Aside, of course, from the veterans of Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5, four individuals played a key role in the gestation of the story that follows. In this regard, I would like to mention Hellmut Hetz, Bob Hanes and Eddie J. Creek who, many years ago, brought to my attention the work of Oskar H. Schmidt, without which, this book would never have been written.
Shadow over the Atlantic is dedicated to those four gentlemen.
CONTENTS
Introduction and Acknowledgements
Author’s Note
Glossary
Map
CHAPTER 1 Dark Waters
CHAPTER 2 Junkers’ Colossus: the Ju 290
CHAPTER 3 Eyes over the Eastern Front
CHAPTER 4 Formation:
Achmer, March–November 1943
CHAPTER 5 ‘Now it’s serious’:
Atlantic Operations, November–December 1943
CHAPTER 6 The Kommandeur’s Report
CHAPTER 7 A Burning Question:
Atlantic Operations, December 1943
CHAPTER 8 To see, or not to see:
Atlantic Operations, January 1944
CHAPTER 9 Black February:
Atlantic Operations, February 1944
CHAPTER 10 Fading Shadows:
March–May 1944
CHAPTER 11 Flight and Fight:
June–August 1944
CHAPTER 12 4./FAGr 5, by Nick Beale
CHAPTER 13 Return to the Reich: August–September 1944
CHAPTER 14 ‘Special Tasks’:
KG 200 and Metallbau Offingen/Sonderkommando Nebel, July 1944 to February 1945
CHAPTER 15 Divide and Fall:
The Final Months, January–May 1945
CHAPTER 16 ‘Genieße den Krieg, der Friede wird furchtbar!’:
May 1945
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: Ju 290A-2–A-7 Technical Specifications
APPENDIX 2: List of Known Aircraft and Losses (FAGr 5)
APPENDIX 3: List of Officers
APPENDIX 4: Aircraft Strength, July 1943 to March 1945
APPENDIX 5: Navigational Methods employed by FAGr 5
Endnotes
Bibliography and Sources
INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
‘I’ve got something for you.’
So announced my good friend, Eddie Creek, upon his return from a holiday in the United States. It was 13 years ago. Eddie was visiting our office at the time and, with a wry smile, dropped onto my desk a slender, softcover volume in an untitled, wine red cover.
I raised an eyebrow and glanced at him quizzically before picking it up and flicking through it. There were 145 pages and they were covered in typewritten German text. There was the occasional, pencilled annotation in the margin. It looked like a typed draft or a manuscript.
I went to the first page where there was a title: Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5 Atlantik – Eine Aufzeichnung von Oskar H. Schmidt.
To say my jaw dropped or my heart missed a beat would be untrue, but my eyes did widen a little in surprise. I seem to recall that I simply looked at Eddie and murmered ‘How…?’
It was a rare history of a little-known but most interesting Luftwaffe unit – one that I knew had flown Junkers Ju 290s from western France in 1943/44 on long-range reconnaissance and convoy-shadowing operations in support of the U-boats. As far as I was aware, in the English language at least, there was very little known about its activities. But here was an account written by the former chief of the Stabskompanie of the Gruppe based partly on his memory and the memories of his former comrades, partly on private records and partly on official reports.
It transpired that, while in America, Eddie had visited his good friend and fellow aviation enthusiast, Bob Hanes. Bob, in turn, had known the late Hellmut Hetz, a former pilot in 1./Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5 (FAGr 5), well from when they had both worked for Eastern Airlines. Bob recalls:
I met Hellmut when I was working for Eastern Airlines in Houston, Texas. He was the Chief Check-Out Pilot for Eastern Airlines at JFK Airport. We spent a number of evenings talking about his experiences flying in the Luftwaffe, as he had flown so many different types of aircraft, including the Ju 88, Ju 188 and the Ju 290. He was also a test pilot on the Me 262 and went operational on the Ar 234 towards the end of the war. He used to kid that he was one of the first American war brides, as he had married an American in Germany after the war. He was a real gentleman and a hell of a pilot. I had told Hellmut that I was very interested in the Ju 290, as I had never read too much about the aircraft, and his wife, Romaine, was kind enough to send this package to me after his death.
Although this intriguing piece of Luftwaffe history subsequently fell into my hands, and I could see its significance, I was also aware from information on the Internet that a book project on FAGr 5 was, apparently, already under way in Germany, though there were no details. So I put the Schmidt volume on my shelf – where it would remain for a long time – and waited eagerly for the book’s publication.
The following year, 2004, and with no further news, I decided to write to Oskar H. Schmidt telling him I had a copy of his work and asking whether it would be possible to meet him in Germany to discuss the possibility of my writing a history of FAGr 5. Herr Schmidt replied:
In the confusion of the last days of the war, together with my friend and Kommandeur, Hermann Fischer, I left some cases containing important documents (logbooks and war diaries) with a farmer in central Germany. We believed they would be safe there. But with the division of Germany, this area – the DDR (German Democratic Republic) – fell under Soviet control. It was only after the reunification of Germany that I was able to get in contact with the farmer’s surviving children. However, I was informed that the cases were taken off by the Russians and have never been seen since.
As such, Herr Schmidt regretted that he was unable to help further but wished me ‘all the best for your further investigations and much success.’
Over the coming years, as I visited archives in the UK and Germany to undertake research on other writing projects, I would use any spare time I had to locate information, no matter how inconsequential, on the history of FAGr 5. I also mentioned to a few fellow aviation researchers that I was interested in the unit. Very gradually, I began to build up a file of documentary information and, with the aid of Schmidt’s work, a more complete picture of the unit’s activities began to emerge.
Beyond Oskar H. Schmidt’s account, the most detailed coverage of FAGr 5’s history can be found in Karl Kössler’s and Günther Ott’s excellent 1993 book Die großen Dessauer: Junkers Ju 89, Ju 90, Ju 290, Ju 390 (Aviatic Verlag). To this day, this book forms an essential and unrivalled study of the Ju 290 and the units with which it served. It proved a key aid to my research. These authors had access to many surviving logbooks of former FAGr 5 aircrew.
A more recently available and invaluable resource, which shines light on the operations of the Gruppe, are the HW 13 files held at the UK National Archives, comprising records of the Government Code and Cypher School. These files contain a detailed summary of British radio intercepts and intelligence on Luftwaffe operations over the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic. To this can be added various British Air Ministry translations of German reports, British interrogation reports and, assisting with ‘the view from the other side’, RAF combat reports and diaries. In Germany, the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv yielded a fascinating report compiled by the Kommandeur of FAGr 5 on his unit’s activities in late 1943.
After absorbing all the information I had amassed and read, I was left with an impression of ‘heroic failure’; the crews of FAGr 5 had a thankless, tiring and, unlike their fighter pilot comrades, an inglorioius task. They would spend many hours in t
heir big Ju 290s, flying over endless stretches of grey sea, more often than not in dreadful weather, using technology that was often faulty, to try to locate enemy convoys, which against the vastness of the ocean, really did equate to needles in haystacks. They had to undertake these missions often in a lone aircraft against the prospect of ever-increasing enemy air opposition. And crucially, despite continual demands from Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz for air reconnaissance support for his U-boats, they did it with woefully inadequate numbers of aircraft. Yet, to execute such missions required very skilled pilots, highly trained navigators and radio operators, and sharp-eyed gunners, all with plenty of stamina.
Ultimately, however, FAGr 5 was unable to render sufficient assistance to the U-boats, but that was no fault of its crews. To the contrary, they proved themselves equal to their task time and again.
Meanwhile, several years passed, but still no book on the Gruppe appeared from anywhere else. Then, in early 2015, I received an offer to publish the story and so, after 12 years of inaction, it became a case of carpe diem.
In writing this book, I must acknowledge, first and foremost, Oskar H. Schmidt, upon whose endeavours, together with those of his comrades, it is largely based. However, during my research and preparation I received assistance from several colleagues and fellow researchers and in this regard I would like to express my foremost thanks to ‘my Old Texas Friend’, Bob Hanes, and to Eddie J. Creek, for introducing me to Oskar Schmidt’s history of the Gruppe. My thanks also to Nick Beale for kindly contributing the fruits of his research into the little-known 4./FAGr 5; his chapter on this Staffel serves to enhance and complete the story. At the time of writing, Nick runs a fascinating and extensive website at www.ghostbombers.com which shines a light on many aspects of Luftwaffe history that may otherwise lie undiscovered. It is thoroughly recommended.
Eddie J. Creek, Dave Wadman, J. Richard Smith, Edgar Brooks, Andrew Arthy, Chris Goss, Martin Pegg, Steven Coates, Andy Thomas, Adam Thompson, Edwin ‘Ted’ Oliver, Juan Carlos Salgado Rodríguez, Gordon Williamson, Jochen Mahnke, Dr. James H. Kitchens III, Dennis Davison and Ian Burgham have all kindly helped with documents, photographs, opinions and general goodwill over the years, for which I am most grateful.
Dr. Konrad Knirim was good enough to allow me to reproduce the recollections of Hellmut Nagel. For those wishing to learn more about Luftwaffe navigational methods and timekeeping, Dr. Knirim is a leading authority on historic military watches and clocks. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Militäruhren: 150 Jahre Zeitmessung beim deutschen Militär (2002) and British Military Timepieces (2009). He runs a detailed website on military timepieces at www.knirim.de.
I would also like to acknowledge my editor, Tony Holmes, as well as Marcus Cowper, Kate Moore and Gemma Gardner at Osprey Publishing for their belief and support in this project.
My thanks too must go to Sally-Kate – as always. Her love and support have been immeasurable.
Robert Forsyth
November 2016
AUTHOR’S NOTE
TIMES AND TIMING
All times in this book are as taken from original documents. However, the interpretation and understanding of the complexities of UK and Continental European time variations can be challenging, to say the least.
I can only recommend the late Roy Conyers Nesbit’s illuminating overview in RAF Records in the PRO1 from which I take the liberty of quoting an extract:
… the times of take-off and landing of aircraft based in the UK can vary from local time to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and … it is sometimes difficult to distinguish which were entered in the records. Generally times were recorded in local time, but where they were taken from navigators’ logs in Squadrons based in the UK, they were usually in GMT.
During the war, local time varied from GMT to British Summer Time (BST, 1 hour in advance of GMT) to British Double Summer Time (BDST, 2 hours in advance of GMT). An example of this difference in times is:
GMT BST BDST
14.00 hrs = 15.00 hrs = 16.00 hrs
Local time in the UK varied as follows:
From 02.00 hrs Sunday 15 Aug 1943 BST
02.00 hrs Sunday 2 Apr 1944 BDST
02.00 hrs Sunday 17 Sep 1944 BST
02.00 hrs Monday 2 Apr 1945 BDST
On the other hand, the Germans used Central European Time (CET, 1 hour in advance of GMT) and German Summer Time (GST, 2 hours in advance of GMT), so that for example:
GMT CET GST
14.00 hrs = 15.00 hrs = 16.00 hrs
Local time in Germany varied as follows:
From 02.00 hrs Monday 4 Oct 1943 CET
02.00 hrs Monday 3 Apr 1944 GST
02.00 hrs Monday 2 Oct 1944 CET
02.00 hrs Monday 2 Apr 1945 GST
LUFTWAFFE NAVIGATIONAL LOCATION SYSTEM
Readers in this book will notice that many German navigational fix/position references follow a four-digit suffix after the line of longitude. For example ‘25° West 4546’: this four-digit number was a reference to a map grid system comprised of larger (‘Großtrapez’), medium (‘Mitteltrapez’) and small (‘Kleintrapez’) positional squares based on the Gradnetzmeldeverfahren (‘grid method’). The size of a Großtrapeze was approximately 70 x 111 kilometres, while a Mitteltrapez had an area of approximately 35 x 28 kilometres and the Kleintrapez of approximately 9 x 11 kilometres. Each Mitteltrapez was, in turn, sub-divided into 8 numbered squares, and the Kleintrapez into numbered 9 squares, with the square reference numbers running sequentially in columns, from top to bottom, left to right as one looked at the map.
The above example of ‘25° West 4546’ refers to a position in the Atlantic in ‘Großtrapez’ 45 and then ‘Mitteltrapez’ 4 (of 8 squares) and ‘Kleintrapez’ 6 (of 9 squares).
Those readers wishing to know more details are recommended to consult the following websites available at the time of writing:
•The Luftwaffe Map Reference System (Gradnetzmeldeverfahren) by Andreas Brekken at: www.stormbirds.com/eagles/research/gradnetz/gradnetz.html
•Info for LUMA [Luftwaffe Grid Map Converter] at: http://www.gyges.dk/LUMA%20Guide%20v2007%2005.pdf
GLOSSARY
Abwehr
German Military Intelligence Service
Aufklärungsgruppe
Reconnaissance Group (flying)
B-Dienst (Beobachtungsdienst)
Interception and recording, decoding and analysis section of Marinenachrichtendienst (Naval Intelligence Service)
Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU)
Commander of Submarines
Bildoffizier
Photographic Officer
Deutsche Kreuz (DK)
German Cross
Deutsche Kreuz in Gold (DKG)
German Cross in Gold
Ehrenpokal
Honour Goblet awarded to Luftwaffe aircrews for ‘For Special Achievement in the Air War’
Einsatzkommando
Operational Detachment
Erprobungsstelle
Test Centre
(F)/Aufkl.Gr Long-Range Reconnaissance Group
Fernaufklärungsgruppe (FAGr)
Long-Range Reconnaissance Group
Fernerkunder
Long-range reconnaissance aircraft
Ferngerichtete Drehringlafetten (FDL)
remotely controlled gun mounts
Fliegerführer
Air Commander (usually a regional or functional tactical appointment)
Fliegerverbindungsoffizier (Flivo)
Air Liaison Officer
FuG (Funk-Gerät) Radio set/apparatus/equipment
General der Aufklärungsflieger
Commanding General of the
Reconnaissance Arm
Generalluftzeugmeister
Inspector-General of the Luftwaffe
Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT)
The volume of space on a ship available for cargo
Gruppe
Luftwaffe ‘group’ (usually comprising three or four Staffeln)<
br />
Gruppenstab
Group Staff
Hiwi (Hilfswilliger)
Foreign volunteer worker
Hydraulische Drehringlafetten (HDL)
hydraulically operated gun mounts
Instep RAF term for patrol intended to shield Coastal Command units from enemy fighter attack while on operations in the Bay of Biscay
Kampfgeschwader (KG)
Bomber Wing
Kampfgeschwader zur besonderen Verwendung (KGr.z.b.V)
Battle Wing for Special Purposes
Koluft (Kommandeur der Luftwaffe bei einem Armeeoberkommando)
Luftwaffe Commander assigned to an Army command
Kommando der Erprobungsstellen (KdE)
Commander of Luftwaffe Test Centres
Kriegsmarine
German Navy
Küstenfernaufklärungsstaffel
Long-Range Coastal Reconnaissance Squadron
Küstenfliegergruppe (Kü.Fl.Gr.)
Coastal Air Group
Lufttransportstaffel (LTS)
Air Transport Squadron
Luftwaffenführungsstab
Luftwaffe Command Staff
MAC Merchant Aircraft Carrier
Nachrichtenoffizier
Signals Officer
Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (Ob.d.L. later OKL)
High Command of the Luftwaffe
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW)
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
Offizier zur besonderen Verwendung (Offz.z.b.V.)
Officer assigned for special duties
Organisation Todt
Nazi civil and military engineering group
Pulk
Slang given to a formation of enemy aircraft
Reichsluftministerium (RLM)
Reich Air Ministry
Reichsverkehrsministerium (RVM)
State Transport Ministry
Ritterkreuz
Knight's Cross
Schwan (or Schwan-See)
FuG 302 C ‘Swan’/’Swan Lake’ droppable radio buoy
Seeaufklärungsgruppe (SAGr)
Maritime Reconnaissance Group
Seekriegsleitung (SKL)
Maritime Warfare Command
Spiess
A title given to the Senior Sergeant or NCO of a unit
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