Losses in Iceland

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Vance Pollock
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Losses in Iceland

#1

Post by Vance Pollock » 04 May 2005, 19:42

Have a look over the following list. If you can eliminate any question marks or add details, please do!--

11 Luftwaffe planes lost in Iceland by date
***
1941_

25.1.1941. He 111. Valahjalle, Reyðarfjörður, east Ís.

?.3.1941. Fw 200. pilot Mons. Sw Ís.
There is mention of a Condor piloted by ? Mons which took photos over Reykjavík on a Sunday morning at the end of March in 1941. Mons reported this information apparently after he survived being shot down. They were flying with no bombs on the Reykjavík (southwest Iceland) missions.

21.5.1941. ?. personnel buried in Fossvogsk., Reykjavik. Sw Ís.
21.5.1941
Franz Breuer OGEFR
Josef Lutz UFFZ
Friedrich Harnisch FW
Hans Joachim Dürfeld OBLT.

1942_

*18.10.1942. Ju 88. personnel buried in Fossv., Reykj. Svinaskarð, Esja, sw Ís.
J88-001726, Ju88 D5
LUFTWAFFE, A6+EH, ??.??.?? to Okt.42, Destroyed in Missing at Iceland while with 1.(F)/120.
Date Unit Place Cause Plane Werk.no Code Damage Personalia
18.10.1942 1.(F)/120 Iceland Missing Ju 88 D-5 1726 A6+EH 100
Lt. Harald Osthus (F) KIA
Lt. Josef Ulsamer (B) KIA
Fw. Franz Kirchmann (Bf) KIA

*24.10.1942. Fw 200. personnel: Fossv., Reykj. Borgarfjörður, sw Ís.
24.10.1942 1.(F)/120 Iceland Shoot down.
Plane was borrowed by I./KG 40 Fw 200 C-4 313 F8+EK 100
Oblt. Heinz Godde (F) KIA
Fw. Mathias Franzen (F) KIA
Ofw. Horst Kroos (Bf) KIA
Uffz. Manfred Unger (Bf) KIA
Uffz Alois Schwab (Bs) KIA
Uffz. Helmut Engelmann (Bm) KIA
All from I./KG 40
Uffz. Hans Todtenhofer (Bm) KIA
From 1.(F)/120.

27.10.1942. Ju 88. sea crash, ?Hvalfjörður?, sw Ís.
J88-430001, Ju88 D5
LUFTWAFFE, A6+RH, ??.??.?? to Okt.42, Destroyed in Emergency landing at sea at Iceland while with 1.(F)/120.
27.10.1942 1.(F)/120 Iceland Emergency landing at sea Ju 88 D-5 430001 A6+RH 100 Lt. Gerhard Skuballa (F) KIA
Uffz. Uwe Gåoddecke (B) KIA
Fw. Herbert Fischer (Bf) KIA.


28.10.1942. Fw 200 _ missing.
?F8+BB?
28.10.42 I/KG 40 Fw 200 C-4 109 At Iceland F 100 Missing Oblt. Rudolf Feldt (F) MIA Fw. Bernhard Korber (F) MIA Lt. Herbert Hachtmann (Bf) MIA Uffz. Georg Stiegler (Bf) MIA Ofw. Werner Sieth (Bm) MIA Uffz Walter Schultze (Bs) MIA.

4.11.1942. Bv 138 _ missing.
04.11.42 2./406 BV 138 C-1 310132 K6+GK At Iceland F 100 Missing Uffz. Werner Scolz (F) MIA Lt. Friedrich Lohmayer (B) MIA Uffz. Paul Kron (Bf) MIA Ofw. Wilhelm Hofmann (Bm) MIA Uffz. Rudolf Wendler (Bm) MIA.

5.11.1942. Fw 200 _ missing.
05.11.42 I./KG 40 Fw 200 C-4 124 F8+FK At Iceland F 100 Missing Fw. Kurt Pieper (F) MIA Uffz. Johannes Möckel (F) MIA Uffz. Karl Wissner (Bf) MIA Uffz Karl Kreft (Bf) MIA Uffz. Wilhelm Heck (Bm) MIA Obgfr. Hans Möller (Bs) MIA.

1943_

*24.4.1943. Ju 88 _ near Vogar, sw Ís.
J88-430087, Ju88 D5
LUFTWAFFE, A6+CH, ??.??.?? to Apr.43, Shot down over Keflavik, Iceland.
Ju 88 D-5, 430087, A6+CH of 1(F)/120 Lt Karl Brueck, Fw Werner Bullerjahn & Fw Theodor Scholtyssek killed; Uffz Anton Mynarek POW.
Crashed 1406 hrs at Keflavik after being shot down by 1/Lt J M McNulty & 2/Lt H R Stenmgle of 50th FS, 1334 hrs.
24 April 1943 is the date Ju 88D-5 (A6+CH) was lost. Its mission was a reconnissance mission over Reykjavik, the last or one of the last Fernaufklärungsstaffel 1.(F)/120 flew to Iceland. The Staffelkapitän at that time was Hptm. Hugo Löhr and it was based at Stavanger-Sola. I corresponded with Herr Löhr a couple of times about 10 years ago when he was 82. I think he passed away in 1997 or so.

5.8.1943 Fw 200 _ near Grímsey, n Ís.
Personnel surviving: Karte, Lehn, Teufel, Klinkmann, Holtrup, Brand, Richter (7 men).

***
Ju with unit 1.(F)/120 – plane code follows pattern: A6+?H.

Fw with unit I./KG 40 – plane code follows pattern: F8+?K.

Bv with unit 2./406 – plane code: K6+GK.
***
Published journal of Knights Cross holder who flew missions over Iceland:
Schwerdtfeger, Werner / Selinger, Franz: Wetterflieger in der Arktis 1940 - 1944, Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen der Wettererkundungs-Staffeln im Hohen Norden. Aus dem Tagebuch von Flugkapitän Otl. Rudolf Schütze.

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Valtoro
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#2

Post by Valtoro » 05 May 2005, 13:23

Have you tried comparing the losses with Luftwaffe.no's loss records?
http://www.luftwaffe.no/SIG/Losses/Losses.html
They're not complete, but it might be of some help.

/Valtoro.


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Vance Pollock
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#3

Post by Vance Pollock » 05 May 2005, 14:56

I collected some of my notes from these pages but find that I had missed this important one, identified by location Reykjavik:

14.08.42 I./KG 40 Fw 200 C-4 125 F8+BB 15 km W of Reykjavik F 100 Shoot down Ofw. Fritz Köhn (F) MIA Ofw. Philipp Haisch (F) MIA Ofw. Ottmar Ebener (Bf) MIA Uffz Wolgang Schulze (Bm) MIA Ofw. Artur Wohlleben (Bm) MIA Ofw. Albert Winkelmann (Bs) MIA.

This was the first German plane killed by USAAF.

Lt. Elza E. Shahan in a P38D of the 27th FS shared in the destruction of an Fw200 off the coast of Iceland on August 14th 1942, the first Luftwaffe aircraft to fall to the USAAF.
---
Iceland: US 2d Lieutenants Joseph D Shaffer (33d Fighter Squadron, P40) and Elza E Shahan (27th Fighter Squadron, P38) jointly shoot down an Fw 200 Condor off the coast of Iceland. This is the first aerial victory of the USAAF in the European Theater of Operations (ETO).
---
In Europe, the first Americans to down a Luftwaffe aircraft were Lt. Elza E. Shahan flying a 27th Fighter Squadron P-38E, and Lt. J. K. Shaffer flying a Curtiss P-40 in the 33rd Fighter Squadron. The two flyers shared the destruction of a Focke-Wulf Fw 200C-3 Condor maritime strike aircraft over Iceland on 14th August, 1942.
---

http://www.joematlock.com/DarrellWelch.htm

A few days later, Baker Flight left Bluie West-1, climbed over the Greenland ice cap, and arrived safely at Reykjavik, Iceland. The next day, we moved to Patterson field near Keflavik, where the 27th remained on local air defense for about six weeks.

One August 14, I heard a large airplane thunder over my Nissen hut billet. I ran outside to see a German four-engine FW-200 Kondor reconnaissance plane flying directly over our base at only a coupla hundred feet of altitude. The flight on alert, led by the squadron commander, Major Bill Weltman, took off in hot pursuit of the FW-200. P-39s from the 33rd Fighter Squadron, which was permanently stationed in Iceland, joined in the chase. Major Weltman's guns jammed, so his wingman, 2nd Lt. Elza Shahan, made the next pass. The FW-200 had already been set on fire by a P-39 pilot, 2nd Lt. Joseph Shaffer. Shahan later said he planned to fire his guns at close range, then fly underneath the big plane, but instead he fired and flew through it. As he was firing, the plane exploded in a great blast that rained debris over Reykjavik Bay. So Shahan and Shaffer technically became the first U.S. pilots to shoot down a German plane in World War II, and both were awarded the Silver Star.

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Vance Pollock
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#4

Post by Vance Pollock » 14 May 2005, 13:30

Good clarifying notes are in, courtesy of the Norway During WW2 Forum http://f16.parsimony.net/forum28300/

I'm not aware of any Luftwaffe aircraft being lost at Reyðafjörður on 25.1.1942. There was, however, a He 111 of 4/KG.40, F8+GM, Wnr 3900, that crashed into to mountain Krossanesfjall at Reyðarfjörður at circa 0210 hrs on 22 May 1941. The four-man crew lost is that you have listed as buried at Fossvogur Cemetery 21.5.1941.

Vance, here come some comments to the rest of your list.

1) Fw 200 F8+BB was shot down by a P-39 (Lt. J. Shaffer) of the 33rd FS and a P-38 (Lt E. Shahan) of the 27th FS, both USAAF. It crashed into the sea several km north of Reykjavik.

2) Ju 88 A6+EH was shot down and rammed by a P-39 of the 3rd FS (Lt. J. Shaffer, the same that shot down the Fw 200).

3) Fw 200 F8+EK's Wnr was 0131, not 313

4) The Fw 200 missing on 28.10.42 was F8-KL, Wnr. 0109

5) Add Fw 200 of I/KG 40, F8+CK, Wnr. 0081, missing from ops. to Iceland area on 31.12.1942.

6) I have recorded Wnr. 4300097 fro Ju 88 A6+CH shot down on 24.4.1943

7) The Fw 200 shot down near Grímsey island off Iceland's north coast was F8-FL of I/KG 40, Wnr. 0200. It was shot down by a pair of P-38s of the 50th FS, USAAF, flown by Lts. W.E. Bethea and R.M. Holly.

8) Add Ju 88 A-17 of KG 26, IH+BF, Wnr 0005029 that ditched 02.05.1945 near the shore at Leirhöfn (north Iceland), its crew being taken POW.

Ragnar J. Ragnarsson

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Re: Losses in Iceland

#5

Post by Stephan_203 » 07 Aug 2016, 21:55

I am the grandson of Hugo Löhr.
When I was in Germany in 1979 a professor from the university of Reykjavik came to visit for about a week and they went over plenty of reconnaissance missions including detailed maps and aerial surveillance photos and other documents from the North Atlantic.
Our family is still in possession of these photos and documents.

For the record Hugo Löhr passed away in April of 2000



Vance Pollock wrote:Have a look over the following list. If you can eliminate any question marks or add details, please do!--

11 Luftwaffe planes lost in Iceland by date
***
1941_

25.1.1941. He 111. Valahjalle, Reyðarfjörður, east Ís.

?.3.1941. Fw 200. pilot Mons. Sw Ís.
There is mention of a Condor piloted by ? Mons which took photos over Reykjavík on a Sunday morning at the end of March in 1941. Mons reported this information apparently after he survived being shot down. They were flying with no bombs on the Reykjavík (southwest Iceland) missions.

21.5.1941. ?. personnel buried in Fossvogsk., Reykjavik. Sw Ís.
21.5.1941
Franz Breuer OGEFR
Josef Lutz UFFZ
Friedrich Harnisch FW
Hans Joachim Dürfeld OBLT.

1942_

*18.10.1942. Ju 88. personnel buried in Fossv., Reykj. Svinaskarð, Esja, sw Ís.
J88-001726, Ju88 D5
LUFTWAFFE, A6+EH, ??.??.?? to Okt.42, Destroyed in Missing at Iceland while with 1.(F)/120.
Date Unit Place Cause Plane Werk.no Code Damage Personalia
18.10.1942 1.(F)/120 Iceland Missing Ju 88 D-5 1726 A6+EH 100
Lt. Harald Osthus (F) KIA
Lt. Josef Ulsamer (B) KIA
Fw. Franz Kirchmann (Bf) KIA

*24.10.1942. Fw 200. personnel: Fossv., Reykj. Borgarfjörður, sw Ís.
24.10.1942 1.(F)/120 Iceland Shoot down.
Plane was borrowed by I./KG 40 Fw 200 C-4 313 F8+EK 100
Oblt. Heinz Godde (F) KIA
Fw. Mathias Franzen (F) KIA
Ofw. Horst Kroos (Bf) KIA
Uffz. Manfred Unger (Bf) KIA
Uffz Alois Schwab (Bs) KIA
Uffz. Helmut Engelmann (Bm) KIA
All from I./KG 40
Uffz. Hans Todtenhofer (Bm) KIA
From 1.(F)/120.

27.10.1942. Ju 88. sea crash, ?Hvalfjörður?, sw Ís.
J88-430001, Ju88 D5
LUFTWAFFE, A6+RH, ??.??.?? to Okt.42, Destroyed in Emergency landing at sea at Iceland while with 1.(F)/120.
27.10.1942 1.(F)/120 Iceland Emergency landing at sea Ju 88 D-5 430001 A6+RH 100 Lt. Gerhard Skuballa (F) KIA
Uffz. Uwe Gåoddecke (B) KIA
Fw. Herbert Fischer (Bf) KIA.


28.10.1942. Fw 200 _ missing.
?F8+BB?
28.10.42 I/KG 40 Fw 200 C-4 109 At Iceland F 100 Missing Oblt. Rudolf Feldt (F) MIA Fw. Bernhard Korber (F) MIA Lt. Herbert Hachtmann (Bf) MIA Uffz. Georg Stiegler (Bf) MIA Ofw. Werner Sieth (Bm) MIA Uffz Walter Schultze (Bs) MIA.

4.11.1942. Bv 138 _ missing.
04.11.42 2./406 BV 138 C-1 310132 K6+GK At Iceland F 100 Missing Uffz. Werner Scolz (F) MIA Lt. Friedrich Lohmayer (B) MIA Uffz. Paul Kron (Bf) MIA Ofw. Wilhelm Hofmann (Bm) MIA Uffz. Rudolf Wendler (Bm) MIA.

5.11.1942. Fw 200 _ missing.
05.11.42 I./KG 40 Fw 200 C-4 124 F8+FK At Iceland F 100 Missing Fw. Kurt Pieper (F) MIA Uffz. Johannes Möckel (F) MIA Uffz. Karl Wissner (Bf) MIA Uffz Karl Kreft (Bf) MIA Uffz. Wilhelm Heck (Bm) MIA Obgfr. Hans Möller (Bs) MIA.

1943_

*24.4.1943. Ju 88 _ near Vogar, sw Ís.
J88-430087, Ju88 D5
LUFTWAFFE, A6+CH, ??.??.?? to Apr.43, Shot down over Keflavik, Iceland.
Ju 88 D-5, 430087, A6+CH of 1(F)/120 Lt Karl Brueck, Fw Werner Bullerjahn & Fw Theodor Scholtyssek killed; Uffz Anton Mynarek POW.
Crashed 1406 hrs at Keflavik after being shot down by 1/Lt J M McNulty & 2/Lt H R Stenmgle of 50th FS, 1334 hrs.
24 April 1943 is the date Ju 88D-5 (A6+CH) was lost. Its mission was a reconnissance mission over Reykjavik, the last or one of the last Fernaufklärungsstaffel 1.(F)/120 flew to Iceland. The Staffelkapitän at that time was Hptm. Hugo Löhr and it was based at Stavanger-Sola. I corresponded with Herr Löhr a couple of times about 10 years ago when he was 82. I think he passed away in 1997 or so.

5.8.1943 Fw 200 _ near Grímsey, n Ís.
Personnel surviving: Karte, Lehn, Teufel, Klinkmann, Holtrup, Brand, Richter (7 men).

***
Ju with unit 1.(F)/120 – plane code follows pattern: A6+?H.

Fw with unit I./KG 40 – plane code follows pattern: F8+?K.

Bv with unit 2./406 – plane code: K6+GK.
***
Published journal of Knights Cross holder who flew missions over Iceland:
Schwerdtfeger, Werner / Selinger, Franz: Wetterflieger in der Arktis 1940 - 1944, Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen der Wettererkundungs-Staffeln im Hohen Norden. Aus dem Tagebuch von Flugkapitän Otl. Rudolf Schütze.

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Vance Pollock
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Re: Losses in Iceland

#6

Post by Vance Pollock » 07 Aug 2016, 23:57

Good to hear from you Stephan. It has been many years since I closely studied this subject, but I eventually discovered a privately published German unit history for 1.(F)/122, if I recall, reflecting similar service to that of the 1.(F)/120 unit of your grandfather. There were several photos including the unit flag and several plane details. Also, an Icelandic history of that country during WW2 http://www.forlagid.is/?p=1278 was published in 2002 and includes many photos, including perhaps some contributed by your grandfather or from his files. I would love to see any photos from your family archive, especially good general depictions of the unit and aircraft. You can contact me via email: vancepollock at Hotmail dot com, and I will see what I can locate for you.

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Re: Losses in Iceland

#7

Post by Larry D. » 08 Aug 2016, 00:57

Hello Stephan and Vance -

Back in the mid-1990's, I was in correspondence with Werner Horst and Hugo Löhr, more so with the former than the latter. I was writing summarized histories of 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 120 and 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 124 at the time and both of these gentlemen were very helpful. I do not know of a unit history, published or otherwise, for 1.(F)/120, but there is or was a short manuscript prepared by the Staffelkameradschaft 1.(F)/124 (n.d.). I also remember some comments about the visitor(s) from Iceland traveling to Germany to gather details on the reconnaissance flights from Norway to Iceland during the war. At the time of our correspondence, Werner Horst lived in Bonn, as I recall, and was the president of the Kameradschaft d.Aufklärungsflieger veteran's group.

Larry deZeng
Winter Springs, Florida

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Vance Pollock
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Re: Losses in Iceland

#8

Post by Vance Pollock » 08 Aug 2016, 03:25

Hey Larry, Thanks for your comments. I did acquire a copy of the history of 1.(F)/124 by Werner Fehse. I friend in Germany corresponded with him at the time and acquired an inscribed copy for me. In the bibliography of that one there are cited the records of the 120. I don't know if this was a reference to Stephan's grandfather's papers or not and I don't have the volume at hand now.

Here is a post I made at the time with a bit more useful citation that I had remembered.

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... se#p693187

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Re: Losses in Iceland

#9

Post by Vance Pollock » 08 Aug 2016, 03:31

Larry, I see after posting the link to that other conversation that you were the same (and only) person commenting there. I do suppose it is a very specialized interest, particularly for English-speaking historians. Glad to see that conversations on the matter are still showing up on your radar.

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Re: Losses in Iceland

#10

Post by Larry D. » 08 Aug 2016, 15:56

Hi Vance -

You know, I had completely forgotten about that earlier thread 12 years ago even though some very faint bells and whistles were going off in the remote storage areas of my memory data base.

Did you ever run into an Icelandic fellow on the Luftwaffe Discussion Forum (TOCH - Twelve O'Clock High) who uses the screen name "Ed North"? He is a fanatic and expert on all matters related to this subject. I can give you the URL for that website if you would like it.

Yes, it's a pretty obscure topic!

Best,

Larry

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Re: Losses in Iceland

#11

Post by Andrew Arthy » 16 Aug 2016, 01:18

I believe that Werner Horst was still living in Bonn last year, when he turned 92. I sent him a letter, but never received a reply, so perhaps he's not in good health.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com

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