Heinz Hauck and 6.(F)/123 (page 1)

Heinz Hauck and 6.(F)/123

April–June 1944

The 6.(F)/123 had been renamed from 3./KG 66 in April 1944, it was led by Hptm. Heinz Dewilde and based at Cormeilles. The 3./KG 66’s role had been described by prisoners as a »Horch- und Störstaffel« (listening and jamming Staffel) and these roles seem to have been carried on by 6.(F)/123. Evidence for this comes from a recommendation dated 9 May 1944 that Ogefr. Alfred Hormann, a Horchfunker (radio monitor) with “6 Wireless Listening Regiment West” should get the Iron Cross Second Class. Hormann was on detachment to 6.(F)/123 and had made 23 war flights; another nomination for a medal at the same time was Fw. Gerhard Schieck (29 war flights), whom we shall meet again.

NOTE: “6 Wireless Listening Regiment West” is the translation given in a deciphered message. I take this to mean the 6. Kompanie of Luftnachrichten-Funkhorch-Regiment West. In June 1944 this unit was based in the Pas de Calais and its role was jamming.

Two days after this recommendation, a Ju 88 S-1 of 6.(F)/123 (W.Nr. 301181, CR+GG) was destroyed in the dispersals by bombs when Cormeilles was raided by B-26s of the 9th AF; this aircraft had been taken over from München-Riem on 18 April by 3./KG 66. The 6.(F)/123 filed regular strength returns which mention two pilots on detachment, Feldwebel Schieck and Hauck. In addition two aircraft are repeatedly listed as “away from airfield”: Ju 188 F-1, W.Nr. 281613 and Ju 88 S-1, W.Nr. 140607. It can be inferred from this that these men and machines were on the same assignment.

6.(F)/123 Aircraft on strength, 11 May 1944
Ju 88 S-1	W.Nr. 140604 W.Nr. 140607	Villacoublay, crash away from station (Z6+AL)
Ju 188 E-1	W.Nr. 260153
Ju 188 F-1	W.Nr. 281613	away from station (Z6+DL)
Do 217 E-4	W.Nr. 1117	shot up by enemy
Transport and communications aircraft: nil.
	Fw. Schieck Fw. Hauck	detachment detachment

NOTE: Also on the 11th, the Staffel submitted a request for four blind landing receiver sets

Poor serviceability seems to have dogged the enterprise. By 15 May the Ju 188 had damaged engines while the Ju 88 was having its fuselage repaired. The next day, Ltn. Suchy, Schieck and Uffz. Arno Kohtz (an observer) were reported to have returned from detachment but Suchy, Hauck, Kohtz and Schieck were away again by the 18th. Two days after that, »Kommando Suchy« reported to Cormeilles that Schieck and Hauck’s crews were ready for operations but that Z6+AL was undergoing an engine change while Z6+DL was having its 100-hour test and its landing flaps were damaged.

NOTES: It would be another three months before information emerged to confirm that Z6+DL was the Ju 188 and therefore that Z6+AL was the Ju 88 (see below).

Leutnant Ernst Suchy had previously served with 3./KG 66 and would later transfer to 4./FAGr. 5.


6.(F)/123 Aircraft on strength, 20 May 1944
Ju 88 S-1	W.Nr. 140604 W.Nr. 140607	Z6+AL
	[Following crash damage, 140604 was handed over for repair to Junkers, Paris on 1 June]
Ju 188 E-1	W.Nr. 260153
Ju 188 F-1	W.Nr. 281613	Z6+DL
Do 217 E-4	W.Nr. 1117

Six days later the ‘188 had a damaged hydraulic system and the ’88 an unserviceable automatic pilot. On 28 May, Fliegerdivision 2 reported among the day’s activities a test flight by a Ju 88 of “Special Detachment KG 66.” Bletchley Park’s analysts noted that 3./KG 66 had become 6.(F)/123, concluding that the latter was meant.

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Although Hauck's interrogators knew that "after some months in hospital he joined 6.(F)/123", I have seen nothing to suggest that anyone made the connection to the many occurrences of his name in deciphered signals from that unit in the spring and summer of 1944.