LYING IN WAIT
A Mosquito of 406 Squadron
lifted off from Manston in Kent
at 1830hrs on January 5. Wing
Commander Russ Bannock DFC*
and Flt Lt C J Kirkpatrick DFC
were very experienced in the art
of nocturnal combat. Bannock
had already shot down at least
six enemy aircraft in the air, two
on the ground and 19 V-1s. His
navigator had participated in at
least four ‘kills’ with his usual pilot,
Wg Cdr ‘Blackie’ Williams DSO
DFC, who had recently returned to
Canada, tour expired.
The Mosquito made landfall at
the island of Pellworm, Germany
at 2010hrs and headed straight
towards Husum airfield, in the
hope of catching He 111s during
take-off. About ten minutes before,
He 111s of III./KG 53 had started
lifting off from Eggebek and
Schleswig, their objective being
London. Their outbound track
took them directly over Husum.
Bannock remembered: “At about
400ft, we obtained a head-on
contact... we turned hard about and
picked [it] up almost dead ahead and
followed it across the aerodrome,
obtaining a visual at approximately
1,000ft. As I closed in to identify,
I interrogated with a ‘waggle your
wings bogey!’ with no response.
“From dead below and slightly
behind we identified [it] as a
Heinkel 111 by its swept-back
wings, elliptical tail and cut-away
wing roots at the trailing edge...
The aircraft was also burning a
blue resin light inboard of the
starboard engine.
“I dropped back to 600ft and
fired a one-second burst with slight
port deflection. The enemy aircraft
immediately burst into flames and
spun into a wooded dispersal area
on the southwest corner of
the aerodrome.”
This turned out to be Hptm
Siegfried Jessen, experienced
Staffelkapitän of 9./KG 53, and
his crew: Obfw Alfred Beyer, Uffz
Wolfgang Gast, Fw Hermann
Fresken and Uffz Gerhard Franke,
all of whom perished. The Germans
recorded this as happening at
2010hrs and acknowledged it was
due to an enemy night fighter.
It would appear the Luftwaffe
was not fully aware that Bannock
was still in the area as the Heinkels
continued to take off. One of these
was the He 111H-16 crewed by Fw
Erich Schulz, Uffz Robert Bauer,
Uffz Emil Rydwal, Uffz Erich
Piechottka and Obfw Richard
Mann. They were airborne from
Eggebek at approximately 2000hrs
with a full fuel load and weighed
down by a V-1.
Take-off was uneventful and as
they climbed away and set course
for Husum and ultimately their
launch point, the crew settled
down. Suddenly, the port engine
stopped and the Heinkel quicklyyawed to the left and started
descending in a gentle dive. It all
happened so quickly, they didn’t
have a chance to dump fuel or their
missile and the ’H-16 ploughed
into a wood between Husum and
Eggebek, and burst into flames.
This was witnessed by Bannock
who was just about to attack the
hapless He 111. Mann and Rydwal
were both killed, the remainder wereall badly injured. One more aircraft
was lost that night: Lt Kurt Neuber
of 7./KG 53 failed to return.
Apart from Bannock’s claim,
there were no others that night
or, as it would transpire, for the
rest of the campaign. Air-launch
operations finally terminated on
January 14, 1945.
For the remainder of the war,
the He 111 was used purely in the
transport role, although most were
grounded due to lack of fuel, spares
and crews – or overwhelming
Allied air superiority. The surviving
airmen from KG 53 must have
breathed a sigh of relief at this
decision and in the spring, the unit
that had taken the cruise missile to
war was finally disbanded.Above
A commonplace
occurrence during 1944:
the funeral of a III./KG
53 crew.Left
The award document for
Hptm Siegfried Jessen’s
Honour Goblet.all badly injured. One more aircraft
was lost that night: Lt Kurt NeuberAbove
Hptm Emil Allmendinger,
Kommandeur of III./KG
53, and his adjutant, Oblt
Siegfried Jessen.November 2018 FLYPAST 39