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Crashed He-111 info


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For the longest time, I have been fascinated by the pic of this crashed He-111 during the BoB. The caption states that its from 10/KG1. Its the symbol on the side of the aircraft of which I can't find any pics  that show actual colors and what it is. I am considering doing an HE-111 using the Revell kit, and would like to do this one. Considering the number of times I have seen this pic published, I would think there would be some good color profiles, but I'm coming up empty. Anyone?

 

83040a-jpg.144349

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Hi, I may be able to help.  According to Luftwaffe loss records for 30 August 1940, KG1 lost five aircraft during operations over England.  Four of those belonged to 10th Staffel.  I looked up some of the details of the four 10th Staffel aircraft and two of them are likely candidates for the one in the photo you show.  I list details of the two below with the first being most likely the one you are looking for. 

 

1)  He111 H-2 coded V4+BV:  This plane came down at Swires Farm, Capel after being badly shot up by a No. 79 Squadron Hurricane flown by Pilot Officer Morris at around 11:12 am.  Its ultimate fate is unclear.  Either it later exploded, probably due to its bomb load having be heavily jostled in the forced landing and one of the bombs delayed action fuses being activated.  Or, (and I think this more likely),  it was put on display as a war prize before eventually being salvaged for materials.  The aircraft's crew of Oberfeldwebel Hornick (Pilot), Feldwebel Stahlberg (Flight Engineer) and Gefreiter Helmel were killed in action, Hauptmann Bäss, who commanded the Staffel, was severely wounded and captured; and Oberleutnant Fölisch (Bombardier/Observer) was captured unwounded.  If the first fate is true, it is a bit chilling to think about the people in the photo standing around a ticking time bomb.

 

2)  He111 H-2 coded V4+HV force landed at Haxted Farm, Lingfield at 11:35 am after being shot up by a No. 253 Squadron Hurricane flown by P.O. Greenwood.  The crew of five men consisted of Feldwebel Schnabel (Pilot, wounded and captured), Unteroffizier Päslack (Flight Engineer,  wounded and captured), Unteroffizier (position not listed, captured) Gefreiter Groth (air gunner, captured) and Gefreiter Reis (Air Gunner, Killed in Action).

 

HTH,

Ernest  

Edited by Greif8
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It does sound like #1 is probably the one. Any idea of the colors of the code? You would think if it had become a war prize, we would have seen many more photos and color profiles of it. I have yet to see anything other than this one pic of this particular machine, though its a very well known photo. 

Thanks!

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According to my Luftwaffe crash archive vol.3 the Swires farm one was a total loss with a crater and fragments remaining so likely not that one. 
That photo is He-111H-2 werk nummer 3305 coded V4 + MV 5th staffel. Book says V coded aircraft normally denotes 11 Staffel but all KG.1 V coded planes lost this day according to Luftwaffe records were 5 staffel. 

Flew from Nijmegen to attack Farnborough. All survived but the gunner who is buried in Cannock Chase German Cemetery. 
Attacked by spitfires damaging both engines. Pilot force landed 20 50kg bombs onboard. 
Book has a slightly different photo to what you posted, more oblique but no major detail visible. 

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Hi eoyguy, it looks like the Haxted aircraft is the correct one after all.   The marking for the Haxted Heinkel would have looked like this: 

V4 + MV

In the Luftwaffe marking system for bomber units the first two letter/number combination denoted the Geschwader the bomber was assigned to.  The third letter denoted the individual bomber within a staffel was colored to correspond to the color code of the staffel it was assigned to.  The final letter generally denoted the Gruppe the aircraft was assigned to, but that was not locked in stone as ade's post above highlights.

 

Generally during 1940 Luftwaffe Bomber units had the following colors:

 

Geschwader (Wing) staff flights had blue letters.

Gruppe (Group) staff flights had green letters.

Staffeln (Squadrons) were marked as follows:

1, 4, 7, 10 had white letters

2, 5, 8, 11 had red letters

3, 6, 9, 12 had yellow letters

 

HTH,

Ernest

 

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Excellent, thanks everyone, that should give me a good basis for doing this one. Now I just have to find some decal sheets that I can piece together to get that combination, or make masks. Would the red diamond symbol be carried on both sides of the fuselage?

 

Jason

Edited by eoyguy
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