462 sqdn Halifax Z5N Jan 45

[Z5N]

Need photos of Halifax Z5N MZ469 which crashed Jan 45 in Belgium. Pilot was P/O Mervyn Rohrlach. My father was the only survivor. John Lawrence

[Wurger]

John, you 've asked for the same in other thread.It is not easy tu find the pic via Internet.It can take much time to find something.

[Erich]

John your father was the only survivour, but how did the Hali go down . . . Flak or night fighter ? I asked this in the other RAF command thread but no reply.

go to www.rafcommands.com/ and pose the information and question on their general questions board, someone can help with the a/c and full crew and possibly missions as well, but not sure what you are really lacking

E

[Erich]

John :

some further questions of sorts if I may.

Is your father still lving ?

do you have a route map that his special squadron took on the night of 6/7 Janaury 1945, which would help greatly in determination of fighters vs flak, unless this was a mechancial problem that casued the hali's demise.

was the op a jamming radar mission ?

do you have a time written down of the engagement and downing ?
__________________________________________________ ________________

there are 5 night fighter victories the night in Janaury.

one by DK winner Scröder flying a Ju 88G-6 (I know his bordfünker); a Lancaster 40 km NW of Helsingör on a gardening op..... 19.21 hrs

Major Werner Hoffmann of I./NJG 5 flying a Ju 88G-6, 1 Halifax over the Danziger Bucht (Danzig Bay)..... 21.12 hrs

Major Paul Semrau of Stab NJG 2 flying a Ju 88G-6 claimed 3 Halifax's, sadly no times nor areas of engagement.

and due to the many losses of NJG claims due to the chaos in the late war, there could of been more

[Z5N]

Hi all ...thanks for your replys. My computer skills leave a lot to be desired, sorry. Dad is still alive and locating this photo , which he recalls being taken, wil make him very happy The Halifax went down over Belguim at approx1730 hrs on 6th Jan 45. There was no flack and no fighters were seen. The aircraft suffered a huge impact which left a hole in the floor forward of the W./Op and below the Pilot. The bombaimer and Flight engineer had dissappeared. Dad regained conciousnes, clipped on his chute and went out thru' the hole in the floor. He was captured soon afterwards. There were 12 aircraft on th
e "special operation " .spoof i guess. No written verification of the time except that they were an hour out of Foulsham and had taken off at 1625.
Cheers John Lawrence

[462 Squadron Historian]

John,

Your dads plane is going to be difficult to locate as it was a criminal offence to photograph the special duties aircraft during the war, though some people did of course.

As for it's loss, it is likely to have been caused by a night-fighter as it appears as one of three 'probables' claimed by a Luftwaffe Major that night and in that area. The damage to the aircraft is also consistant with a night-fighter possibly using schrage-musik from behind and below. The fact that no fighters or flak were reported in the area only helps the chances of it being a night-fighter, not lessening it.

The 462SQN aircraft, though operating as a squadron, rarely saw each other during a sortie doing special ops like spoofing and jamming, so a collision is unlikely, further confirmed by the fact that they operated well away from the main force and pretty much had the sky to themselves.

I actually met your dad a few weeks ago. He's quite the character and I wish him a long and happy life and hopefully, a picture of 'Nuts' one day.

Cheers,

Craig