Friday 25 November 2011

Diving Luftwaffe wrecks in the Med - Junkers Ju 88 A-17 torpedo bomber

The ‘Baie du Souffre’ is formed by the Frioul islands just off the coast of Marseille (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France). A few years ago a Marseille-based diver Luc Vanrell investigated the wrecks of several Ju 88 torpedo bombers lying in the bay at depths of over 50 metres in an article written for ‘Subaqua’, the magazine of the French underwater sports federation. 
His report on diving the wreck of a 1./KG 77 Junkers Ju 88 A-17 lost on 31 July 1944 off the French Med coast is available as a nice 30-page pdf albeit in French. On page 6 of his report Luc reproduces this lovely photo of 3Z+BH of 1./KG77 carrying two torpedoes and fitted with RATO Starthilfe packs. Credited to Chris Goss, this photo does not apparently appear in the latter's excellent 'Sea Eagles' (Vol 2)



Currently available on ebay.de is this nice image of a similarly marked Ju 88 also equipped with the RATO Starthilfe rocket packs. 


update 30 Nov - above image sold for 489 euros