Any Long Range Reconnaissance Missions By Luftwaffe August 15th 1943?

[Luftwaffe88]

I'm still researching about a relative who served in the Luftwaffe, a Lt. Heinrich Ballmann and his crew Rudolph Busch, and Hans Strauss, their mission was to fly and take photos of the Port of Algiers and reported they went missing on August 15th 1943, but more information has been found,

"1943-08-15, 1.(F)/123, Ju 88 T-1, 430702, 4U+CH, Bei Salines, Mallorca/Balearen
Flugzeugführer Ofw Busch, Rudolf
Beobachter Lt Ballmann, Heinrich
Bordfunker Fw Straus, Hans
Notlandung. Bruch 100 %.

15 8 43 1.F123 Salines b, Mallorca Spanien /Algier/ Bruchlandung JU88T-1 430702 4U+CH
Crew return safe from Spain to Germany."

At the time the Allies were taking Sardinia and then Sicily, and then Italy, and huge battles on the Eastern Front as well, yesterday spent all day talking to a friend and trying to figure out why risk a special Junker 88 T-1 when the area was crawling with allies and if you might know what mission it was and how to locate an image of their plane?

 

[Snautzer01]

1./F123 is a recce unit. F of fernaufklarer. Also weather recce

Luftwaffe Units

Aufklärungsgruppe 123

Loss details required for 15.08.1943 Lt. Ballmann - Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum

 

[Luftwaffe88]

I've done an article on all the information known, The Mystery Of Junker Ju 88T-1 430702 Somewhat Solved.

 

[Luftwaffe88]

1./F123 is a recce unit. F of fernaufklarer. Also weather recce

Luftwaffe Units

Aufklärungsgruppe 123

Loss details required for 15.08.1943 Lt. Ballmann - Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum

Thank you, your information helped me to do an article on this.

 

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi,

Interesting article, but missions to Algiers were definitely not considered suicide missions. Routine reconnaissance missions were flown to Algiers throughout 1943, and 1.(F)/123 flew long-range reconnaissance missions to Gibraltar, Oran, Algiers, Sousse, Malta and Tripoli with its Ju 88 T aircraft in the summer of 1943.

The reason for the mission to Algiers on 15 August 1943 can be determined from an entry in the war diary of the German Seekriegsleitung on that day: "The successfully attacked eastbound convoy in the western Mediterranean was not sighted again, it has apparently entered Algiers." So your relative and his crew were sent to see if the convoy had indeed entered Algiers harbour. The convoy can be found here, and as can be seen, quite a few vessels did sail to Algiers: OS & OS/KMS Convoys

There is an excellent book on 1.(F)/123 available here: Fernaufklärer fernaufklaerer.com. It might be worth your while to contact the author, Harald Rabeder, who is a very friendly and helpful fellow. He can be reached here: Kontakt fernaufklaerer.com

Cheers,
Andrew A.

 

[Luftwaffe88]

Hi,

Interesting article, but missions to Algiers were definitely not considered suicide missions. Routine reconnaissance missions were flown to Algiers throughout 1943, and 1.(F)/123 flew long-range reconnaissance missions to Gibraltar, Oran, Algiers, Sousse, Malta and Tripoli with its Ju 88 T aircraft in the summer of 1943.

The reason for the mission to Algiers on 15 August 1943 can be determined from an entry in the war diary of the German Seekriegsleitung on that day: "The successfully attacked eastbound convoy in the western Mediterranean was not sighted again, it has apparently entered Algiers." So your relative and his crew were sent to see if the convoy had indeed entered Algiers harbour. The convoy can be found here, and as can be seen, quite a few vessels did sail to Algiers: OS & OS/KMS Convoys

There is an excellent book on 1.(F)/123 available here: Fernaufklärer fernaufklaerer.com. It might be worth your while to contact the author, Harald Rabeder, who is a very friendly and helpful fellow. He can be reached here: Kontakt fernaufklaerer.com

Cheers,
Andrew A.

Awesome thank you for this added information. Will give the author a contact.