MIA - Gefreiter Wilhelm Kammann 4.(F)/123, June 1944 - Vom Feindflug nicht zurückgekehrt

Gefreiter Willy Kammann was a Bf 109 pilot with 4.(F)/123 in northern France (Nonancourt). Kammann failed to return from a sortie on June 20, 1944 over the Seine Bay area and was believed shot down by Allied fighters while on a reconnaissance flight at the controls of Bf 109 G-5 W.Nr. 110381 "blue 5".

 According to the letter of  condolence dated June 26, 1944, sent to the family from his Staffelkapitän Hptm. Heinz Feilmayer and reproduced below, Kammann was assigned to fly a sortie with Ofhr. Schäfer, "..one of the oldest and most experienced pilots in the Staffel.. ". The sortie was a recce mission over the 'Invasionsraum'. Schäfer's machine however developed a technical problem so that Kammann found himself in the air on his own and elected to fly the sortie alone. He confirmed he was proceeding with the sortie " via a radio transmission some twenty minutes after getting airborne". Feilmayer writes that this was the last communication received from the pilot and that " there has been no subsequent news from him. .." Feilmayer states that Kammann was always keen to fly missions assigned to him, he was 'Einsatz begeistert' and 'pflichttreu' (dutiful) and on the day he went missing would have been determined to carry out his orders under all circumstances. He had no doubt fallen victim to the enemy's defences...." ..Over the past few days I have been hoping and expecting to receive some word of your son although I now see that I am forced to inform you of this very sad news.... I know that words will not alleviate your sorrow but the certainty that your son's sacrifice was for the (..) Homeland may be of some consolation... .. "

Staffelkapitän Hptm. Heinz Feilmayer was himself posted missing on 17 August 1944 after a recce sortie over the Dreux-Chartres-Versailles sector.

NB: spelling of names corrected, thanks to regular blog readers for pointing this out!

Willy Kammann (two 'm' and two 'n')
Heinz Feilmayer

Vom Feindflug nicht zurückgekehrt - Anton Wöffen 6./JG 27 11 March 1945, Jägerblatt, April 1983/November 1987 issues

Anton Wöffen's 'yellow 24' a 6./ JG 27 Bf 109 G-10 WNr. 490655 after being shot down on March 11, 1945 at Xanten, on the western bank of the river Rhine close to the Dutch border between Nijmegen and Duisberg. The pilot was taken captive, below.

Above; US signals photo 

Wöffen’s memoir ‘Ich war kein Jagdflieger As - Erinnerungen eines unbekannten Jagdfliegers’  ( '..recollections of an unknown fighter pilot' ) was ‘serialised’ in Jägerblatt during 1983 and later translated and published in Finland.

"..it is nearly forty years since I last flew a Bf 109 Gustav ..March 11, 1945. That clear sunny Sunday morning I was tasked as Staffelführer with leading a Schwarm of four 6./JG 27 Bf 109s up from Hopsten near Rheine on a recce sortie in the sector Wesel-Rheinberg-Duisberg where German troops still held a bridgehead on the western bank of the Rhine. There were signs that the Americans were preparing an all-out assault and I had to ascertain more  - a somewhat hopeless task. But then at that time so much appeared to be hopeless and pointless. Should we encounter artillery ranging and spotting machines in the air then we were authorised to shoot them down. Such machines were making life very difficult for our troops on the ground. Once airborne we flew at tree-top height in the direction of the river Rhine - skipping over trees, streetlights and houses we had to fly very carefully to avoid contact with obstacles. This was especially the case for those of my comrades flying behind the Verbandsführer  (formation leader). Even for myself it was not easy to navigate at such low altitudes. At 500 km/h  - the sort of speeds we could attain with full armament in normal flight - you could not see much at all. Moments after arriving over Wesel I spotted an 'Auster' climbing at about 100 meters altitude directly ahead of me. What then followed, happened very quickly.. I flicked up the armament safety catch on the control column for the 2cm cannon and the two cowl MG 131s and pulling up under the enemy machine gave the Auster a burst from all three guns. Suddenly I felt a blow in the engine. The prop continued to spin  -  but at a much reduced rate of revolutions. Smoke started to seep into the cockpit. I continued to climb hoping to reach a 'safe' altitude to bail out but my speed was decreasing far too quickly. I could see tracers from all sides rising towards me and immediately pushed the nose down. I had arrived directly over the American lines. I could see fire coming from an anti-aircraft battery and, taking aim in so far as I could, gave the Amis on the ground a burst of fire. By now I was approaching the ground and, although the smoke was hampering my efforts, prepared for a crash-landing..I saw high tension wires flitting past the cockpit ..above my head. I pulled back hard on the stick. The machine hit the ground with an almighty crash and bumping and jolting slid along for some distance. Suddenly everything went quiet. I opened the hood and climbed out. I had made a perfect belly landing and had escaped completely unscathed. I had been lucky. Just thirty meters in front of me was a railway embankment which I could just as easily have plowed into. Running towards me from all directions were American soldiers. Standing on the port wing I leaned back into the cockpit and as I started to tear up my map I heard loud shouting behind me..." Hands up!"

Vom Feindflug nicht zurückgekehrt - Berlin Gatow Fw 190 A-8/R2 WNr. 682 060 IV./JG 3 Walkaround

The Militärhistorisches Museum Flugplatz Berlin-Gatow have what is billed as a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-8/R-2 "Uncoded" on display. "Bismarck" from the Military Aviation history channel has just posted a three-minute walkaround of Gatow's Fw 190 A-8 on youtube which is well worth watching. I've embedded the video at the bottom of this post and it can be viewed here with a single click.

 Gatow's Fw 190 is a Flug Werk static display replica with several original parts, designated Focke Wulf - Flug Werk GmbH Fw 190 A-8/N (N for Nachbau or replica). Flug Werk number is 99007. The original parts are from Fw 190 A-8 Werk Nummer 682060 coded "rote 5". This aircraft was flown by Leutnant Rolf Lahne, a 16./JG 3 pilot..

 IV./JG 3 operated from Gütersloh late in the war. On December 17, 1944 IV. Gruppe were launched on a ground attack mission in support of the Ardennes Offensive. Lahne was airborne with his Rottenflieger Unteroffizier Werner Talkenberg at 10:50 and the two machines took up a south-westerly heading. Lahne was flying Fw 190 A-8/R2 WNr. 682 060. However he never arrived in the target area. In the vicinity of Cologne (Köln) the Fw 190s ran into a force of P-47s from the 373rd Fighter Group. A wild dogfight developed. Uffz. Talkenberg pursued a P-47 and lost sight of his comrade. He managed to shoot down one American for his first victory, before catching sight of Lahne's "red 5" pursued by Thunderbolts north of Cologne. Shortly afterwards he observed hits on the Fw 190 and saw it burst into flames. It went down vertically - there was no parachute. The Americans reported two Fw 190s shot down in this combat. The pilot who had been able to get clear of his Fw 190 was Lt. Hecker of 15./JG 3. Hecker's Kaczmarek was Uffz. Karl Kapteina and in his account (Prien, p265) Hecker bailed out after his engine started running very roughly. A single P-47 fighter was reported missing by the 373rd FG. An American pilot bailed out in this combat area injured and later succumbed to his injuries. As Talkenberg was attacked again, he did not see Lahne's machine impact the ground and had also moved some distance away from the air combat, so that he could not remember the exact crash site. No German aircraft from the area was reported as having crashed that could match the "red 5". Lt. Rolf Lahne remained missing until road construction work in 2003 in Pulheim north of Cologne turned up his Erkennungsmarke 'dog-tag' and steel helmet along with parts of his Fw 190. Lahne had flown Ju 88s with KG 3 and had been awarded the Frontflugspange (combat clasp) in silver. He had subsequently been posted to ZG 76 and flew the Me 410 the defence of the Reich before retraining on Fw 190s and being posted to JG 3. He had shot down a B-24 bomber on December 2, now he himself had met this fate. One of the many unexplained and missing airmen over the territory of the Reich.

A single click to view the video here