REASON FOR LOSS:

A.I.(g) Report No.4/127

This aircraft hit a balloon cable at a height said to be 2,800 feet and then hit another balloon cable one and a half miles away. The aircraft was at a height of 4,500 feet when the second cable was struck. The starboard wing then broke off and the aircraft crashed, and an explosion and fire followed. The starboard wing was found approximately 800 yards from the rest of the crash and an examination showed that the first balloon cable had cut into the leading edge as far as the main spar 10 feet from the wing tip. The cable slipped along the main spar cutting the sheeting for 10" when the cable broke. The second balloon cable struck the starboard wing seventeen feet from the wing tip and cut down to and right through the main spar. The cable then broke and the wing broke off causing the crash. A few holes in the starboard wing may have been caused by A.A. splinters.

Heinkel He 111 crashed on 19.11.40 at 22.15 hours near Barking. Map ref: L.9019. Markings on fuselage not decipherable but a piece of wreckage apparently undersurface of wing showed the letter A in black and another under wing surface showed the letter H in black. A plate found on the starboard aileron showed He 111. 344, Heinkel werke, Oranienburg, dated 11.03.39. A plate from the starboard aileron showed He 111. 345, made by Land u See,

Leichtbau. Works number 1030. July 1940. Armament: parts of two MG 15's found. Wreckage of a large bomb rack found for horizontal stowage. This bomb rack is being further examined. Several pieces of armour found in wreckage, positions not known. A cast -iron tube 6' 1" long by 5 2/5" diameter fitted at the extreme tail of fuselage for ejecting some form of pyrotechnic or projectile. This is being further examined.

ccc
(Left) Albert von Schwerin


Soldiers guard a large piece of wing spar wreckage on Beckton Marshes.

Burial details: All rest together in the same grave at the Deutsche Soldatenfriedhof Cannock Chase, Staffs. Block 9. Grave 30