Trying to ID He59 D-A+SA?, its history and fate

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Recently acquired a photo of He59 D-A+SA?, in its civil Red Cross markings (painted white). I'm trying to ID its history and fate for entry into the EoE Photo DB.

Who can help?

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[ianatheling]

Hi

I assume that this is D-ASAM He 59C-2 WNr.1994 which I have with Seenotflugkdo. 3 at Cherbourg in July 1940

Ian

[Hans Nauta]

Hi Larry,

If Ian's assumption is right, this He 59 was show down on 1st July 1940 by Spitfires of 74 Squadron.

I trust you may have all info about that incident. If not, please drop a PM and I can supply full details.

Regards,
Hans

[obdl3945]

Hi, Larry...

Sadly, the last letter is obscured in this image, but may well be the machine in question.

Ian, thanks for the unit information and possible location .

Regards,

Paul

[Larry Hickey]

Paul, Hans & Ian,

Thanks for your inputs. Yes, that's the a/c and the specific photo image that I'm working with. I'm convinced that it is indeed, D-A+SAM. We carry this in the EoE Luft Loss DB as:

"July 1, 1940: July 1, 1940: Seenotflugkdo. 3 Heinkel He59 (1994). Damaged in attacks by Blue Section of No.72 Squadron (F/L E. Graham, F/O E.J. Wilcox, and F/Sgt H. Steere) during search mission for He115 of 3/KüFlGr.106 and landed at sea 8 miles off Hartlepool 6.15 a.m. BO Lt Hans-Joachim Fehske, BF Obergefr Erich Philipp, and FF Uffz Ernst-Otto Nielsen captured unhurt, BM Uffz Fritz Struckmann captured badly wounded - all took to dinghy and rescued by cruiser’s long-boat. Aircraft D-ASAM 100% write-off.
Despite recognising that this was extremely hazardous undertaking due to proximity to the English coast, a rescue sortie was nonetheless ordered by 9 Fliegerdivision and take-off from Norderney followed at 3.05 a.m. The crew protested strongly at the deliberate violation of Article 9 of the 1929 Geneva Agreement pertaining to Red Cross humanitarian aid. The aircraft was later beached and closely examined for any armament and mine racks."

This a/c is not to be confused with the better known D-A+SUO that force-landed on the Goodwin Sands, of the coast of Deal, Kent, on July 9th, and led to the change in rules about Luftwaffe rescue operations off the British coast.

I just got some additional info on this a/c from Gerhard Stemmer, which is somewhat contradictory as to whether this a/c was assigned to SNFlKdo 1 or 3 at the time of this incident: "After the modification the He 59 WNr.1884 (sic--clearly a typo for 1994) D-ASAM was delivered to Seenotflugkommando 1 Norderney on 26.Apr.40. It was lost due to British fighters on 2.Jul.40 (sic-we have 1 July 40 in our DB) still with the same unit but based as part of a small detachment at Schellingwoude in Holland."

Any further comment on the unit of assignment and Ian's "C-2" subtype source would be appreciated.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[Peter Cornwell]

The GQM Returns record the unit as Seenotflugkdo.3 but I have no confirmation of this. The KTB of the Gen.d.Lw. beim Ob.d.M gives Norderney as its place of start. A.I.1.(k) Report No.156/1940 also confirms that it took off from Norderney and names the captured crew as FF Uffz Ernst-Otto NIELSEN, BO Lt Hans-Joachim FEHSKE, BF Obergefr Erich PHILIPP, & the badly wounded BM Uffz [Fritz] STRUCKMANN these also being named in the KTB of Seenotzentrale. I regret that I have no way of confirming the exact sub-type involved.

[Chris Goss]

I was in touch with Fehske and the account of the action is in my Luftwaffe Bombers Battle book; no photos I am afraid

[Seaplanes]

D-ASAM W.Nr. 1994 was an Arado built He 59D later converted by Walther Bachmann Flugzeugbau (formerly Aero-Sport), Ribnitz, to full Air-Sea rescue version He 59N.

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Since this would have been originally an He59D when manufactured, converted to an He59N by the time of its loss on 1 July 1940, where does the information about it being a "C-2" come from? Is this even possible? I presume that it should be carried as an He59N at the time of its loss if Adam's info is correct.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[Seaplanes]

To Larry:
Unfortunately, the litteratur has given the He 59 a number of partly wrong version identifications, i.e. He 59B-2. The following versions were produced by Heinkel and also by Arado:
He 59a first protoype by Heinkel
He 59b (sometimes written B with capital letter) two prototypes by Heinkel
He 59C first series production from Heinkel
He 59D several series produced by both Heinkel and Arado
He 59E two series produced only by Arado as navigational trainer.
These are the variants I have seen after going through a large number of archive material, both in Freiburg and Munchen.
If someone can give any proof by original documents of any other versions, I would be most interested. I have seen an Arado document giving their He 59C as a C-1, but otherwise no sub-versions.