Ju 88 A on Normandy Coast May 41

[RT]

Seems not to be the crew indeed, only they are 4, like the crew..

Rémi

[RudiS]

How about this one:
May 8th 1941 - Ju 88 A-5 WNr 4314 of 4./KG54: belly landed near Cherbourg. 3 of the crew wounded.

Regards,
Rudi.

[Chris Goss]

Possibly but this one had been to Sheffield. It also appears to be a bauchlandung as opposed to notwasserung?

[RudiS]

I think that "Notwasserung" is generally used when the a/c belly lands at sea but not at the beach.

The problem however is indeed the caption "Liverpool" on the back of the photo. During the night of May 7/8th Liverpool was the target for II./KG54 but on the night of May 8/9th it was Sheffield & Hull. And Radtke stipulates clearly in his book on page 63 that Lt Höber's a/c, which belly landed near Cherbourg, came back from ops over Sheffield or Hull.

Nevertheless I'm pretty convinced that the Ju 88 in the photo belonged to II./KG54 and not I./KG54.

[udf_00]

Night ditching perhaps at high tide, explaining the losses. Photo snapped later at low tide. Starboard engine stopped before impact.

[Matti Salonen]

According to NVM 1./KG 54 aircraft 0883414 on 1 May was not controlled ditching (Notwasserung). The whole crew used parachutes and the aircraft obviously landed by herself.

Matti

[RudiS]

Radtke says the following about the May 1st incident on page 62:
"The crew of Gefr Klokowsky (sic) of 1./KG54 tries to make it home with the left engine shot up. At midnight with the french coast in sight the a/c flies only at about 100 meters. The crew tries to bale out but apparently only the BS Ogefr Bender succeeds in doing so. He manages to swim to the coast. The rest of the crew perishes."

We also know that only 2 of the 3 bodies were recuperated from the a/c. The body of the BS was never found as far as I know.

To me this doesn't sound like an a/c that belly landed at the beach. More like an a/c that crashed into the sea several hunderds of meters of the coast.

[Chris Goss]

Höber's ac was lost 8-9 May 41 in the Sheffield attack. According to Luftflotte 3, it was a 'notgelandet' SE of Cherbourg, crew 'gerettet' and in my photo, you can see that the starboard engine had stopped

[RudiS]

I'll guess we'll never know for sure unless photos appear on eBay with the full VbKz visible.