TG30 He111 25-12-1944

[Brian Bines]

According to a book on the occupation of the Channel Islands a Fahnrich Leker (Kriegesmarine?) sailed a small boat from the French Port of Granville to Jersey with 4 others. A few weeks later he was due to be flown back to Germany and took off from Guernsey at 0342hrs on the 25th. but he and Freg.Kap. Breithaupt, Oblt z See Pauli and an unknown wounded soldier were killed when their aircraft was shot down by US fighters near Bastogne.
An NVM/WASt shows that He111H-20 S3+AL 701404 fell to an allied fighter and crashed by St. Etienne, Bastogne on the 25th Dec. FF Fw Hans Buchner and B Uffz. Willi Kramer botn wounded Bf Uffz Franz Bechtold, Bw Ofw. Hans Klietsch and BD Uffz. Gerhard Cruner all missing.
I believe a P-61 crew of 422 NFS claimed a Ju88 near St.Vith (0645hrs). Is anymore known about the loss of this Heinkel, the missing crewmen and whether this was the aircraft Fahnrich Leker was on,

Thanks

Brian Bines

[Larry deZeng]

More likely TGr. 30 (Transportfliegergruppe 30) operating from Zellhausen - their He 111s flew right over the Bastogne area outbound and inbound.

[S Sheflin]

Hi Brian and Larry,

Slightly off topic, but none-the-less interesting: On 45/03/18, Fw. Jazick test flew two TG 30 He111s, including a similarly marked S3+AL, from Großostheim to Zellhausen.

Steve Sheflin

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Nothing more about the He 111, but on this page there are some extra details about how the five Germans escaped from Granville:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Raid

It is also said they were shot down returning to Germany in "early 1945"

[Brian Bines]

Thanks guys for the help, the Granville Raid details were a great help. The info. I had from the Channel Islands book was that only Leker, of thoes who escaped from Granville, was being flown back on 25th Dec. This and the details of the other passengers on the flight coming from German records on the Channel islands. I tried to look up any other comfirmation this was all I found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Breithaupt and http://www.ritterkreuztraeger-1939-4...aupt-Fritz.htm which shows the date of his death as 25th.Dec (albeit west coast of France). I do not know if there is any burial details for Breithaupt, Pauli or Leker, I am afraid I do not seem to be able to manage the GraveSearch site,

Regards

Brian Bines

[hucks216]

Here are the entries for Fritz Breithaupt & Carl-Theodor Pauli. The only entry I could find for anyone with a surname of Leker and who died in December (of any year) was for a soldier who died in a Soviet PoW camp near Tula in December 1945.

[hucks216]

Having done a search for the surname Leker covering the whole of 1944 & 1945 there is only one non-Eastern Front entry and it is for someone who died in April 1945 and is on the Laboe/Kiel Memorial. Not sure if this is the one you are after but here is his entry...

[Brian Bines]

Hucks - Thank you ery much for this info. I have checked the extract I have from the book ' A Bridge Over The Enemy'' which quotes the diary of the German Naval Commander. This shows Fahnrich (Midshipman) Leker as masterminding the escape from Granville, stating his reward was to be flown back to Germany, but he was killed when the He111 was shot down on 25th. Dec.
If its not too cheeky could you check to see if the three missing members of the Heinkel crew Bf Uffz Franz Bechthold b.16-3-22, Bw Ofw. Hans Klietsch b.6-8-13 and BD Uffz. Gerhard Cruner b.8-9-21 are also buried at Bastogne.
Thanks again for you help,

Regards

Brian Bines

[hucks216]

Having done a search there are no entries for those 3 names. I tried searches using surname & date of death, surname & date of birth, and surname and initial letter but there are no entries for any of them.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

There is an Uffz Franz Bechtold born on 7 Apr 1922 (a month difference) that is buried in Lommel cemetery (the war cemetery where most if not all German WWII dead buried in Belgium were gathered years after the war). His death date is shown as 1 Dec 1944, but on the Volksbund database that can also be interpreted as "during December 1944".

On the other hand it is also possible that it was another man. Can't find anything abouth Cruner or Klietsch