With Bf 110 in the Far North
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Antonis Karydis
Cat. No. 8409
When two Bf 110s landed in neutral Sweden on September 1, 1941, it was a welcome opportunity for the Swedes to thoroughly examine the aircraft. At that time, they were considering licensed production of this type. One of the aircraft flipped over during an emergency landing, but the other landed smoothly near Tärendö. On the rudder of this Messerschmitt were marked eight victories achieved against British and Soviet opponents, and the aircraft was piloted by Lt. Felix Maria Brandis. The Swedes took at least eighty photos of Brandis’ aircraft and its details. At the beginning of 1941, Felix Maria Brandis served with a Bf 110 unit that was organizationally subordinated to JG 77, which was equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 109s. The designation of Brandis’s Staffel, after some initial changes, settled as 1.(Z)/JG 77, with the letter Z standing for Zerstörer (destroyer, heavy fighter). The unit was based in Norway, and its task was to counter British bombers.
Already at the start of 1941, Brandis had a stroke of luck when, on 27 January, he and his radio operator Gefr. Matthias Gans managed to escape unharmed after ditching following an engine fire. In the following months, Brandis shot down three British twin-engine bombers. After the start of the attack on the Soviet Union, during operations over Murmansk in July, he added to his tally a Soviet bomber and two fighter aircraft. The unit operated against the Soviets from the Norwegian base at Kirkenes, near the Finnish and Soviet border.
However, the German pilots were not warned by their intelligence officers about the intensity and accuracy of Soviet anti-aircraft defenses. Later, Bf 110 crews admitted that, had they been informed, they would have chosen different altitudes for certain phases of their combat missions. Enemy flak hit Brandis’ aircraft on July 17, 1941, during Stuka escort mission against Varlamovo. Brandis had to ditch in Petsamo bay, and this time his gunner, Gefr. Gans, did not survive. An unexpected opponent appeared on 30 July in the form of Royal Navy aircraft from the carriers HMS Furious and HMS Victorious. The British launched a raid on the ports of Kirkenes and Petsamo, losing twelve Albacores and four Fulmars in the process. The Germans deployed nine Bf 109s, four Bf 110s, and even nine Ju 87 bombers in interception. The German side, including anti-aircraft gunners, claimed 28 enemy aircraft shot down. Felix Brandis added two Albacore bombers to his tally.
Brandis scored another victory, this time over a Soviet fighter, on 15 August. Although it was his ninth confirmed kill, only eight victories were marked on the rudder of his aircraft.
On 1 September, the event mentioned at the beginning, Lt. Brandis led a formation of four Bf 110s in an afternoon attack on the Murmansk railway. On the return leg, two aircraft made emergency landings near Alakurtti due to fuel shortage but were only lightly damaged. Felix Brandis and the pilot of the remaining aircraft lost orientation due to severely reduced visibility.
The crew of Uffz. Rudolf Reitz and Uffz. Guntram Weigl overturned during a gear-down landing on a small island, and it took the Swedes quite some time to get both airmen out of the aircraft. Their plane was a Bf 110 E-1 (WNr. 4113) with the code LN+KR.
Brandis, with Uffz. Alfred Harnach as his gunner, managed a smooth landing. Their aircraft was also an E-1 version, serial number 4114, and bore the fuselage code LN+FR. All the airmen later recalled that their internment was very comfortable, including boat outings.
After the aircraft and crews returned to their unit, Lt. Brandis achieved another victory, shooting down a Polikarpov I-16 on 15 September. But the following day, Brandis once again crash-landed his aircraft. This time, his gunner was Uffz. Weigl, who had been in the second crew during the crash landings in Sweden. Brandis was flying a Bf 110 D-0 (WNr. 3170) coded LN+HR, and had even taken a war correspondent onboard. The aircraft had two victory marks on its rudder, as it was usually flown by Ofw. Mundig as his personal mount. This very aircraft is depicted on Antonis Karydis’s box art. During a combat flight over the Kola Peninsula, Brandis’ Messerschmitt was hit in the left engine. He managed to bring the damaged aircraft back behind friendly lines but had to make an emergency landing in the tundra. Fortunately, German mountain troops observed the final phase of the flight, located the crew, and brought them to their command post.
By the end of 1941, Lt. Brandis achieved four more victories against Soviet fighters, but on February 2, 1942, he died in a crash on an icy surface in poor visibility. His gunner, Fw. Herbert Baus, survived with injuries. By that time, Felix Maria Brandis held the rank of Oberleutnant and was the commander of his Zerstörerstaffel, which had in the meantime been redesignated as 6.(Z)/JG 5.