Convoy OS67 and He177, Fw200

[keith A]

What aircraft were flown in the attack on this convoy? Both He177 and Fw200 are identified but I assume the former are more likely. FAA Wildcats claimed one of each and another Fw200 damaged.

best regards

Keith

[Chris Goss]

Keith: A date might help as no doubt I have covered this with my Fw 200 book and future KG 40 book

[Andy Mitchell]

Keith,

OS.67/ KMS.41 - Liverpool to Freetown/Liverpool - Med.

15 Feb 1944 - 26 Feb 1944 (arrival in Freetown)

Is this the date period that you are looking at?

Ships went further than Freetown - some onwards to South Africa and others to Brazil.

[Chris Goss]

From my forthcoming book:

On 12 February 1944, II./KG 40's attention switched to the Bay of Biscay and the southbound convoy OS 67/KMS 41 which included the carrier HMS Purser which carried two squadrons of Grumman Martlet fighters. The convoy had been located by a Ju 290 of Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5 at 1054hrs after which it was ordered to shadow the convoy. That afternoon, seven He 177s from II./KG 40 and 11 Fw 200s of III./KG 40 had taken off from Bordeaux-Mérignac armed with Hs 293s. Being slower, the Fw 200s had taken off first starting 1430hrs only to be intercepted by Mosquitoes of 157 Sqn which shot down the Condor flown by FhjFw Karl-Heinz Schairer of 7./KG 40 and damaged two more from Stab III and 9./KG 40 at around 1637hrs. The convoy was now alerted of imminent air attack and at 2012hrs, four Wildcats of 890 Sqn were scrambled flown by Ltd Cdr Digby "Dagwood" Cosh, Lt Hank Wilson, Sub Lt Lawrie Brandner and Sub Lt Norman Turner; Norman Turner relates what happened next:

"The convoy was warned of a possible attack by the new Heinkel guided missile bombers. Dagwood and Hank were catapulted off to intercept a shadower-Hanks fired off a few rounds at a Condor but lost it in cloud. Radar picked up bandits as the sun was going down over the horizon. Lawrie and I were walking on the flight deck when Dagwood yelled "They are coming!". We dashed for our gear and were catapulted off after Dagwood and Hank, course 092 degrees. I picked up Dagwood and joined him. A climb to about 6,000ft and suddenly there was an explosion and a ball of fire-Lawrie had blown one up. Then I spotted an outline, called "Bandit!" to Dagwood and dived on it. The defensive fire was strong—I realised they could see my exhaust flames so dived underneath and fired from below. The rear and mid-upper gunners shut up. Disappeared into cloud and couldn't find them."

Lawrie Brandner relates what happened to him:

"Still heading east, what was that dim light heading west towards the convoy? Not one of us-we should all be heading east. I turned towards and saw a bloody great shape of a big aeroplane dimly. Obviously no friend of mine so I opened fire. Easy to go too close in the dark and knock down your target with a collision so broke away and started again. This time it was easy because the beast was on fire. One ring deflection, not a word of complaint from the rear gunner. When I was nearly astern, a parachute opened and the thing blew up, both too close for comfort. All I had seen was the tail and that seemed like a He 177. Then I saw another one and went in but he must have dropped his bombs because he climbed steeply and slowly that I stalled while trying to get a bead on him. Here the cloud was more broken and his rear gunner very active so I could see where he was but couldn't match his rate of climb and he disappeared into cloud and I lost contact."

The unlucky He 177A-3 was flown by Kommandeur Maj Walter Rieder who with his six crew were all killed. Command of II./KG 40 now passed to Hptm Hans Dochtermann who handed over command of 5./KG 40 to Hptm Hans-Joachim Stolte.

[Nick Beale]

Just to add to what Chris said, according to Air Operations Watch at Bletchley Park, the the Ju 290 reconnaisssance "may have taken the place of an intended sortie by a Bv 222 of 1.(F)/129 (Biscarrosse) which was to have flown out at 0240 but which was almost certainly never airborne."

ZG 1 was due to provide six Ju 88 as escorts, up from 14.25–20,00.

Times: British Summer Time.

[BruceMk11]

...the carrier HMS Purser...

Edit required; HMS Pursuer

What's the title of the book?

[Chris Goss]

History of KG 40. Good spot on typo-auto-correct strikes again!

[keith A]

So it appears that the Brander claimed the He177 and that Turner claimed damage to a second. However Cosh and Wilson are credited in many accounts with a Fw200 destroyed. Is this a mistake? Could it be that the actual results of both Wildcat and Mosquito combats being mistakenly added together and all attributed to the Wildcat flight by the RN, while the RAF made a separate claim?

It reminds me of accounts of 4 Bv138s shot down by Martlets in July 1943 whereas the correct attribution was a single Bv138 to 890 Squadron and two or three to a Beaufighter pilot of 404 Squadron.

[Chris Goss]

The 158 Sqn part and I wrote about the July 1943 combats for Flypast many moons ago:


Meanwhile, further south, the first combat loss for February 1944 occurred over the Bay of Biscay on the 12th of the month when 11 Condors took off to attack convoy OS.67/KMS.41 which was about 400 miles west of Cape Finisterre. In one of the Condors which was flown by Oblt Günther Seide of Stab III/.KG 40 was Uffz Werner Zerrahn. This crew had force-landed in Spain on 13 August 1943 returning shortly afterwards and this time, the Seide crew would be similarly lucky as Werner recalls:

"We had taken off with about five or six aircraft and on our way out, we spotted some twin-engined planes starboard ahead, assuming it would be our own escort of Ju 88s from I./ZG 1. However, these planes now took an attacking position by flying a steep turn and we realised they were enemy aircraft. As far as I remember, we were only attacked once-we escaped with minor damage. I suffered a bullet graze to my left foot and Fw Günther Hickmann, a radio operator in another aircraft, was shot through the left hand. On the ground we found out that we had a lot of luck because we counted 130 bullet holes in our Condor..."

They had been indeed lucky having been intercepted by three Mosquitoes of 157 Sqn. Flt Lt Dick 'Dolly' Doleman, Flt Lt Brian Whitlock and Fg Off Verdun Hannawin each claimed the destruction of a Condor which was flown by Fw Karl-Heinz Schairer of 7./KG 40-he and his seven crew failed to return. Werner Zerrahn was probably wounded by Verdun Hannawin; the RAF report shows how one sided the combats were:

"...Flt Lt Doleman sighted a/c on the starboard beam about four miles away and the three Mosquitoes turned starboard towards them. The a/c were seen to be five Fw 200s, four in V formation and one straggling, flying at 0 feet ....our a/c attacked from starboard in line astern, each opening fire at about 900 yds closing to 600 yds. Strikes were scored on at least one e/a, the last of the starboard side of the V. Flt Lt Doleman broke away to port, the other two to starboard....Flt Lt Doleman and Fg Off Hannawin reformed and attacked again from the starboard quarter. As Flt Lt Doleman attacked, the inner starboard engine of the e/a damaged in the first attack caught fire and fire also broke out on the starboard side of the fuselage. When Fg Off Hannawin attacked, the flames spread all over the wing, the e/a did a gentle turn to starboard, lost height, hit the sea and immediately blew up. In the course of this attack, Fg Off Hannawin also scored strikes on the other a/c on the starboard wing of the enemy formation....Fg Off Hannawin made two more attacks on the remaining four a/c before setting course for base..."