On Thursday the 22nd of may 1941 Heinkel He111 H5 F8+GM crashed into rock at the end of Reydarfjordur on the east coast of Iceland. The time was approx. 0200. The aircraft was from 4./KG40. II/KG40 was at that time under direct operational control from the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and mainly used for maritime recce, for which it used Fw200’s and specially modified He111.
Now comes the interesting part. I friend of mine recently got hold of Luftwaffe loss lists for the period. In that list this aircraft is listed as missing in action in the North Sea (Nordsee)!! Something here does not add up. Is it possible they were just so hoplessly lost? The aircraft was seen to circle a few time at the entrance to the fjord and the proceed into it (to the west) flying under low overcast. That is a suicidal thing to do in this location. But if you think you are on the west coast of Norway, that is the direction to go if you want to save your hide.
My question is this. What did the Luftwaffe have in the way of long range navigation at this time??
I seem to recall two strong beacons one in Stavanger and the other in Trondheim. They should have been useable to get a fix. The other thing is, as this was maritime recce, they would have had visual contact with the sea. Did the Luftwaffe use smoke floats to check drift and up date dead rekconing?
What do you think??
By: Snapper - 5th March 2003 at 23:15
Try asking here:
http://disc.server.com/Indices/3051.html
Thats the Twelve O’ Clock High Luftwaffe forum – some clued up specialists there.
Good luck.
By: Moggy C - 5th March 2003 at 22:30
🙁
Can’t help much with the navaids question, but I reckon your assumption of mistaking Iceland for Norway and flying the wrong way to get out of the Fiord is probably spot on.
Before that they could have made the classic mistake of flying a reciprocal on the spirit compass, but this is less likely in a multi-crew aircraft with dedicated navigator than in a single seater
Moggy
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March 5, 2003 at 9:03 pm