REASON FOR LOSS:

This aircraft was severely damaged by fire from Spitfires of Nos. 152, 315 and 504 Squadrons and crashed. A Spitfire of No. 315 Squadron was brought down by return fire during the combat and its pilot, F/Sgt Sawiak was killed.

03.05.42 Reiser, Hund, Berndt & Störmer after return from enemy war flight,
having been attacked by two aircraft and suffered many hits managed to get back safely.

Veteran observer of the 1./Staffel, Hptm. Berndt is congratulated by his comrades. (Brownless)

The telephone rings. Its the command post. There is a mission. The „Konrad“ starts at 7 o’clock. The order arrives. Hauptmann. Gottfried Berndt is flying. It will be all right, with the old Radio Operator Oberfeldwebel. Karl Hund it has always gone well. We think too of the Pilot Leutnant. Paul Störmer and the Bordwart Unteroffizier. Josef Reiser. Still there is not a lot of time to reflect. It is 7 o’clock. We call the „Konrad“ and even though it is starting from a remotely situated dock, it answers immediately. The connection is functioning. In our thoughts we wish the crew „Hals und Beinbruch„ (Good Luck) and are happy with the continuous incoming contact signals.

Hardly a word is spoken. Everyone is busy carrying out his own task. Phone calls come and go, there are a couple of shouts, then it becomes quiet again.

It is 09.30. A phone extension is replaced. An important message for the „Konrad“. But there is no response. We call again, but again no answer. Well, the Radio Operator must be busy at the moment. The message has to reach the crew. It is tapped in blind and once again repeated. Both men on the receiver shout simultaneously : Fighters! The machine has fighters. In a flash everything becomes clear. That was why he couldn’t take the message. He had already exchanged the button for the machine gun.

The Funktruppführer gives the message to the Gefechtsstand-offizier. It is 09.35. Our thoughts are with our comrades. Two Spitfires had already shot Oberfeldwebel Hund down, some had hit hard. A soldier’s luck would hopefully be true to him today too.

09.40: The „Konrad“ reports again: „Fighters!“

09.42: The same once more. The tension mounts.

09.44: Again Oberfeldwebel. Hund gives his alarm „Fighters“.
The suspense becomes unbearable.

The Bodenstelle acknowledges and the comrades hold their breath so that no morse code signal is lost.

09.45: Thank God. The machine calls. They are alive! The Radio Operators are overcome with joy. They still have no idea of what is to come.

09.50: ft – ft buzzes in the headphones. One shouts: „The Konrad is giving uncoded text!“ Everyone knows what that means. It has serious difficulties. With feverish impatience we wait for the text. How seconds can seem endless. It comes: „Flying with one engine“. The message is acknowledged. The „Altmeister“ uses a second receiver.

A thousand questions lie on our lips. Are the crew well? Can the machine make it with one engine? The road is long. There are still hundreds of kilometres to the coast. We’ll know soon enough.

09.57: Another message: „Emergency landing in Ireland. Regards to all comrades. „Heil Hitler!“ That meant separation for a long time. They were landing on neutral territory and not in English captivity. At least a comfort. One message after the other.


09.58: „Everyone is well“.

09.59: Give the Staffelkapitän our best wishes. Message by radio: „Auf Wiedersehen, all the best, the Squadron“.

In the meantime the other Funkstellen have also discovered that something unusual must be going on. The telephone rings. Enquiry after enquiry. The information spreads like wildfire through the Squadron. All Fachgruppen want information.

10.08: A further message: „One fighter probably shot down.“ This is acknowledge with jubilation.

10.15: „Once again, give the Staffelkapitän our regards. Auf Wiedersehen after the victory.

Kindest regards to Lt L and St.“

10.18: Oberfeldwebel Hund gibt richtig und gleich anschließend.

10.20: Landing

The Bodenstelle repeats, calls one more time, but the „Konrad“ is silent. Still we just can’t believe it. Anxious questions: How was the landing with the one engine? Had they found a landing place? Had Hauptmann Berndt and his comrades landed safely on Irish soil? We have no peace and nobody could give any answers.

It took a long time before information had been given to all the enquirers on the phone and to the visitors at the Funkstelle. The usually quiet work of the Radio Operator has for a few hours stepped into the foreground of Staffel life.

cc
Unteroffizier Josef Reiser (Brownless) Oberfeldwebel Karl Hund (Brownless).

The 4U + KH pictured shortly after landing, one of the engines burst into flames during the flight. (via Lukas Gred)

8th September 1942

First News from Ireland!

According to a telex which arrived today, Hauptmann Berndt’s crew arrived safely at Tramore in Ireland. Oberfeldwebel. Hund had been lightly wounded when a bullet grazed his hand. In an air battle the crew had shot down a Spitfire. The Irish Government confirmed through press communiqué that about a half an hour before the landing of the German machine, a British fighter had crash landed and its pilot had died shortly afterwards. Further, according to a British announcement, with the destruction of a German bomber over the Irish Sea, a fighter had been lost.

Researched and compiled by Melvin Brownless with special thanks to Armin Goebel, Fritz Schlichting and Lukas Gred for their help in constructing this page. Updated June 2014