Ju-290s shot down off Northern Ireland Feb. 1944.

Whilst trying to restore order to disorder ( under pressure from my youngest (18) ) , I came across some items which I have not looked at in a while - thought they might interest some folks here.

The first is a report on the interrogation of some survivors from a Ju-290 shot down in May 1944.
The previous losses from this unit being two JU290's shot down off the West of Ireland in February 1944.
One was shot down by a Wildcat operating from HMS Biter anescort carrier and the second by S/Ldr Jim Wright of 235 Squadron , a native of Belfast.
Wright was over at St. Angelo on detachment from Portreath with a number of 235 Squadron's Beaufighters giving aircover to Convys which had been increasingly under threat from the Luftwaffe who attacked them with HS-293 "Glider bombs".

On 16th February 44 a Ju-290 was shot sown by two New Zealanders ,Lts. Erickson and Dimes , operating from HMS Biter.
( See " Focke -Wulf Condor Scourge of the Atlantic" By K.Poolman ).
This aircraft appears to have been "9V + DK".

A few hours later Wright shot down "9V + FH".
This is the only "kill" achieved by aircraft operating from County Fermangh durring WW2.

The following documents Squadron Leader Wrights shooting down of the JU-290 , I am grateful to him for copies from his log book and details of the camera gun footage shot durring the attack.








From AIR/15/472 193673.

Below details of the two Ju-290s lost with their crews.



Some notes on the aircraft detached to St.Angelo , the only fighters to operate from there "in anger".

Sadly another notable incident involving 235 took place a fighter affiliation exercise which went wrong , Sunderland W6028 crashed near St Angelo , two of the crew died as a result. ( 20/02/44).















I have another similar report somewhere abouts , the result from the interrogation of a JU-88 crew , correspondecne with a pilot from KG40 resulted in this piece , he was still very angry with what this crew gave up
in terms of information.

65 years ago ....seems a lifetime away , today it is just a forgotten piece of St Angelo's history, for the relatrives of the two german aircrews "missing" still hangs over them.

May they rest in peace.

Der Atlantik-Pirat

For a photo and details of this astro - calculator go to Max's site , 7th down on the right hand side.

 

Now there is a name from the past - I used to go to St Angelo to maintain the radio room when it was an SF base

Chris

 

Am always interested in reading about the missions of the JU290. Thanks James!

 

Thanks for posting that James, makes interesting reading.

Regards
Peter.

 

I do have a memory of stopping to take a photo of the now demolished control tower , a building which the district council allowed to get into a state of disrepair and one which they simply "cut off" at ground level saying it could not be maintained.

(An hour after I got home the RUC called with me to ask why I was photographying an Army base , I invited the officer in and showed him a request for a photo of the control tower which was some 600-800 yards away on the opposite side of the road from the Army base. I thought it fair enough to be asked what I was photographing times being what they were.).

About three years ago a preservation order was about to be placed on the defence systems and firing butts , the land owner brough in a digger and destroyed them claiming that he had lost cattle to them and he had to do it.
Strange that in all the post war years from 1945 until 2005 odd that neither he nor his family ever did a thing about it in all those years ?

Today the runway has been resurfaced and a new control tower has been built close to the roadside , the local flying club still uses the site and one or two small aviation concerns are located on the site.
(The resurfacing work became a bone which Unionist and Nationalist councillers fought over , children could have gotten on better in a playschool , today a more reasnable form of debate exists .....I hope !).

The station never had a great history behind it , built as a fighter station it thankfully never had to be used as one until late in the day and only for a short time.
Its wartime use was most as an instructional site and as a communications base and home for some of 131 OTU's drogue towing flight which towed drogues for AG's over Donegal Bay and assorted communication aircraft.
Occasionally lost aircraft did come to her B-17's lost in transit to the UK , one of which crashed SE of the base near the Graan Monestary and the on one occasion a Halifax from Marston Moor which was picked up after having given a "Darkie" signal out over Donegal Bay.
A Sunderland guided them back to Lough Erne and the Halifax was making an approach to the Lough to land when the obvious error was found out.
Diverted to St. Angleo they spent a week there closed in by bad weather before making the return flight to Yorkshire.

An Ex 422 RCAF and 131 instructor ( Bill Parker) told me about a Wellington which crashed on the flarepath "they thought she was a flying boat" and I didn't know what to make of it......several years later a gent from Oban whom I was put in touch with (Donnie Macfarlane) told me of his encounter with a Sunderland over Donegal Bay , their near landing on Lough Erne and dirversion to St.Angelo....fact can sometimes be stranger than fiction or misunderstood circumstances.

( The pilot of the Sunderland was taken by the direct approach of the SUnderlands Aussie pilot - "Darkie turn your lights on you black bastar*d" , by todays terms not very "PC").

 

The wiki link to the JU-290: Junkers Ju 290 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

James,
Another great post from you. Always a treat to read them.

Regards
Tom

 

Tom , I was just to glad to find this stuff more or less where I thought it should be , I am not sure by what process Squadron Leader Wright found out that he had shot down Oblt. Pape's "290".
The detachment from 235 was only there for a few weeks before moving back "home" , they did chase off a few other contacts DO-217's mostly but no further EA's were shot down or damaged.

 

Pitty that they have shot down this rare bird. Guess that none of them has survived the war...

 

Pitty that they have shot down this rare bird. Guess that none of them has survived the war...
The 290?? It states on the Wiki page Kuno, that one survived into the 50's and was used by the Spanish Air force. Another one was captured by the Americans but I dont know where it ended up.

 

That's a great piece of local history there. Did any German airmen ever get buried in Northern Ireland?

 

The 290?? It states on the Wiki page Kuno, that one survived into the 50's and was used by the Spanish Air force. Another one was captured by the Americans but I dont know where it ended up.

Gotthard,

I remember reading that at least one headed west to the USA for evaluation.
As much new technology as possible was shipped back to the USA, so much so that the UK had to provide some transport vessels.

I have some photos of planes on a British Support Carrier that was used for transporting Watsons Wizzers back to the US, but I will only be able to look them up after the Easter Holidays as I should be packing at the moment!!! but needed my Fix!

Regards
Tom

 

RJL , not that I am aware - there are a number buried in County Wicklow as a result of crashes in Southern Ireland.

A nice link D , still find the whole affair very sickening to be honest.

 

Decided to throw a few more JU290 links up: uboat.net - Technical pages - Junkers Ju 290 and Ju 390

www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org - Luftwaffe Resource Center - Junker Ju 290 Nice picture of the loading ramp of the 290 deployed.

Warbird Photo Album - Ju290

LuftArchiv.de - Das Archiv der Deutschen Luftwaffe Couple of colour shots

 

Finally if you scroll down to the end of the page you will see the only JU 290 to have been made post-war by Letov in 1946: Junkers Aircraft of WWII

 

Wow James excellent posting. really enjoyed it very much being from Bangor myself. Please if you have the time could you post the ju88 crew account KG40 i think you said. I have some interesting info on a he 111 combat involving 315 and i think 501 sqn ballyhalbert. I will look through my records and make it my first posting soon. Many Thanks SKYHAWK.

 

Skyhawk ,
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/war-air/18221-sunderland-flyingboat-photos-4.html Post 27.

JU-88's which met 201 Sunderlands.

Earlier this afternoon I was looking over Chris Goss's "Bloody Biscay" ( Crecy , 1997).






On page 120 / 121 he shows some photographs of Oblt. Gustav Christner and his crew.
I recall from my teenage years ( living in Strabane) a friend of mine told me how his mother's eldest sister had died en route to Gibralter when the Sunderland she was in was shot down.

Chris Gross's book states that Gustav Christner shot them down - 18th July 1943 , JM687 of 204 Squadron , she is remembered on the war memorial in Christschurch near the town's Bowling Green and on the town's War Memorial.

Behind every name on a stone there is a story and an individual , Gustav Christner and his crew were shot down and killed a few months later in October 1943 , he is no doubt remembered in much the same way and in common with those who died on JM687 names known to family members , faces known to future generations through photographs
and spoken recollections.

 

Thanks James. i really like this stuff. Am heading off to see if i can dig out the he111 action info which i will try and post ltr tonight.
Regards SKYHAWK.

 

James

many thanks for the in-depth details on the shooting down of the 2 FAGr 5 Ju 290A's

following along one needs to pick up the Kössler book and Dr. Sönke Neitzels "Der Einsatz der Deutschen LW über dem Atlantik und der Nordsee 39-45", a Bernard and Grafe VErlag publication.

In truth there was a maximum of 18 Ju 290's given to the 1st and 2nd staffeln plus several to the Gruppenstab to operate out of western France, so never was able to receive it's shipment of a total of 45 units at any one time.

James, does Goss mention anything about the FAGr 5 unit in it's fly overs in his work on Bloody Biscay ?

E ~