REASON FOR LOSS:

Aircraft dropped a bomb and machine gunned town from low altitude, when it was engaged by Canadian manned light AA unit. With the pilot apparently hit, the aircraft pulled up and dived into a ditch upside down. Markings: the rudder and lower part of engine cowling yellow, rest of aircraft grey upper surfaces and duck-egg blue lower surfaces. The skin of the aircraft is not polished. A small bomb was painted horizontally just after the chevron. Engine: BMW 801. Metal VDM propeller fitted. Armament: two MG151/20 mm and two MG 17. ETC 501/XIIB new type of bomb carrier recovered. Believed a 250 kg bomb was dropped. Equipment: Wireless FuG 7.

Extract from the book “Blitz 3” published by After the Battle;

“As Oberfeldwebel Kassa swooped low over Caffyns workshops, the machine gun post on the roof opened up on the leading Fw 190. Private E. G. “Soapy” Johnstone was credited with the kill, another gunner, Private F. L. Wood, claiming to have shot down the second Fw 190 into the sea – a fact disproved as Kassa’s wingman, Obergefreiter Wittmann returned safely to Abbeville, France.

Crash site of Focke Wulf Fw 190A-2 of Ofw. Kassa (Via Pat Burgess Collection).

Part of the wing pictured in the dyke (Via Pat Burgess Collection).

Part of the aircrafts armament scattered around the site (Via Pat Burgess Collection).

“Black 13” fuselage lies inverted in the dyke (Via Pat Burgess Collection).

Newspaper coverage.

Prop Blade from Crash site (Burgess Collection).

Sgt Frank Whiting (Seaforths) holding the Swastika tail section that was shot down by Pte E Johnstone over England on 26.08.1942. (Calhoun).

Werner Kassa tail Swastika cut from aircraft. (Calhoun).

The knife is made from materials salvaged from the German FW-190 shot down in August of 1942.  The knife was made by Lance-Corporal Harry Taylor.  The handle is made from an aluminium strut with bands of Bakelite from an electrical panel.  The blade is made from spring steel from the landing gear.  The handle is ornamented with his initials "H" on one side and "T" on the other.  He drilled small holes in the handle, and melted his service-issue tooth brush into the holes. (Calhoun).

The knife was made by Lance-Corporal Harry Taylor. (Calhoun).

Burial detail: Deutsche Soldatenfriedhof Cannock Chase, Staffs, England.

Werner Kassa Block 4, Grave 74 (Brownless).

Researched and compiled by Melvin Brownless. With special thanks to the late Pat Burgess, Nigel Parker and James Calhoun, not forgetting “After the Battle” publications. Updated February 2019.