Do 24

[ruudvanom]

Hallo Fogg.

Sinds mijn laatste mail heb ik nog wat gelezen en ik wil je dit niet onthouden.
Het betreft hoe snel Seenot actief werd tijdens "Seelöwe" en de verkenningsactiviteit van de He 59 tijdens "rescue missions". Born gaf op het eerste overigens geen uitleg behalve dat men niet op de hoogte was.

Luftwaffe Colours - Seeflieger. Luftwaffe Maritime Aircraft and Units 1935-1945. Blz. 58/59.
On 9 April 1940, Germany launched its invasion of Norway and Denmark. As Generaloberst Hans Jeschonnek had only revealed the details of the attack to a handful of staff officers, the Seenot service was unaware of the details and consequently unprepared for large-scale rescue operations should the need arise. On the first day of operations, a number of Ju 52 transports crashed into the Norwegian Sea but there were no rescue forces available to save their marooned crews. Upon learning of the invasion, Goltz immediately ordered several He 59 seaplanes to transfer from the island of Sylt to Aalborg in northern Denmark so that within two days of the beginning of the invasion, rescue aircraft and boats could begin operating in support of the invading forces.
As bases were captured along the Norwegian coastline, rescue aircraft and boats moved northwards from Listafjord to Stavanger, Bergen, and Trondheim and later, with the fall of central and Northern Norway, bases at both Tromsö and Kirkenes were used to service rescue need in the far north.

Blz. 60/61.
Just over one week later on the evening of 9 July, a second Heinkel He 59 B-2 D-ASUO, this time from SNFIKdo 1, was forced down on to the Goodwin Sands by Spitfires of 54 Squadron. ……..
Deze werd naar Ramsgate gesleept.

Subsequent examination of the documents carried by this aircraft found that entries in the pilot's log noted positions and movements of British convoys and other shipping. With reconnaissance clearly being a military and not a humanitarian function, the British decided to take action against such activities and accordingly, on 29 July, the Air Ministry released Order No. 1254.

Daarna schreef Churchill o.a.: >We did not recognize this means of rescuing enemy pilots so they could come and bomb our civil population again… al German air ambulances were forced down or shot down by our fighters on definite orders approved by the War Cabinet.<

Ruud.

P.S. Van het laatste heb ik naderhand een link gevonden naar de genoemde blz. 60/61, daar staat 1254 uitgebreid:
http://www.specialtypress.com/specia...tfiles/322.pdf