Questions for Erich

[Dave wallace]

Hello Erich
I saw in an old post you referring to Gerd Friedrich. I have just identified the fact that on April 17/43 he was shot down and wounded near Hochspeyer while attacking the Stirling my father was Navigator on.
He had made the attack with his navigation lights on and was easily seen.
I would be very interested in any further information on him and your comments about the navigation lights. My father had two combats with german fighters and both were seen because they had their lights on.
Thanks!
Dave Wallace

 

[Erich]

David from my memory as Gerd's file is deeply buried, Gerd and his B/O were flying in 10./NJG 4 a Bf 110F-4. no radar. due to his inexperience and others in the LW, although he was Staffelkapitän they flew at times with lights on......sounds really stupid does it not, for whatever reason, maybe for ID so early in the war until effective radar was placed on the 110's and Ju 88's/Do 17 and Do 217's. In the case of the April date the 110 was shot down, Gerd bailed out wounded and his B/O bailed out uninjured. I have more but will have to make time to dig it out but due to that learning experience he most probably never left his lights on again ..... maybe of course he became a successful ace later on with 30 night kills.

David please tell me more about your fathers career and these other navigational light mishaps

thank you

E ~

 

[Dave wallace]

Thanks for getting back to me and for your knowledge.
My father did a tour of operations on Stirlings with 214 Squadron from March to July of 1943. He then joined 109 Squadron with the Pathfinder Force doing Oboe marking (on Mosquitos) from April of 1944 to December 1944 and completed 90 operations with Bomber Command. At the end of the war he returned to medical school and became a pathologist.
As far as the two incidents with navigation lights, I could send you the combat reports by email which would give you all the information if you are interested.
Regards
Dave

 

[Erich]

how very interesting David, did your father have any contact with LW night fighters while serving on Oboe Mossies ? will send you a private message

 

[Dave wallace]

My father's encounters with night fighters were only on Stirlings. The Oboe mosquitos were usually operating at 28,000 feet to 32,000 feet since the higher they were, the greater the range Oboe had. I have the operational records for 109 Squadron and there are occasional run ins with both night and day fighters by the Oboe mosquitos, maybe 1 or 2 a month. 109 Squadron used to do over 400 sorties in a month. I think the combination of altitude and speed gave the Oboe crews a good degree of protection, especially once they got the pressurized Mosquito XVI. They certainly had more problems with flak on a regular basis, and some targets tended to be worse than others. The synthetic oil plant at Schloven and the I.G Farben chemical plant at Leverkusen seemed to have the best flak crews when trying to hit the mosquitos at 30,000 feet, almost every operation to those targets reported "intense and very accurate heavy flak"

Once again thanks for your help and I will look for your message Erich.
Regards
Dave

 

[wilbur1]

My father's encounters with night fighters were only on Stirlings. The Oboe mosquitos were usually operating at 28,000 feet to 32,000 feet since the higher they were, the greater the range Oboe had. I have the operational records for 109 Squadron and there are occasional run ins with both night and day fighters by the Oboe mosquitos, maybe 1 or 2 a month. 109 Squadron used to do over 400 sorties in a month. I think the combination of altitude and speed gave the Oboe crews a good degree of protection, especially once they got the pressurized Mosquito XVI. They certainly had more problems with flak on a regular basis, and some targets tended to be worse than others. The synthetic oil plant at Schloven and the I.G Farben chemical plant at Leverkusen seemed to have the best flak crews when trying to hit the mosquitos at 30,000 feet, almost every operation to those targets reported "intense and very accurate heavy flak"

Once again thanks for your help and I will look for your message Erich.
Regards
Dave

Synthetic oil? i didnt think they had it then? was it polymeres or true glycol based?

 

[seesul]

Synthetic oil? i didnt think they had it then? was it polymeres or true glycol based?

Think it should be synthetic fuel...

 

[seesul]

Synthetic oil? i didnt think they had it then? was it polymeres or true glycol based?

Think it should be sythetic fuel...but maybe I´m wrong...

 

[DBII]

Erich, please educate me. What is a B/O?

DBII

 

[Dave wallace]

Wilbur1
I am not an expert but it was made from coal and the plants were a common target in the Ruhr. https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/1811/3612/1/V47N06_259.pdf. Also if you a google on synthetic oil, bombing and RAF you will find quite a bit.
Regards
Dave

 

[Erich]

synthetic oil and fuels connected really ....rubber - synthetics to keep the war machines running, the fuel necessary for the war effort.

DB I made a mistake should of read R/O = radar operator. I was thinking German/English when I typed it in............oh my B = Bordfünker in that case = radar op.