Where and how to start to research a bomber pilot

[theflyingbus]

Hello all

i have recently gained a complete flying history of a WWII bomber pilot, who completed over fourty five missions, he was part of the Eidleweis (?) sqn from1939 until he crashed on landing in jan 41. i can think of 1001 things i would like to find out about him, other crew ,missions, aircraft etc etc etc, but having never done anything like this before, i am appealling to you knowledge as to useful places to start.

I also do not speak german and am finding it hard to translate letters, certificates, logbooks etc any good websites or other methods would be useful.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

many thanks in advance TFB

[Spanferkel]

TFB,

If you have the flyers name that will at least be a good start, it will allow the other board members to determine, if possible, his other crew members, aircraft Wrk nr, reason for damage/ crash etc.. It will also be useful to determine if he was awarded any higher orders etc.

It appears as though he was killed in 1941??

Assuming he was killed you may want to search this site

http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/content_suche.asp

for information as to where he is buried. Do you by any chance have scans of some of the documents, flugbucher etc.? Also do you have the Wehrpas or Soldbuch of this gent?

There is a unit history on KG51 done originally in German and later in English (though unfortunately in abbreviated form). I don’t have the book in front of me at the moment but I believe it included loss listings by Gruppe.

Regards

Jeremy

[theflyingbus]

Jeremy

First of all thankyou for your reply. I don not have the details to hand, as they are at home, however from memory...

Name Hans georg Blusch
Died 11.1.41, France, cant quite recall poss Orly
Flying a JU88 9k+DC i think
Believe lost an engine returning home, but lost control on landing in bad visibility, i think one crewmember survived, have got other crew members names at home

many thanks in advance

Joe

[Adam]

I have the variant as a Ju 88A-5, WNr 6020 and a note saying the aircraft crashed at Arques. I don't have Staffel but only II Gruppe and nothing further on sortie or crew details sorry

[Spanferkel]

Joe,

It appears that Blusch was a Feldwebel at the time of his demise and was serving with 6th staffel. Unfortunately the book I have on KG51 does not list any additional crew losses or their names. Perhaps Blusch was the only loss on that flight.

Regards

Jeremy

[Adam]

I am away from my materials at the moment and will be for a while, but perhaps someone might check '1941' to see if the incident is mentioned in there.

[theflyingbus]

Thankyou very much for your time and efforts. My wife is two days over her due date with our first child at the moment so cant reply as quickly as i would like!

From newspaper articles and letters from and to family members of the crew, three of the four crew died that day.

I do not have access to a scanner, but would any specific information help or be of interest to anyone else? if so please say.

If it takes me a few days, assume Joe jnr has arrived!

Thanks again

joe