HELMUT LENT'S BORDFUNKER

[Chris Goss]

As well as Walter Kubisch, he also flew with Ow Reinthal (1941) and Fw Luettringhaus (1944). Matti has no casualty details for them and they did not win any notable awards but does anyone have a mention of them?

[leonventer]

Hi Chris,

All three of those men appear in Peter Hinchliffe's "The Lent Papers: Helmut Lent" (ISBN 1841451053):

• Kubisch was Lent's regular Funker from the beginning of the war until his last flight on 7 Oct 44. He was buried next to Lent on 12 Oct 44 in Stade, and posthumously promoted to Leutnant. On 31 Dec 42, Kubisch had become the second Funker to receive the Ritterkreuz. There are over two dozen passages in the book that mention him.
• Reinthal gets a couple mentions when he takes over as Lent's Funker after Kubisch is severely wounded on 8 Jul 41.
• It seems Lüttringhaus only flew with Lent on a couple of occasions, but one of them was very significant -- a mission on 16 Jun 44 in which Lent claimed his 98th, 99th, and 100th kills. There is a photo of Lüttringhaus on page 247.

FYI, there was a period during the first part of May 41 when Kubisch wasn't flying with Lent, for reasons that aren't clear. During that time, the following Funkers flew with Lent: Friedrich Johrden, Wengorsch, Hummel, and Zwickl.

Hope that helps,
Leon Venter

[Chris Goss]

Thanks Leon. I have the book and am borrowing the Lent FB plus other material from his daughter Tina so have this information. Just need anything on those two BFs

[leonventer]

Chris,

Yes, I knew you would certainly have the book. It contains the only material I could find in secondary sources on Lent's crews, so I figured I'd respond with that info anyway, just in case someone was interested.

BTW, there's an intriguing account on page 119 of Lent landing his Bf 110 in inclement weather at Leeuwarden after a sortie. He was alone in the plane, and the rear canopy had been jettisoned because his wireless op had baled out at 100m without being ordered to do so. According to rumors, Reinthal was the Funker who'd abandoned ship, but the book says "a study of Lent's logbook makes that seem extremely unlikely." Are you able to find a FB entry for this incident?

It's a sad fact that there is very little information available on the "invisible" men (e.g. Funkers, ground crew, etc) who played a vital role in night fighter pilots' successes. The only Funker biography I have is "Meine Geschichte und die meiner Familie" by Friedrich Rumpelhardt, who flew with Heinz Schnaufer.

Best regards,
Leon Venter

[Chris Goss]

Lent was pretty reliable in comments in his FB and Reinthal's last flight with him was 12 Oct 41. Like Hinchliffe wrote, I can see nothing about the baling out

[leonventer]

Thanks for checking and responding, Chris. It's much appreciated.

Regards,
Leon Venter