Hi Guys,
Sorry delay. Will try to handle the queries in some kind of order.
What’s the logbook say?
Took off Jever on 6.11, 13:30 hours. Landed Jever 6.11, 14:14 hours. Flight duration 44 minutes. Abschuss of a de Havilland Mosquito in QBI (very bad weather) 70 km N of Borkum.
Any chance of right encounter, wrong date?
No, Knoke’s logbook makes the date of his encounter clear. As I say, there were no Mosquitos headed to Berlin that day. Only days Mossies tried for Berlin were 19 September ’42, (of which more below), 30 Jan ’43 (the raid Goering remembered and discussed with Knoke), then a recce Mossie in early March (prompting the first of many angry entries in Goebbels diaries).
Was it one of the Venturas?
No. What Franck Ruffino (who supplied the “burning Ventura” image above) has been told, but has not put on his website, as that there are flak claims for all three missing Venturas, as follows:
AJ200: 14.31 hrs 2 km Z Spijkenisse
AE848: 14.35 hrs North Sea W Bergen aan Zee
AE784: 14.38 hrs Waddenzee 5 km E of Den Helder
All a long way from where Knoke was, and all claimed after he’d landed. Part of my reason for chasing about for an encounter report from a non-Ventura aircraft was that the Ventura stuff is all well-known, and just doesn’t fit.
If no Mosquitos were lost, or were even close, Knoke must have shot something else into the sea.
No. RAF crew lost at sea are remembered on the Runnymede Memorial, part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Their database can be searched via this link:
http://www.hut-six.co.uk/cgi-bin/search39-47.phpI and various others have been through the lists of casualties, and what you come up with are three of the flyers from one of the Venturas, three from an 83 Sqn Lanc lost that evening, and a fellow from an ASR Lysander. So, Knoke’s claim that anything, let alone a Mossie, went into the sea, is not accurate.
What the hell are you talking about? Are you saying we’re not even supposed to trust the evidence of Knocke’s own eyes? He saw the thing crash for chrissakes!
Well, yes, I’m afraid that’s precisely what I mean. Knoke is simply not a reliable witness, even when he claims to have seen something with his own eyes. Example: a few pages after describing his Mosquito encounter, he describes reminiscing at Christmas, remembering fallen comrades. One of the names he mentions is Gerd Steiger, “shot down before our eyes by a Mosquito over the south side of the airfield…” Very evocative, Mossie sneaking into the pattern and bouncing the 109 in front of his comrades. Only problem is – that just didn’t happen. Mossies did in fact get over German airfields and shoot down returning / departing aircraft, in daylight, in front of their LW comrades, but not for another two years. For the incident to have happened the way Knoke claims, the history books would have to be re-written. It would have been the first Mosquito daylight victory, would be the first claim over a 109 by more than a year, first claim over German airspace by a similar amount, etc etc.
Steiger perished on 19 September 1942, according to the German wargraves organisation. It just so happens that 19 September was the date on which bomber Mossies did make a first, abortive attempt on Berlin, only one claiming to have bombed on ETA, another being shot down by Fw. Rudolf Piffer, of 11./JG 1. So, Steiger’s death may well have had some connection to Mosquitos, as his Geschwader was involved in trying to chase them that day, but shot down by a marauding Mosquito? Absolutely, positively, demonstrably not, despite what Knoke claims to have seen with his own eyes.
So, the report from the Wellington gives an encounter at the right time of day, in the right part of the world, in the right weather circumstances, with the right outcome (didn’t go into the water), on a day when the RAF was not particularly active. A better match to Knoke’s log I don’t think you’re going to find, especially as none of the 1 Group and 3 Group bombers reported no encounters.
