KG76 photo - 1940

[Andy Saunders]

Does anybody recognise this photo?

Codes seem to be F1+F?

And can anybody decipher the reverse?

Looks like 'Hangar' and 'Heinrich Schmidt'
Tilman

[Larry Hickey]

Andy,

I ran all 55 photos coded F1+F_ in the EoE DB and reached the following conclusions:

a) this photo is not in our DB.

b) this is very similar to a film strip in the ECPA Coll in Paris that shows Do17Zs from from 8./KG76 with crewmen in and around them. Some are dressed almost identically to the men in this photo. Therefore this could be a PK photo from that photo shoot from either the ECPA or the BA Collections.

c) this is almost certainly F1+FS of 8./KG76. The visible elements of the photo exactly match what is visible on a photo of this a/c in flight. This may very well be the 8./KG76 a/c that was SD and FL at Castle Farm, Shoreham, Kent, England, on 30.09.40, although none of the photos that I have of this one show the vertical tails, so I can't see if that a/c had a tail-centered swastika or not.

I would strongly bet that this is F1+FS of 8./KG76 taken sometime during the WC/FC. What more do you know about this?

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[Nick Beale]

"Hangelar" and "[something] Schmidt"

I thought at first glance it might be "Fritz" but there seem to be too many letters so I'll defer to Alex's reading.

[RT]

3 Names one easy to rec. is ;

X

Joi.he

Schmidt

The 3 guys in the picture

Rémi

[Andy Saunders]

I am pretty sure the source was Heitsch of 8./KG76 and so the F1+FS at Castle Farm, Shoreham, is certainly possible.

Photo is original of the period, I'd say. Stamped 'Agfa' to reverse.

Could the Schmidt be Schmid, one of the crew of the 15.9.40 aircraft?

Speculative, I know. But possible.

[Chris Goss]

I was in contact with Heitsch who said he had no photos. Was Alfred in touch with him? There are no other photos attributable to him in what I got from Alfred

[F19Gladiator]

I believe it is not "Hangar" but "Hangelar" (Bonn-Hangelar AF) on the backside as Nick posted. An air field frequented by KG 76.

[Andy Saunders]

Chris - it was with some notes about 15 September that Alfred had relating to Heitsch, but it could just be with those notes because Alfred concluded it was 8./KG76. Or maybe Heitsch wrote on the back of the photo for Alfred? Although it looks like an original print, the names seem to have been written in Biro. My conclusion was that somebody wrote on the back for him, and of the three aircrew we have one unknown (?), one unintelligible/undechiperable and one called Schmidt.

Always a danger with these things of putting two and two together and coming up with five! I have to say the of the Heitsch 'connection' it is purely circumstantial, on reflection, and there is no actual evidence it came from him.

[Chris Goss]

Theo Rehm had a habit if writing names on back of photos-he was 2 Staffel & ran the Traditionsgemeinschaft. Normally his writing was clearer?