Help with an He 111, perhaps KG 55

[Modeldad]

Never noticed this before, gunpack where the ETC would be and two additional MGs in the lower nose. Any information? Eastern Front?

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

For more information on the depicted installation*, see:

He 111 Kampfgeschwader on the Russian Front. (Osprey Combat Aircraft No.100).
Weal,John
Botley:Osprey,2013.
pp.45 & 95.(Colour profile [No.28] details). See also colour profile (G1-NY), between pp.64-5.

Details (p.95):

No.28.

He 111H-16 'G1+DY of 14.(Eis.)/KG 55 'Greif', Koenigsberg-Gutenfeld, October 1944.

Like 14.(Eis.)KG 27 (see profile 15), the train-busting 14.(Eis.)/KG 55 long outlived its parent Geschwader's withdrawal from operations for conversion to single-engine fighters. First formed (from 9./KG 55) in June 1943, the Staffel was not disbanded until the last week in April 1945. Unlike 14.(Eis.)/KG 27, however, it appeared not to favour special camouflage schemes. If 'DY' is anything to go by, the only concessions to the unit's nocturnal sorties were black undersides and flame dampers on the exhausts - although most aircraft did pack a powerful punch of anything up to six forward-firing 20 mm cannon.

See also:

Heinkel He 111 An Illustrated History. Design - Development - Variants - Operations - Equipment.
Forsyth,Robert & Eddie J Creek
Classic:Hersham,2014.
pp.280-1.

* Note the (rather indistinct) emblem on the auxiliary heating unit.

You will find the same photograph you have posted, in the following publication:

KG55 In Focus The Photographic History of the Famous Luftwaffe Bomber Unit.
Hall.Steve & Lionel Quinlan
Walton-on-Thames:Red Kite,2000.
p.78 (see also colour profile [between pp.64-5], of G1-NY).

The photo caption reads:

This rare photograph shows an He111 H-16 used by 14.(Eis)/KG55 the specialist train-busting unit. It has been fitted with six forward-firing 20mm cannon. He111s of this unit were fitted with an electronic altimeter that allowed them to fly at only 20 metres above the tracks. The Staffel lost nine crews but flew over 5,000 missions.

Col.

[Modeldad]

Thank you very much.

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Although I had seen this Picture before, what really caught my attention was the information supplied by Col. Bruggy:
This rare photograph shows an He111 H-16 used by 14.(Eis)/KG55 the specialist train-busting unit. It has been fitted with six forward-firing 20mm cannon. He111s of this unit were fitted with an electronic altimeter that allowed them to fly at only 20 metres above the tracks. The Staffel lost nine crews but flew over 5,000 missions.

To fly such a heavy twin-engined bomber at 20 metres above the tracks....in winter conditions...one needed to be "expert", really...This was the first time I read that those special versions did have radio-altimeters, although I knew that other Allied and German machines used radio-altimeters during the war.

Col. Bruggy, again am really happy for your most vast knowledge about Militar Aviation. Your quoting and suggestions of further lectures (new books) are really references here on the Forum. I Always do learn here and am happy to be part of this bunch of "friends" with the same interest and passion.

A nice thread to all of us...

Adriano

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Ooops..by the way:

Are the 9 crew losses from 14.(Eis)/KG 55 known? All due to Flak or some to crashes, or fighters too?

[Laurent Rizzotti]

From the book "Kamfgeschwader 55 Greif" by Wolfgang Dierich:

28/5/43: did not return from mission against Kropotkin station (5 MIA)
11/6/43: did not return from mission against railway Kantsmirowky-Rossoch (5 MIA)
10/8/43: did not return from mission to Borowaja (5 MIA)
18/8/43: shot down by Flak at Awdejewka (2 KIA, 2 WIA)
23/9/43: forced landing in enemy terrirtory 20 km S Isjum (5 MIA)
13/10/43: a forced landing at Genskoje (1 KIA, 4 WIA)
24/11/43: two forced landing in Goroditsche (1 KIA, 4 WIA) and Wladimirowka (3 KIA, 2 WIA)
2/6/44: 5 MIA in Perno-Andreapol area
29/8/44: crash at take-off from Riga-Silve, 2 KIFA, 3 WIFA

A total of 10 crew involved in losses/crashes on 9 dates: 1 shot down by Flak, 4 just missing, 4 forced-landing (reason not given) and 1 take-off crash. All names are available in the book.

Also the book is only listing crew losses, and is not giving any aircraft details.

From the mission profile of 14.(Eis)/KG 55 it is surprising that they suffered so few losses due to contacts with the ground, trees, poles or towers, or due to debris flying from their targets.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

An additional loss is not listed in the appendix at the end of the book (or I miss it: losses are not ordered chronologically and I never understand how they are ordered). In the evening of 13 May 1944 a crew a 14.(Eis)/KG 55 was shot down by Flak and force-landed near Gorodzy, 150 km east of the front. One crew was killed by the Flak hit but the other four survived and managed to return to German lines 12 days later! The story is told pages 340-346 of the book.

About the 5000 sorties, according to the book the 5000th was flown on 3 September 1944 and the Staffel was retired from front service at the end of the same month. It seems that the Staffel was then used to drop supplies as the rest of the Geswchader. For example the report covering 1944 says the Staffel flew 1216 sorties over enemy territory, dropped 1 982 075 kg of bombs and carried 27 800 kg of supplies for German troops.

In 1945, as the rest of KG 55 was trying to convert to the Me 262, 14.(Eis)/KG 55 continued to fly He 111s, mostly flying supply flights to the various German "fortresses" in the east but also attacking bridges on the Oder. Last mission was on 27 April.

[Richard Aigner]

Tactics of 14.(Eis.) KG 27
The „Chronik Kampfgeschwader Nr. 27 Boelke“ by Walter Waiss, Vol. VI. (for 1944) has some information on the subject, which I summarized (and translated clumsily):

Planes: He 111H16, later H-20.
Personnell: necomers were ignored ("links liegen gelassen") and accepted only after they had survived 10 missions. (p. 39); in contrast: „comradship was better than in any other unit“ p. 79.
Missions: almost exclusively night missions; daytime missions only when bad weather kept Russian fighters on the ground (p. 56)
Railroad interdiction (Eisenbahn-Jagd):
- planes operating individually in an assigned sector;
- low level (300 M) flight parallel to the RR-track (Soviets put up barrage balloons over the track),
- when train is sighted determine direction of travel and lenght of train.
- attack from the rear at an altitude of 14 metres (p. 79; that number is in the German original, no reconversion from a measure in feet) and drop 70kg bombs (SD 70, 32 carried, p.130) along the length oft train. Intervals between bombs is a function of lenghth of train, usually 5 – 10 metres (p.79).
- determine whether the engine was destroyed on the first run; if not, attack again and drop bombs on engine. (Unfortunately there is no information on fuzes or fuzesetting beyond the word „Verzoegerungszuender“ = delayed action: dropping bombs (stored nose up in vertical bomb magazines?) from 14 metres does allow very little time between release – fuzes set to safe? – and impact.)
- Soviets placed AA-wagons at the end of train: Unpleasant, but AA-crew usually could not react fast enough to shoot at a bomber suddenly racing out of the night.
- Long flight along a given track was unwise because stations announced the bomber to the next station: small stations had AAA, bigger ones searchlights as well. Returning by the way you had come was tantamount to suicide.
-Strassenjagd:
- special missions using He111 H-20, carrying 16 SD 70 in bomb magazines, plus an AB 500 or AB 1000 on external rack.
- opportunistically on return flight after RR-mission with machineguns only; if more planes were on mission, sectors for Strassenjagd were assigned.

Attacks on RR-stations:
- up to Staffel-strenght missions, up to 700km behind the front
- with or without pathfinder and target markers
- planes approach target individually, along dispersed routes to throw off the defense; coordinated to drop bombs in a space of 5 minutes.
- Beleuchter at 3 200 metres, bombers higher (p.108)
- if strong AA was expected, one or two planes were detached to suppress AAA from low level with bombs and machineguns.
The Soviets could and did play the same game: in September 1944, a Soviet recce plane followed them to their airfield and „two hours after we landed the Christbaeume stood over the field, followed by a bombardment lasting 30 minutes.“ (p. 115). Therefore, planes were dispersed.

Hth, Richard

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Laurenet and Richard,

Thank you so much for enlighting me about those operations and the losses of KG 55. I also did not know about KG 27 carrying such kind of low-level attacks. The tactics and weapons used are very interesting (and by night!).

I do remember seeing on some Hawker Typhoons the markings of locomotives destroyed painted on the fuselage (from memory guess it was from Nº 609 Squadron).

Is it to your knowledge if ever the Luftwaffe's "aces" on this kind of attack (train bursting) was similarly recorded on the tails of He 111's from KG 27 or KG 55? Were those "kills" recorded individually (after the next daylight LW PR sorties and fotos showing the destruction) or to Geschwader level? I mean were the trains kills recorded individually (by night it would have been difficult) or to the Staffeln?

Have never seen tails of He 111 (or Ju 88) with trains symbols, although there were several markings of tanks kills, buildings (factories), ships markings, etc....

AGAIN: A fantastic thread (at least for me full of new information unknown so far).

Thank you for the sharing of your vast knowledge and for books sadly not yet translated to English language.

Adriano

[Kari Lumppio]

Hello!

The 14.(Eis.)/KG55 loass "29/8/44: crash at take-off from Riga-Silve, 2 KIFA, 3 WIFA"

Is the aircraft code known?

BTW the loss list does not fully rhyme with that of Holmäs site ( https://www.ww2.dk/oob/bestand/kampf/b14kg55.html )

TIA,
Kari