After my meeting with Erich Sommer, and the warm exchanges that followed, the former pilot sent me various copies of captioned photographs from his personal collection, copies that were produced for me by Wayne Gallasch. Here are the most interesting.
Philippe Bauduin.
Bomber navigator training at Lechfeld School. We had to learn to march first. I am the seventh from the left.
Swearing the oath in August 1937. In the background is a Ju88 ‘Weihe’ and to its right a Do 17.
A Do 17 scout in 1937.
Refuelling at Stargard (Poland) in June 1940.
Horst and I recovered some old English helmets in Norway, May 1940.
Behind Andalsnes, the English had damaged one of our engines and we flew home to Aalborg slowly, over the mountains. We were recalled after 1 June 1940 and training began in Poland.
The Norway Campaign. A destroyed bridge near Lillehammer in April 1940. Photograph taken from the Heinkel 111.
Walter Wendt (left) and Horst Götz. Both had worked in industry, at Telefunken. Wendt was killed when his Arado 234 crashed in December 1944.
Horst Götz on his plane, a Heinkel 111, with the emblem of his unit, a Viking ship (KGRI00)
The nocturnal camouflage paint is already flaking off.
The Heinkel III ‘6N+IH’ leaving for Lüneburg on 25 October 1940. We took with us the submariners from the Lorient, including Lieutenant Commander Günther Prien.
The first awards for 60 combat sorties (silver) are handed out to the group on 27 March 1941. From left to right: Sigi (Siegfried) Simon, Wisch, me (Sommer) and Schulte.
Marshal Sperle walking down the streets of Vannes, Brittany.
Group flight, April 1941.
Albrecht and Horst Götz at Vannes, April 1941.
With Aschenbrenner, flying towards Lüneburg. ‘End of my tour of the front with the KGRI00. I was then assigned to a reconnaissance unit at Hannover - Langenhagen. Götz and Albrecht remained there another four weeks, then came home together. We now totalled 120 sorties. One year later, on 1 June 1942, after the efforts of Horst Götz, the former crew was reformed and rejoined the Armistice Control Commission in Africa, based at Casablanca, Morocco’.
The dining hall in the Officer’s Mess at Lüneburg air base, 1942.
Flying to Casablanca via Oran, June 4 1942.
The ‘White House’, Villa Maas, the residence of General Wühlich in Casablanca.
A Ju 88 S, the bomber version of the Ju 88 T.
With a Do2l5 at Mielec in July 1942 during refuelling. This aircraft would be delivered to the Hungarian Air Force.
July 1944. During one of the Arado 234 test flights, we used the tyres from an Me109.
Horst Götz leaning on the railings of the Hotel de l’Aisne at Guignicourt, during the summer of 1944. The Götz Kommando was stationed on the base very close to Juvincourt, with their Arados Ar234 V5 and V7 for the reconnaissance missions above the Allied advance in Normandy.
The Götz Kommando in sportswear at Guignicourt.
Horst Götz at Hotel de l’Aisne where we stayed (along with Friedl) on 28 August 1944.