Luftwaffe Drop Tanks

[alanatabz]

There is a report in a local paper that on 22nd April 1944, anti-aircraft guns opened up on a possible enemy raider. Flying low a local golf club steward reported hearing "bump" and assumed it was bombs or Heavy Gunfire.

It was then found the "bumps" came from a droptank.

Questions.

(1) What Luftwaffe Aircraft would carry droptanks in 1944, it seems only fighters or possible a Dornier 217?

(2) Are their any listed defections of German aircraft in April 1944 (see an BF109G defected to Aberdeen in the December that year) that would have carried a fuel tank

(3) It may have been a friendly aircraft, as drop tanks were used on P51s and possibly Spitfires operating in NE Scotland in support of Strike Wink aircraft from Banff / Dallachy.

Anybody any ideas?

[John Beaman]

a location would help.

[Chris Goss]

Do 217s were not operating over Scotland in April 1944. The Bf 109s of 1.(F)/120 carried drop tanks (and one was shot down off the Shetlands) and did operate off Scotland. No defections. You do not say whether the tanks were German or Allied

[Nick Beale]

My first thought was Me 410 intruders from KG 51 but generally they were active over East Anglia, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

Assuming that the news report refers to day or two before the publication date …

Bombers were sent against Hull on the 20th but weren't logged north of Scarborough. 1.(F)/120 sent out Ju 88 and Ju 188 recce flights from Stavanger, so they are perhaps a possibility.

There was no offensive activity noted for the 21st but there was a weather flight from Stavanger.

[Denniss]

no drop tanks on Me 410 though

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Denniss

no drop tanks on Me 410 though

National Archives AIR40/207:

Crashed at 04.30 hours at Manor Farm, Frankton near Rugby after collision with an Airspeed Oxford: 9K+Z? — Z in black with yellow outline. 42 on base of fin in black; below this on fuselage 750 in black on white ground.

Camouflage: blue-grey on upper surfaces and light grey undersides (spray painted). Carried two external 300 litre tanks. Armament: 4 x MG 151 cannon (two of which in the bomb bay); 2 x MG 17; 2 x MG 131.

Simon W. Parry, Intruders Over Britain: The Luftwaffe Night Fighter Offensive 1940–45 (Air Research Publications, Surbiton, 1987).

… Me 410A-1, WNr. 420445 9K+ZP of Stab II./KG 51. Collided with Oxford LX196 of No. 18 (P)AFU near Church Lawford airfield … Lt. Wolfgang Wenning and Fw. Gustav Delp killed.

[Denniss]

Me 410 did not support drop tanks, I believe there was a unit hack of some sort to use fixed-mount external tanks

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Denniss

Me 410 did not support drop tanks, I believe there was a unit hack of some sort to use fixed-mount external tanks

See paragraph 3) of the attached ULTRA message from July 1944.

[Chris Goss]

See attached