Shadow over the Atlantic by Robert Forsyth

Author:Robert Forsyth [Forsyth, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472820471
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-07-26T23:00:00+00:00

* * *

*This most likely means the fitting of external underwing wing racks to the Ju 290A-7 and the installation of Kehl/Strassburg equipment for operations with the Hs 293 glide-bomb.

CHAPTER TEN

FADING SHADOWS

March–May 1944

I pressed home my own attack, hitting the Junkers repeatedly at close range. It crashed into the sea and exploded. All that remained of the Junkers was an oil slick and a few floating pieces of debris.

Lt. Allen R. Burgham, RNZVR, 835 NAS, May 1944

Commencing 19 February through to the end of April 1944, there was an almost complete absence of Luftwaffe long-range convoy reconnaissance over the Atlantic.1 In March, most flying on the part of FAGr 5 (and other units under Fliegerführer Atlantik for much of that period) was restricted to air training sorties in which crews practised navigation skills and air gunnery. But even these were few and far between.

During the afternoon of 4 March, one Ju 290 was picked up by British decrypts carrying out practice-firing along the Biscay coast, but it would not be until 0730 hrs on the 22nd that the listening stations heard the intentions for another to fly out on a six-hour training flight from Mont de Marsan to 14° West 245 to 251. Otherwise very little was heard from FAGr 5.2

Indeed, in a summary of ‘German Air Force policy against convoys’ in early April, British intelligence gloated:

There has been no convoy recce in the Atlantic since 18th February. During the week preceding this date three Ju 290s, two Fw 200s and one He 177 are known to have been shot down by 10 Group (Air Defence of Great Britain), 15 Group (Coastal Command) and carrier-borne fighters. This included both the Ju 290s taking part in one operation, and – even more impressive – two different fighter attacks on the same attacking formation of He 177s and Fw 200s by Mosquitos on its way out across the Bay of Biscay (entirely fortuitously) and again by carrier-borne aircraft over the convoy.

Furthermore, several Ju 290 shadowers were driven off by carrier-borne fighters and prevented from making adequate reconnaissance reports.

In his summing up after the operation, Captain U-boats attributed the failure of the U-boats to the failure of air cooperation … This appears to be a strategical success of some significance and might almost be deemed a ‘turning point’ in the war against ocean convoys.3

The month of March started badly for FAGr 5: the US Eighth Air Force made itself felt for the first time at Mont de Marsan when B-24 Liberators of the 2nd Bomb Division attacked the airfield as part of a wider-ranging operation against airfields in western France.4

However, it seems the Gruppe had received advanced warning of the raid, and managed to get its small number of Ju 290s into the air in advance, and thus they escaped destruction or damage. Furthermore, because of cloud, Mont de Marsan escaped the effects of the bombing relatively unscathed. However, it was to be a portent of things to come and a sign that western French airfields were now a target for the Allied strategic air forces.

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