Bf109 loss 7th January 1942

[alex crawford]

Hi,

On 7th January 1942 two Bf109s were reported bewteen Plymouth and Ibsley. One of them suffered engine failure and the pilot baled out, being captured near Tracey Bovey.

Would anyone have any details of this pilot and the unit he came from?

Regards,

Alex

[Brian Bines]

Uffz. Kurt Thune (umlaut over u) of 1/(F)123 b. 31-1-1920, crashed Lakemoor Farm at 1045 hrs. Thats all I have,

Regards

Brian Bines

[Chris Going]

This was the first recon 109 downed in the UK and (I think) the site was excavated by Phillipa Hotchkiss in the ?1980s. I gather the pilot visited the site at that time or soon after. Interestingly, Thune's film was retrieved from his camera, and developed at RAF Medmenham. The camera was left on after he suffered the engine failure, and in a rather graphic if pointless graph, Medmenham plotted his slow loss of height, pitch and yaw etc until the film ran out. There's a file on this (with pointless graph) in the PRO (UK National Archives), in Air 34 I think, though I cannot rremember the reference now, which is annoying. There has been some stuff on this loss before, which might be trawled up from the archive deep...


Best


Chris Going

[alex crawford]

Hi Chris, Brian

Thank you for your replies, much appreciated. I'll have a dig through the archives and see what I can find.

Alex

[RT]

1.F123 BF109E-7 Wn4970 Uffz Thümer kurt

[alex crawford]

Hi RT,

Thanks for the additional info.

Alex

[Tomislav Haramincic]

Just another small addition, Thune's plane had the markings 4U+SH (white S).

regards,
Tomislav

[RT]

So right name is Thümer od Thüne ??

[Andy Saunders]

Alex

Not sure the extent of your interest but I have a file of various letters and documents relating to this incident. Cannot recall now what it contains as it must be 25 plus years old. I can dig it out and mail it to you depending on the level of your interest.

Andy

[RT]

The level of our interest, dear Andy

rémi