Axis Bomber that served with the SAAF in WW2

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TheGreenGoblin
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Axis Bomber that served with the SAAF in WW2

#1 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Oct 24, 2020 7:57 am

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Re: Axis Bomber that served with the SAAF in WW2

#2 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Oct 24, 2020 8:20 am

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/review ... story.html

Sommer was the other German crew member in the JU 86 in the air combat noted above.

He emigrated to Australia after the war. His book is very interesting.
Junkers_Ju_86P_high_altitude_reconnaissance_plane_c1940.jpg
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Re: Axis Bomber that served with the SAAF in WW2

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Oct 24, 2020 9:36 am

The German pilot Kurtz Gotz (noted above) ended the war flying the Arado Ar.234

ar234-2.jpg
ar234-2.jpg (12.63 KiB) Viewed 328 times

With respect to the JU 86 bomber. The only high altitude version of that bomber that was shot down by the allies was intercepted by a specially modified Spitfire Mark 5 at at 49,000 feet over North Africa.
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Re: Axis Bomber that served with the SAAF in WW2

#4 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Oct 24, 2020 2:28 pm

Erich Sommer's book is mine of information on the JU86 high altitude bomber and the issues facing the Spitfires in intercepting them...

Written after the first successful Spitfire interception.
This was the end of our unarmed sorties. Horst and Albrecht returned to Oranienburg while Altrogge and I made another attempt, without a bomb and with minimum fuel, to gain another 2,500 feet. This was to establish what the ceiling of the Spitfire would be. We again avoided London, which was ruled out of bounds to us throughout the operations of our Kommando. This was not the only time as you will see later. We penetrated east of London on 2 October 1942, heading towards Tunbridge Wells and returned without being intercepted. This was despite a number of fighters trying to climb to our altitude. ‘Our’ Spitfire, a special Mark IX, was not among them but the intelligence report we received at night from Meldekopf Birk, showed that the British lost two Spitfires during the action. One was shot down by their own flak and the other as the pilot bailed out at high altitude. He was unable to pull his aircraft out of a flat spin after he had stalled it while trying to get a lucky shot at us from his maximum ceiling of about 900 metres (3,000 feet) below.
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Re: Axis Bomber that served with the SAAF in WW2

#5 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Oct 24, 2020 4:39 pm

Sommers' book describes how the Arado Ar.234 was used to photograph London late in the war, an act that nearly resulted in the author's court martial (or worse) and proved how ineffectual the V2 was as a weapon...
‘Erich didn’t know then that this was the time when the V-2 rocket had been let loose over London. The evaluation of the photographs showed that the V-2 was unreliable and militarily useless. A 500-kg bomb placed correctly could do more damage. We rather enjoyed this coincidental result as did the Staffel but then I received a telegram addressed to me. “The flight over London did not take place. The pictures are to be destroyed. Charges are to be filed against the pilot. Military judges are on the way.” I was dumbfounded. This could not be true and even if this flight had not been ordered this negative proof of the ineffectiveness of the V-2 attacks should be of paramount importance to the High Command of the Luftwaffe and the V-2 programme. I did not want to hand over my good friend Sommer to the bloodhounds nor did I want to file charges against him without good cause. Adolf and Fatso Göring were unreachable so I decided to look up Goebbels at the propaganda ministry in Berlin. I did not think much about the risks that I was taking. I was fully aware that it was risky for a unit commander to leave his unit without orders. The Staffel knew nothing about my intentions nor did anybody know that I was about to visit Dr Goebbels. I flew to Berlin and marched into the propaganda ministry. They treated this rather obscure Hauptmann and Staffelkapitän in a friendly way and assured me that I could see Dr Goebbels the next day since he was out of town. I did not want to leave my unit for more than a day and was happy to speak to his adjutant. Everything was discussed and official minutes of my complaint were kept. I gave a copy of the minutes to my wife for security reasons in case there were any difficulties. The next day I was back with my Staffel at Rheine.’
Sommers described the reason for his predicament thus...
I did not like these high-ranking officers and their, in my perception, incompetent arrogance. To give an example: when I visited their lair in Berlin, in the autumn of 1944, a high-ranking officer showed me the results of my reconnaissance flights in Normandy and southern England which he had proudly assembled. I realised from his remarks that all my efforts had achieved was for him to take them under his wing and go to his superior officers and show them what ‘he’ had done. This would reinforce the importance of his office and escape the tendency to dissolve it and send him to the Eastern Front. Thus he would escape the ‘Heldenklau’ (hero pinchers) as we called the Nazi hierarchy. They were like a gang of thugs. My conclusion now is that with the threat to court martial me, our general staff was prepared to sacrifice me to save their necks. My reconnaissance over London showed that it was in fact intact – only a fraction of the city was destroyed in contrast to Himmler’s boasting. By this time the SS leader had taken over the command of all army divisions in the east in an attempt to stem the Russian advance. He even stopped the civilian population from running away from the front line by blocking the roads. He told us in a loud-mouthed fashion that by the action of our V-weapons (the so-called Wunderwaffen) on London the city would be annihilated in a short time and the Allies would be forced to capitulate and end the war. With my photographs I had exposed the fabrication. We trusted none of them anymore.
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Re: Axis Bomber that served with the SAAF in WW2

#6 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Oct 24, 2020 9:28 pm

Just downloaded Erich Sommer's book from the library. :YMAPPLAUSE:
Thanks TGG. ^:)^
It will have to wait til I finish "The Great Influenza", a very interesting read. :-bd

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