HE 111 loss over Molde April 1940

[Bob Pearson]

Hello, I am looking for information on a HE 111 that was lost over Molde on April 29/30th. The time would have been close to or just after midnight British time.

The He111 was hit by small arms fire as it flew over HMS Glasgow who was at that time docked by Molde. I am interested to know the names of the crew involved and the a/c details.

Many thanks in advance

Bob

[Jim P.]

I have a II./LG 1 machine damaged by Flak on the 28th of April in the Molde area. This doesn't even appear to be mentioned in Taghon's loss list for LG1 in his history of that unit. Also doesn't seem to be in the Gen.Qu. reports. Shores 'Fledgling Eagles' seemed to be my only source of this loss.

[Bob Pearson]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for info. I will check my sources in Norway to see if any German bombers were over the town on the 28th.

I have many eye witness accounts to the He 111 being over Molde, but perhaps more importantly over HMS Glasgow. Colour Sgt Halford of the Royal Marines stuck a full burst into the belly of the a/c. It then flew on blowing up over the fjord. This was witnessed by Marine McBride. As soon as the He 111 had flown over Glasgow cast off. This would have been just after midnight UK time 30th April 1940. Glasgow did not search for survivors or wreckage. The attack is recorded in the Ship's Log and states there was 1 enemy a/c. Other witnesses suggest there were two or more but I have never been able to substantiate this beyond the 1 a/c

Thanks again for your help - I am getting a little nearer to what happened.

Kind regards,

Bob

[Brian]

Hi Bob

I note from Bill Chorley's Bomber Command Losses Volume I that a Whitley of 102 Squadron FTR from a sortie over Norway on the night of 29/30 April 1940. It apparently crashed near Sylling, 27km west of Oslo. One killed, four PoW.

Could it have been .....................?

Cheers
Brian

[Bob Pearson]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the info. I can only add...I hope to God that Colour Sgt Halford was right!

Nearly all of the witnesses claim that the a/c was German, an He 111 and that they could clearly see the German markings. It flew low and slow over Glasgow...moving slowly and ponderously towards our stern and to pass from stern to bow. I could see the swastikas plainly. Halford opened up two good bursts right into his (the plane’s) belly. The third long burst emptied the magazine and the plane turned away to Starboard. Halford put a fresh magazine on the gun...there was an almighty explosion and for a few seconds the fjord was lit as bright as daylight and there was just one large blaze and down it came to the water half a mile to a mile away perhaps, and the water was on fire.' Source: McBride RM

So there is the story. If I can ascertain which flights were up that night in the Molde area then at least I could narrow it down a bit.
Anyway, thanks for your input, Bill - much appreciated.

Cheers,

Bob

[JoMe]

Hi

I have found a He 111 H from III./LG 1, which crashed on 01. May 1940 near Island Ötteroye/N (I think, it's Overoye/N). The reason of the crash was Flak. The code of the plane is unknown.
The crew was
Lt Franz Schaefer +
Gefr Franz Schmidbauer +
Fw Friedrich Bock +
Gefr Max Dilling +

JoMe

[atckyrre]

Originally Posted by Brian

Hi Bob

I note from Bill Chorley's Bomber Command Losses Volume I that a Whitley of 102 Squadron FTR from a sortie over Norway on the night of 29/30 April 1940. It apparently crashed near Sylling, 27km west of Oslo. One killed, four PoW.

Could it have been .....................?

Cheers
Brian

The i suspect the Whitleys were part of an attack in the Oslo fjord area and are not likely to have come over Molde, which is a long distance away (500 miles?)

[flyvrak]

If I understand it correctly, the aircraft exploded in the air and fell into the sea in the vicinity of Molde.

A He 111 of 4.KG 26 was shot down in Frænfjord 28.04-40
A friend of mine provided the following information:

"28.41940. Quadrat 06 Ost 7331 bei Molde. Feldwebel Karl Pfluger
(flugzeugfuhrer). Uffz. Hans Traumner (beobachter) Uffz Gerold Simdorn (bordfunker) og
Oberfeldwebel Jacob BEst (bordmechaniker).
Flugzeug sturzte brennend ins Meer. Die Rettung eines
Besatzungsmitgliedes scheint unwahrscheinlich. Es wurde kein
Fallschirmabsprund beobachtet."

My guess is this is the correct plane

[Bob Pearson]

Many thanks to all for their replies. I will be working on the information this weekend to see if I can come up with a conclusion to what exactly happened.

Thanks again to everyone for their prompt answers - it is very much appreciated. However, if anyone else would like to add to what has already been stated then I would warmly welcome their input.

Kind regards,

Bob

[flyvrak]

Hi Bob
At least two Heinkels were lost in this area on this date.
http://ktsorens.tihlde.org/flyvrak/frenfjord.html
http://ktsorens.tihlde.org/flyvrak/kjorsvika.html

regards Kjell
www.flyvrak.info