Raid damage (page 2)

Dreux: 12 June 1944

In the three weeks after the Allied landings in Normandy, a string of losses was reported by I./SKG 10, particularly as a result of an Allied raid on Dreux.

The first casualty came on 6 June, the day of the invasion, when Fw 190 G-8 W.Nr. 190099, white 1 crashed. At 00.45 GMT the next morning, Oberfähnrich Reinhold Schüle died when his G-3 was destroyed at Dreux (W.Nr. 160669, yellow 7), apparently in an accident. Next day, the Gruppe had 34 (18) aircraft and 30 (20) crews, with three Fw 190 G-3 newly added to strength: W.Nr. 160343, 160391 and another, "160 …", whose full Werk Nummer was not intercepted. That night, Uffz. Kauntz of the 2. Staffel was posted missing from an operation (Fw 190 G-3 W.Nr. 160906, red 6).

On the afternoon of 8 June reported strength was 29 (20) pilots and 34 (17) aircraft. Kauntz’s machine was still missing but two new Fw 190 G-3 had been received from Toul, W.Nr. 160385 and 160675. Even so, the following day saw I./SKG 10 reporting only 12 aircraft serviceable and submitting an urgent request for several different items (25–30 sets of each) “required for operation of Fw 190”, including flame baffles for BMW 801 engines.

Three Focke-Wulfs were lost or damaged in operations on 10 June:

1./SKG 10	G-3 W.Nr. 160381, white 7 went missing along with its pilot , Uffz. Robert Strezetzki.
	NOTE: the War Graves Register gives his name as Robert Streletzki.

	On returning to Dreux, the undercarriage of G-8 W.Nr. 190119, white 9, would not let down. In the ensuing belly landing the aircraft suffered 15% damage (to its propeller, flaps, landing gear and lower cowling).
3./SKG 10	The engine of G-3 W.Nr. 160342, yellow 7, cut out over Le Boullay-Thierry (7 km SSE Dreux), forcing Ofw. Hans Ditze to take to his parachute.
	A fourth machine (the 2. Staffel’s Fw 190 G-3 W.Nr. 160605, red 5) was shot down by Allied fighters during a test flight at Dreux and its pilot, Ltn. Dieter Hess, was killed.
	NOTE: Jean-Bernard Frappé also notes that 3./SKG 10’s Ofw. Heinz Titze was injured near Dreux in Fw 190 G-3 W.Nr. 160343, yellow 7.

Limited reinforcement was allocated to I./SKG 10 the same day, in the shape of a repaired Fw 190 G-3, W.Nr. 160442 being ferried to Toul by 4. (Nord)/Fl.ÜG 1. Next day the Gruppe was told that yellow 2 was serviceable for transfer from Dinard but on the afternoon of the 12th, Dreux’s dispersals came under an air attack which cost I./SKG 10 no fewer than six aircraft, although no personnel were lost:

Stab	Fw 190 G-3	W.Nr. 181455	green 1	100%
	NOTE: A-5/U8 series Werk Nummer?

2./SKG 10	Fw 190 G-3	W.Nr. 160675	red 6	100%
	Fw 190 G-3	W.Nr. 160308	red 9	100%
	Fw 190 G-3	W.Nr. 160385	red 11	100%
1./SKG 10	Fw 190 G-3	W.Nr. 160462	white 1 [?]	40%
		(damage to fuselage and undercarriage; found at the AGO works, Cravant-Bazarnes, described as “badly shot up.”)
	Fw 190 F-8	W.Nr. 931006	BY+YK	90%

Another five aircraft were damaged but in spite of this reverse, warnings were given to the Flak late that day that aircraft from Tours would be flying out over the coast on a direct course to attack London at 21.45 GMT next evening, returning over the Seine Bay. Fw 190s would also would be flying to London from Tours, attacking at 01.30 and returning to Rosières-en-Santerre. While no unit is specified, all three airfields cited were used by I./SKG 10. In the event, the proposed incursion does not seem to have been attempted but next morning two messages were sent to the Gruppenkommandeur, Maj. Kurt Dahlmann, at Tours-West that six (or seven) aircraft had landed at Rosières-en-Santerre. The intention was that they should return independently to Tours that evening. However the take-off of Ofhr. Fries’ white 6 was delayed until the morning of the 14th owing to a broken oil regulator.

In a further raid on the 13th, Fw 190 F-8 W.Nr. 930988, BY+YC (Staffel unknown) was destroyed. One of the unit’s Fw 190 G-3 was among the machines undergoing repair at Guyancourt on 14 June. The Gruppe's strength at 18.00 hrs. on 18 June was 25 (13) pilots and 21 (7) aircraft, while the next day its ground echelon was transferring to Tours-West. The aerodrome was bombed at 06.30 GMT on the 25th without personnel casualties but with the loss of Fw 190s white 2 and white 6, red 2 and red 3 destroyed; white 11 and white 21 were undamaged.

NOTE: the above are what I’ve picked up from a few ULTRA decrypts which inevitably cannot give the whole story, even of the limited period under discussion here. They do however provide some details that may not be available elsewhere.

For a comprehensive I./SKG 10 loss-listing, see Chris Goss: Luftwaffe Hit and Run Raiders: Nocturnal Fighter-Bomber Operations Over the Western Front, 1943-1945 (Classic Publications, 2009) ISBN 9781903223994

Flying losses (but not those due to bombing) can also be found in Jean-Bernard Frappé: La Luftwaffe face au débarquement allié (Éditions Heimdal, Bayeux 1999) ISBN 2 84048 126 X

continued on next page …

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