Does anyone know how to find out about Luftwaffe losses on specific days? I know there's logs for RAF to find out what may have crashed, but I'm not sure about Luftwaffe. There's a note in my grandad's units war diary of someone shooting down a low flying German aircraft, possibly a Heinkel, with a Bren, near Hainean on the 18/05/1940. They didn't stop but no chutes were seen. Any help with details on the potential plane/crew appreciated.
Yes, there are records of Luftwaffe losses, both from German records and of course, the RAF/Army War Diaries. Er, where's Hainean? In mid May 1940, most of the Army (and 30,000 Bren's) were in the BEF in France, so that weapon is a little suspect... Assuming "Hainean" is somewhere in the wilds of Norfolk, there were no German aircraft lost on 18th May 1940. Luftwaffe Crash Archives Vol 1 show losses on 9th, 10th and 11th May, then 7 June, so it's possible that the excitement of firing at a German aircraft was over exaggerated.... If you recheck your information with a better location, or better yet a different date, then it might then tie in... Local newspaper archives may also have recorded this, as shooting down a German aircraft would have made the news, with details of the unit and possibly personnel involved. So far, I can find nothing to verify that diary entry...
Apologies Kevin, it was infact in France/Brlgium, having google mapped it, I can't find it either. Will work out where the note was and work out what it was near. I assume that the likelihood is that it was being shot at by something else as well, but the notes state it was hedge hopping, he fired towards the cockpit, it turned over and went down. Will confirm with the diary and come back.
Blimey, my geography is way off!! Brigium, now.... hmmmm As we've now shifted to the BEF, then most likely all the unit records have been lost during the evacuation chaos. There were no German death on CWGC for that date, but I believe they were only recording those killed over/on UK territory, not France and er er Hainault?????
Perhaps HAINAUT province in BELGIUM? The Tournai - Mons - Charleroi area is close to the french border
Could it be Hannut? This was the site of the first major clash of the Franco British forces with the German army (see Earnest R May, Strange Victory Hitler’s Conquest of France, I.B.Taurus & Co, London. 2009, page 7)
Sorry for the delay, we've had to self isolate Having a look at another diary, and chuckling to myself, I think it may be Hasnon, France, which if you only heard orally, could be misconstrued as Hainean I suppose... the dates check out with the 18th, when Phantom were brought in as part of Macforce.
"Phantom: Uncovering the Secrets of the WW2 Special Forces Unit" by Philip Warner, page 21: interesting concordance very comprehensive collection of loss lists for further study 2. Weltkrieg - Verlustlisten - Onlineprojekt Gefallenendenkmäler
Thanks, it was in Warner's book that I got Hainean from. Sure I've seen it documented in a war diary as the 18th, but his book quotes 22nd. Will try to find the entry describing it tonight. Will try and decipher the website. Looks interesting
