II. JG 77, 21-06-1940 OOB

[Greg Boeser]

Looking for info on the aircraft and pilots of II. JG 77 involved in the defense of the Scharnhorst against RAF Beauforts on 21 June, 1940.
I can find little on the web, other than they claimed 7 for no loss.
42 Sqn. Beauforts reported three lost, claimed one Bf 109.

 

[fubar57]

These are the Luftwaffe Claims I have for that date. I'm sure more data has come up since this was written

 

[Greg Boeser]

Thanks, Geo. Not surprising that the bombers were misidentified as Hampdens. The Beauforts had only been operational for a couple months.

 

[Greg Boeser]

I'm actually finding some good stuff on the RAF side. Hudsons, Beauforts, Sunderlands, and Blenheim IV Fs were involved.

 

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi Greg,

Not sure if you've seen the below, from the War Diary of the German Naval High Command:

Cheers,
Andrew A.

 

[Greg Boeser]

Looking at the limited stuff I can find on the web, II. JG77 was operating a mix of Bf 109E-1 and E-3. I was hoping somebody had the unit mission logs.
There is a very rare publication of the unit daily log, by Jochen Prien. But amazon has it listed at $569

 

[Nick Beale]

Online at the Bundesarchiv, the nearest order of battle is for 22 June 1940 in file RL 2-III/707b. Screenshot attached: squares are aircraft, circles are pilots; solid shading = ready for operations, x = not ready.
The Stab JG 77 diary covering 21 June 1940 is Bundesarchiv file RL 10/301 but that doesn't cover what happened in the II. Gruppe, it just says "no special events".

The Western Front sitrep for 21 June 1940 is online here: Russisch-deutsches Projekt zur Digitalisierung deutscher Dokumente in den Archiven der Russischen Föderation | Akte 96. Lageberichte West des Führungsstabes der Luftwaffe (1c).
On page 6 of that report (my translation): "Between 1600 and 1700 hours in the sea area west of Hardanger Fjord, one attack by British aircraft on one of our fleet units took place, directed in the first instance against the battleship Scharnhorst. 3 Lockheed Husons and 4 Hampden-Herefords were shout down by the fighter units deployed. After being fired on, one Sunderland pulled away burning into the clouds. In addition six aircraft were shot down by ships' Flak."

If you scroll on to the bottom of page 11 of that report, there's a discussion of how to attack a Hampden and where its vulnerable points are.

The Bundesarchiv also has the log of the Scharnhorst for April–September 1940 in file RM 134/179 which can be viewed online and downloaded. The entries for 21 June begin on page 351.