands, but his Bf 109 G-6/Y WNr 15656 was destroyed at 100%.

The Lutwaffe losses summary confirm that both III./JG 54 and 5./JG 54 lost an aicraft this day destroyed without enemy action on non-operational flight.

So far, so good, but then my other sources do not confirm the above:

1) for the first loss, I search a Horst Eckert and found one, a Uffz (same rank), born on 21/09/1919 (correct age for a pilot) and the place of death is shown as "Flugplatz Iwanowka", where several losses of I./JG 54 were reported the days before. So everything seems to confirm it is the same guy... but his death date is shown as 18 August 1943.

A quick check of the Luftwaffe losses summary and JG 54 loss file show no losses in both for JG 54.

So either the date in one source is wrong, or Eckert was fatally wounded and died 8 days later.

2) the Dutch Army site listing WWII crashsites in Netherlands in 1943 (http://www.defensie.nl/media/verlies...m46-154754.pdf) shows no crash on 10 August, but one on 11 August: the Bf 109 WNr 15656 of 7./JG 54 flown by Uffz A Pfeifer crashed ar Overveen.
Overveen is just south of Ijmuiden, the WNr is the same, the name of the pilot very close but again the date is different.

A quick check of the Luftwaffe losses summary shows that there is another loss of III./JG 54 on 11 August 1943, again one aircraft destroyed without enemy action on operational flight.
There is no loss for this day and III./JG 54 in Rosipal's file.

So either two aircraft of III./JG 54 crashed on two consecutive days, or one was reported on the two days.

So can anyone help me to solve these cases ?

Thanks in advance

Laurent