Luftwaffe to Lincoln August 17th/18th, 1943

[Jaap Woortman]

Friends,

In the evening of August 17th, 1943, the Luftwaffe send 88 bombers to Lincoln.
This was an almost 100% KG 2 operation from bases in the Netherlands.
About 10% of the bombers were from KG 6 or units related to KG 6.
E.g. E.Kdo.d.Lw. 188. This unit, E.Kdo.d.Lw. 188, was doing the conversion of KG 6 crews
from the Ju 88 to the Ju 188 at that time. Three Ju 188's took part in bombing Lincoln.
By the way, no bombs fell at Lincoln that night.
About the KG 6 component in this operation I have some questions.
Was KG 6 during this period not flying in the Mediterranean?
And if they were part of the operation which planes were lost?
Was E.Kdo.d.Lw 188 at that date allready 4./KG 66?

Jaap

[Nick Beale]

I can help with part of the question:

II./KG 6 went to the Aegean in September 1943; on 30 September the Stab, I. and III. Gruppen were in the West with the Ju 188, under Luftflotte 3.

[Marcel van Heijkop]

To clarify things a bit, one of the questions Jaap and I have on this raid against Lincoln is:

What's the official source (i.e. British or Luftwaffe document) for the claim that Lt. Hans Altrogge (I./KG66) led 3 Ju 188's to bomb the Ruston & Hornsby factory in what's allegedly the Ju 188's first combat mission?

We found references to this claim in the older literature, such as Putnam's "German aircraft of the Second World War" by Smith and Kay (1972) and Air International Vol. 22 No. 4. (April 1982), but we wondered where they got it from... After all a lot of persistent Luftwaffe myths have their origin in this era... Or does it perhaps originate from Hans Altrogge himself? (Unfortunately he died a couple of years ago...)

Thanks in advance,

Marcel

[Brian Bines]

The Ulf Balke book mentions target marking by Do217's of I/KG66, the unit reported the loss of Do217E-4 3E+CZ crew of Fw Ernst Stemplinger (Luft Qm's returns 23-8-43).

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Marcel van Heijkop

We found references to this claim in the older literature, such as Putnam's "German aircraft of the Second World War" by Smith and Kay (1972) and Air International Vol. 22 No. 4. (April 1982), but we wondered where they got it from...
Marcel

The first author I ever saw using accounts from Altrogge was Alfred Price, so the story could have stemmed from early work he did.

[tcolvin]

That could have been the night my mother always talked about. I've always wondered when it was.

We lived at 4 The Grove, Lincoln and my mother was in the habit of an evening, to walk along Nettleham Road, past the Cathedral, down Pottergate and Lindum Hill to a house in Monks Road where she played bridge.

Returning one night on her own, and told by a policemen to be careful as there were reports of German aircraft machine-gunning and bombing down-town Lincoln, she saw, as she approached and walked past the East front of the Cathedral, a German twin-engined aircraft circling around it for some time. She said she cowered in one of the archways of the wall alongside Nettleham Road opposite the Lincoln Hotel; the archways are still there, and so is the (rebuilt) hotel.

I have always assumed that she saw a Ju-88 circling the Cathedral while watching for the landing lights to be flicked on at Scampton, Waddington and Hemswell, all of which (and possibly additional airfields) would have been in plain view of the LW crew intending to attack returning bombers as they steadied on finals.

Tony

[Marcel van Heijkop]

@Brian,

Thanks, I was aware of that. Unfortunately Balke doesn't say anything about the Ju 188 part of this attack. However, on page 258 there's a wonderfully detailed German map of the attack including routes, waypoints, beacons and type of markers used. Do you have any idea in which BAMA files these kind of maps can be found?

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

The first author I ever saw using accounts from Altrogge was Alfred Price, so the story could have stemmed from early work he did.

Nick, correct and that reminds me I still have to contact Price! I really hope that Altrogge at that time gave him the full and correct captions of those early I./KG66 Ju 188 photos often claimed to show Altrogge's personal mount. (I mean the Ju 188E with the Y-Verfahren antenna mast and without the top gun turret. Black lower surfaces and blue upper surfaces, code "TN" on the vertical fin. Both the correct date and full aircraft code are still a mystery to me.)

Regards,

Marcel

[Jaap Woortman]

Originally Posted by Marcel van Heijkop

@Brian,

Thanks, I was aware of that. Unfortunately Balke doesn't say anything about the Ju 188 part of this attack. However, on page 258 there's a wonderfully detailed German map of the attack including routes, waypoints, beacons and type of markers used. Do you have any idea in which BAMA files these kind of maps can be found?
Regards,

Marcel

Marcel,

This map was part of file RL 10/18. It has several maps of KG 2 operations in 1943.

Jaap

[Marcel van Heijkop]

Thanks Jaap,

Very useful! As I./KG66 often did the "Markierung" for KG2, this might be a good start.

Marcel

[Jaap Woortman]

To make the situation a bit more complicated. Or just not.
RL 2 III/725. Gen.Qu.6.Abt.(I), Uebersicht ueber Soll, Istbestand, Verluste und Reserven der fliegende Verbande. Stand 10-8-1943.
Nicht im Einsatz: III./KG 2, II./KG 6, Stab – I./II./KG 54, I./KG 66.

Jaap