Luftwaffe bomber raids Leningrad area May-June 1942 ?

[Kari Lumppio]

Hello!

Luftwaffe bomber raids Leningrad area May-June 1942 ?

In the material of a Finnish Air Observation Unit ( 8. Ilmavalvontakomppania ) from 1942 several bigger Luftwaffe bomber raids stand out. There was alltogether seven (eight) raids from starting from Königsberg against unknown targets probably in and around Leningrad. Raids were flown along Gulf of Finland – the reason why Finns were notified about them – during following days:

May 24th ,1942
41 He 111 from Königsberg towards unknown target

June 5th, 1942
40 He 111 from Königsberg towards (Finnish) grid “121a” (Leningrad city area?)

June 7th, 1942
36 He 111 from Königsberg to Narva, from there “probably towards Leningrad” and back the same way

June 10th, 1942
29 He 111 from “91” (Tallinn) to Northeast and back
40 He 111 from “Germany” to Northeast

June 15th, 1942
9 He 111 (22.00) Königsberg – Narva – Finnish Gulf
24 He 111 (21.40) Königsberg – Narva – Finnish Gulf
(Flights notified separately, take-off times in parenthesis)

June 26th, 1942
Unknown amount He 111 over Finnish Gulf

These raids were huge compared to other air activities by Germans during the period in this sector of Front. There was no other bomber flights with bigger than kette size recorded in the source material during mid-February to mid-September 1942!


My questions concerning the raids:

Is the unit(s) known? I/KG 53 is the prime candidate, but they did not posses the amount of He 111s recorded for the raids. What was the additional unit? Especially I am interested about the He 111 unit which flew from Tallinn June 10th. Both Königsberg and Tallinn seem to have been temporary operation bases.

Is there anything written about these raids – books, articles, reports, anything ?

I/KG 53 seems to have suffered loss of five He 111 “Durch Feindeinwirkung” during May 1942 and two He 111 in June. Were they during these Leningrad raids? Were they because of (night) fighters or AAA?


I hope this is of interest and thank in advance for possible replies,

Kari