One of our planned new item releases for February, 2021

includes an option for the Dornier Do17Z-5 coded “7T+HH”

from Küstenfliegergruppe 606. The Z-5 version was equipped

for operations over water and was mainly used by this unit.

The crew of “7T+HH” experienced some extremely dramatic

moments during an attack on Liverpool that proved fateful for

most of them. In the article, I will also touch on the citizens

of Great Britain and Malta. There were those that succumbed

to the effects of war, while others, as we shall see, were born

into it.

Navy Personnel in the Luftwaffe

Küstenfliegergruppe 606 was a unit within the German coastal

air service. From the end of 1939, it specialized in patrol duties

and attacks on surface vessels. The unit was equipped with the

Do 17 and was based at Kiel-Holten. After being engaged against

Denmark, Kï.Fl.Gr.606 was moved to the area of Brest in July,

1940, and from September was made subordinate from Navy to

Luftflotte 3. The Gruppe was commanded by a former Navy officer,

Major Joachim Hahn, who became a naval cadet already in 1923.

The unit had put into practice having the crew command functions, and also those of the observer, performed by Naval Officers.

In terms of navigation over water, combat tactics and target identification, this was deemed optimal. Over the course of the Battle

of Britain, however, the main task of the unit became raids on British cities, attacks against harbors, bombings of military targets

from heights of only a few tens of meters, and also target marking

for other bombers. Combat missions usually took the crews to

western areas of Great Britain. Kü.Fl.Gr.606 was in these tasks

very successful and Hahn was awarded the Ritterkreuz in October,

1940 as a result. In 1942, he became Kommodore Kampfgeschwader 6, and he met his fate on June 3rd during an inspection tour,

along with two other airmen, in a Messerschmitt Bf 108. Near Le

Trepot, they were shot down by Spitfires from No. 401 Squadron

RAF, flown by F/Sgt S.C. Cosburn and F/Lt E.L. Neal.

Liverpool Raids

During the Second World War, the second most hit target in

Great Britain was Liverpool. The primary target was the city harbor, which was among the biggest on the western shores of Great

Britain. Liverpool and the surrounding area lost some 4,000 of

its inhabitants between the summer

of 1940 and the beginning of 1942.

From one of the destroyed homes

of Liverpool, paradoxically, came

Hitler’s nephew, William Patrick

Hitler, who served in the United States Navy during the Second

World War.

From the beginning of October, 1940, one of the units defending Liverpool was No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron, based at

Speke, which currently is Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. The

first kill achieved by the squadron is probably also the quickest

in the history of the RAF. F./Lt D.E. Gillam and his wingmen Alois

Vašátko and Josef Stehlík were experienced pilots, and they shot

down a Junkers Ju 88 A-1, coded “M7+DK” of Küstenfliegergruppe 806 shortly after takeoff. The task of the Ju 88 was to bomb

the Rootes aircraft factory at Speke. All three Hurricanes were

actually hit by defensive fire coming from the German bomber.

The bomber came down in the docks south of Liverpool. The crew

commander, Lt. z. S. Herbert was killed by fire from the Hurricanes, and another three crewmen, Oblt. Helmuth Brückmann,

Uffz. Helmuth Weth and Obfhr. Horst Lehmann, were taken prisoner. The combat over the city grabbed a lot of attention, and

the gates to the air base had to be shut, because massive crowds

showed up, wanting to show their appreciation to the Czechoslovak unit. Eighteen crews from Kü.Fl.Gr.606 attacked British targets on the night of October 10th, thirteen of which were tasked

with hitting the factory at Speke and the production facility of

Rolls-Royce at Crewe. All of the bombers returned to their bases.

However, the next event would play itself out differently.

During the evening hours of October 11th, 1940, six Do 17s from

Hahn’s unit approached the area around Liverpool. One was headed for Birkenhead, and the other five were tasked with again hitting Speke and Crewe. Three of the aircraft were from 1. Staffel

and three from 2. Staffel Kü.Fl.Gr.606.

Title photo: Do 17 Z-5 (W. Nr. 2787) „7T + HH“ from the

1st Staffel of Küstenfliegergruppe 606 at Lanvéoc-Poulmic

base before the raid on October 11, 1940. White part of

the fuselage cross is already painted in black, but you can

still see the swastika, the unit emblem and white tip of the

propeller cone. During the raid on October 11, all of that was

already painted black to reduce visibility. The emblem of the

unit was an eagle tearing Great Britain. Photo: Chris Goss

Portrait photo: Karl-Franz Heine. Credit: uboat.net