WORLD WAR TWO VENGEANCE WEAPON
Lowestoft that evening, but German
records do not reveal any losses.
The following afternoon, three
German airmen were rescued from
the sea 50 miles (80km) off the
Norfolk coast and were landed at
Harwich, Essex. These were pilot
Uffz Klaus Schulte and gunners
Uffz Heinz Weber and Ogfr Heinz
Müller, who had been in the water
for 18 hours. Interrogation revealed
they were from 8./KG 3 and were
downed in an attack on London.
At no time were the German
survivors aware of being attacked by
a night fighter and put their demise
down to engine failure at
low level. Confusion as to this
loss has been made worse by the
Luftwaffe recording the aircraft as
missing on October 7. Nevertheless,
a full RAF report was signed off
on the 23rd, giving the Allies
considerable information on He
111-launched V-1s.
On October 6, the same number
of aircraft took off as the night
before, bound for London. Flt Lt Alf
Marshall of 25 Squadron claimed an
He 111 east of Southwold, Suffolk.
This appears to have been Lt Hans
Bohne’s aircraft from 8./KG 3,
which force-landed at Venlo, all
crew being slightly wounded.
Another 11 Heinkels attacked
London on the evening of the 7th.
Fw Lothar Gall’s aircraft (8./KG 3)
collided with a radio mast at Petten,
Netherlands, and crashed into a
house at Groet at 1925hrs, killing all
the crew. The loss of Uffz Winfried
Brender (7./KG 3) and crew was
reported on the 8th; two bodies later
washed ashore.A force of 20 in at least two waves
headed for London overnight on
8th-9th between 1815 and 0615hrs.
Just one RAF claim was made: Plt
Off Barney Travers of 25 Squadron
damaged an He 111, off the
Norfolk coast.
Two aircraft (from 7 and 8
Staffeln) collided, while on a
mission on October 9; falling near
Leeuwarden, Netherlands, with the
deaths of ten aircrew. On the 14th
the Heinkel flown by Uffz Werner
Weiffen (7./KG 3) was wrecked on
landing at Münster-Handorf while
returning from an attack against
London. Oberfeldwebel Werner
Schmidt-Reich and his crew of 8
Staffel failed to return from a raid on
the 19th.
Around October 20, III./KG 3
became I./KG 53 and was joined
by Maj Herbert Wittmann’s II./
KG 53, which had begun training
for V-1 launches that August.These were supplemented by Maj
Emil Allmendinger’s III./KG 53 in
November 1944 (see panel on page
38 for northern German bases used
by the units).INTERCEPT AND DESTROY
With this increase in aircraft being
used as V-1 mother ships, the
RAF – armed with information
gleaned from the captured 8./
KG 3 crew – began to take the
threat more seriously. Flt Lt Geoff
Richards recalled: “In November
1944 Fighter Command rang me
and asked if I would volunteer for
a special mission. I was to operate
a small radar set in the back of a
Wellington. Three Mosquitos were
to follow me in line astern at 200ft
off the Dutch coast, as at that time
the Germans were launching V-1s
from He 111s half way across the
North Sea. We were to intercept and
destroy. It didn’t work!”Right
Fighter Interception
Development Squadron
aircrew: Jeremy Howard-
Williams is second from
right, his navigator third
from left. MRS J HOWARD-
WILLIAMSBelow
He 111H-16s of 9./KG 53
during training in 1944.36 FLYPAST November 2018