|
|
Bordfunker NJG1.3 $Erich Handke
"After a long burst of f1re it went down in flames from 5,500 metres with all of its bombs on board" UNTEROFFIZIER ERICH HM~DKE, III./NJG 1
Erich Handke was trained as a Bordfunker during 1941/42 and was posted to 12./NJG1 in October 1942. Handke first flew with Fw. George Kraft and they participated in 14 victories together. On 17/18August 1943, they were attacked and shot down by an RAF Beaufighter, flown by the British night fighter ace, Wing Commander 'Bob' Braham. Kraft was killed during the attack, but Handke was able to parachute to safety. He then went on to fly briefly with Heinz Schnaufer and Karl-Heinz Scherfling, before being transferred to III./NJG1 where he crewed with Martin Drewes for the remainder of the war. On 27 July 1944, he and Drewes each received the Knight's Cross, Handke thus becoming one of the very few Bordfunkers to receive this decoration. When hostilities ceased in May 1945, he had participated in 59 victories, three of which were claimed during the day.
During the raid on Nuremberg on 30 March 1944, incoming bombers were reported and we took off for the radio beacon 'Ida' near Aachen. We didn't think we had reached the bomber stream when 'Schorsch' Petz [the gunner] saw a bomber flying above us. As we were turning onto an easterly heading, I switched on the SN-2 and immediately three targets appeared. I gave directions for the nearest one. Then Drewes saw it at 600 metres. The weather was excellent: a starlit sky, a half moon, small clouds and no mist. It was simply ideal, almost too bright.
It was a Lancaster, flying beautifully straight ahead, so that we were easily able to position ourselves beneath it. From about 50 metres Drewes fired with our 'Schrage Musik'and its port wing immediately caught fire. Five minutes later the Lancaster came down with a huge explosion in the middle of an area where the attack was just beginning, probably Aachen.
We continued our flight on a heading of 100 degrees until, after ten minutes, we picked up another single target far above us on a similar heading. Until then we had been flying at an altitude of 5,500 metres, but now we had to climb a long time until we reached the Lancaster, which was flying at 7,000 metres. Once again we positioned ourselves 50 metres below our target, but our cannon jammed after only two rounds and we were tillable to clear it. However, the Lancaster must have been hit, because all at once it lost height. We had not dived away, so it probably saw us, because it then suddenly curved steeply away.
We immediately went down beneath it whilst it was flying very slowly at a height of 5,500 metres. Now we had to climb to attack in the old way, from astern, where one is exposed to the rear gunner's fire. We were now accustomed to the new 'Schrage Musik' attack method, as it was a far safer technique. This time we wanted to fire directly into the wing, because the fuselage, with its many bombs, was too dangerous.
At last, Drewes climbed to the correct height and from 50 metres fired into the starboard wing, which immediately began to burn. Although we did not break away immediately, the Lancaster crew apparently had no time for defensive action because it went into a dive and exploded into many pieces. Below there lay a field scattered with many incendiary bombs. We were somewhere in the Vogelsberg area.
Around us, there were still bombers going down like flies. After some time we picked up yet another target and followed it. Drewes saw the target, a Lancaster, at a distance of 700 metres. In the meanwhile, we had been able to reload one of the upward-firing cannon, so once more we positioned ourselves 50 metres beneath it. After a long burst it went down in flames from 5,500 metres with all of its bombs on board. Two men were able to bale out before it crashed about 20 kilometres to the north of Bamberg. As we had run out of contacts we flew back and landed at Hanau-Langendiebach, where a further 40 crews joined us.
|