Flak Units 1944-45

davidasharp · Post by **davidasharp** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:35 am

I am investigating ten Wellington XIIIs of 69 Squadron RAF which failed to return from reconnaissance operations over Europe between May 1944 and April 1945. Most, or all, were lost due to flak, mostly light flak. Is there any way to determine which units might have shot down these aeroplanes? All operations were low altitude at night. I have the dates, times, targets, aircraft serial numbers and crew names, with gravesites, of each of the operations.

Jason Pipes · Post by **Jason Pipes** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:41 am

It's possible although getting confirmation is very slim or unlikely. You may be able to determine which unit was stationed or supposed to be stationed in a given area that the planes were shot down in or near, but getting confirmation that a very specific unit was actually responsible for the shoot down would be next to impossible.

davidasharp · Post by **davidasharp** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:15 pm

I was hoping that individual Flak Units might have kept a record of the aircraft serial numbers of those they had claimed to have shot down. For example, at about 1:45am, Tuesday 8-Aug-1944, Wellington JA631 was shot down over its target of Condé-sur-Noireau, France and crashed just 12 km to the southeast at the village of Bréel. Three members of the crew are buried in Bréel churchyard. It was approaching the target to photograph bridges when shot down. The one crew member who survived stated that the aircraft was at 1000 feet when shot down by 20mm Flak. It was the second aircraft from 69 Sqdn to operate over Condé that night.

Jason Pipes · Post by **Jason Pipes** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:11 pm

They may have, but finding those records if they still exist would be very, very difficult. It also assumes that they went to the trouble of finding the wreckage, examining it, locating the serial numbers if they somehow survived, and then recording them somewhere. That seems unlikely even in the best scenario which 1944-45 was most certainly not.

A side question - they planes were on photo recon missions at night? That seems like a difficult task!

Andy_F · Post by **Andy_F** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:20 pm

Check out this link for Lw flak units. You may be able to find out which units were stationed in areas you are interested in, though there are a lot of units to search through.

http://www.ww2.dk/

Click on Ground Units then Flak Units

As Jason says tying losses to claims will be very hard. Even if you can get hold of unit KTBs it's unlikely they will list aircraft serials very often, though they will probably list engagements the flak units were involved in.