The original history of V.(Z) /KG 40, 'Bloody Biscay', is just about due for a reprint from Crecy. However if you already have the old text then you might like to consider this much more colourful edition just published by Lela Presse in their Batailles Aeriennes quarterly series. Entitled 'Wolves over the Atlantic', this French-language 100-page A-4 format soft back monograph features new photographic material, super Thierry Dekker artwork and a fifteen-page 'presentation' of the Junkers Ju 88 C-6 with photos and handbook drawings from the archive of Jean-Louis Roba - all for just 12 euros..
V.(Z)/KG 40 was the Zerstörergruppe or heavy fighter wing of KG 40 and was initially established with a complement of three Staffeln to which a fourth was later added. The unit’s long range fighters were chiefly deployed on U-boot and shipping escort protection sorties over and across the Bay of Biscay, where vessels of all types could potentially come under attack from RAF Coastal Command and US Air Force aircraft.
A formation flight of Ju 88 C-6 machines of 14./KG 40 seen in the late spring/early summer of 1943 over southern France. The aircraft in the shot are "F8+OY" and "F8+LY". A number of the Staffel’s aircraft typically wore this light camo finish.
Above; Oblt. Kurt Necesany and his crew flew 14./KG 40’s 500th Feindflug or combat sortie on 21 May 1943 and were duly feted on their return home to Lorient by their Staffel comrades in front of their Ju 88 C-6 "F8+RY". They were presented with flowers and a sign reading: "Congratulations on the 500th combat flight"..
Of the unit's other leading pilots, Lt. Knud Gmelin of 13./KG 40 brought down an RAF B-24 Liberator on 3 September 1943. On 18 September 1943 the Rotte of Oblt. Dieter Meister and Lt. Knud Gmelin of 13./KG 40 encountered a Horsa cargo glider under tow by a Halifax. Both pilots lined up firing passes on the four-engine machine which promptly cast off the glider. The Halifax came under heavy fire from Lt. Gmelin, but managed to escape. Oblt. Meister finished off the Horsa glider.
The nose armament of the Ju 88 C Zerstörer (eg "F8+MX" of 13./KG 40 in early 1943 in Bordeaux-Merignac) typically comprised three MG 17 7,9 mm in the upper nose and a single MG 15 7,9 mm mounted in the lower nose.
