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According to the British Army’s VIII Corps, at 1835 GMT on 20 April a lone Fw 190 flew over Rätzlingen (8 km east of Ülzen) at 500 ft and dropped two bombs which killed eight people and wounded 23 more. This report is attributed to 8th Parachute Battalion, 6th Airborne Division although the battalion’s own diary says ‘nothing to report’. Billeted in Nateln, 6 km to the east, 9 Para logged the following (times converted to GMT):

Both battalions were part of 3 Para Brigade whose HQ diary says that a Focke-Wulf dropped one heavy and three light bombs, hitting a house on the north eastern side of the Rätzlingen crossroads where men of 8 Para were billeted. Casualties were approximately eight dead and 20 wounded, the latter being evacuated to 225 Field Ambulance and thence to 24 Field Dressing Station. The final casualty figure is unclear as only one man of the 8th Battalion is recorded as having died on 20 April, Private William Dancey (19) but it is possible that German civilians may also have been included in the total.

No German report of the night’s operations survives to indicate the unit responsible and nor was anything intercepted by the Allies. A report from the Luftwaffe about activities on the 20th did reach Navy HQ but includes nothing about German operations in the north western area. Nevertheless, a twilight attack with the bombload described very much suggests that an Fw 190 F-8 of either NSG 20 or III./KG 200 was the aircraft in question.

Sources:

TNA WO 205/860 : Operation Enterprise: 8 Corps Battle Logs (April 1945)

Pegasus Archive: https://www.pegasusarchive.org/varsity/frames.htm

Kriegstagebuch der 1./Seekriegsleitung: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-zmsbw/solrsearch/index/search/searchtype/series/id/1/rows/10

This diagram of 14.Fliegervision's radio network for 14 May shows III./KG 200 with the callsign '7JG' (click on the image at left to enlarge it):

Source: Bundesarchiv RL 7-11/17: Eingesetzte Sender zur Durchführung des Funkverkehrs (Mai 1945).

(Page 131) Note 31

Regarding the possible location of 'Dimbersen', on 20 April 1945 the British 12 Corps used the same spelling when it reported: '7 Armd Div. Village 4330 and Dimbersen 4232 was cleared.' In the Nord de Guerre zone, map reference rS4232 equates to 53° 21' 53'' N, 9° 52' 02'' E, the village of Dibbersen, 22km SSW of the centre of Hamburg.

Source: Canadian Department of National Defence, Directorate of History and Heritage: Kardex system, Reel T-2436, 21 Army Group Sheet No. 3880.

(Page 133)

‘Royal Engineers working to establish several crossings along the Elbe between Stolzenau and Artlenburg’ should read ‘… between Lauenburg and Artlenburg’.

(Page 137) Appendix Three: Order of Battle

Correct the entry for 20.02.45 to read:

From 1–5 April 1945 Luftflotte Reich recorded a combined strength figure for ’NSGr. 20 incl. 11./KG 200’ (Source: Bundesarchiv RL 2-III/735: Personelle und materielle Einsatzbereitschaft, Bd. 68 (31 März–16. Apr. 1945)):

The figures for 1800 hrs. (GMT+2]) the following day were:

No new figures were reported until the 9th when totals were:

These are the last known wartime figures for III./KG 200 but two later strength returns for NSGr. 20 were intercepted and deciphered (Sources: ULTRA CX/MSS/R.529(C),3 and CX/MSS/R.536(C),13):

On 6 May, NSGr. 20 was at Eggebek with 20 Fw 190 and 484 personnel, 63 of them aircrew (Source: National Archives AIR 55/227: HQ Second Tactical Air Force: Disarmament Intelligence Summary No. 2 (24 May 1945)).

It is not possible to gauge from this how many pilots 11./KG 200 may have taken with it when it parted company with NSGr. 20 but the latter did suffer a decline in strength of 10 aircraft between 6 and 9 April and one inference from this slender information could be that would be that these belonged to 11./KG 200. The April figures suggest the III./KG 200 was operating independent of NSGr. 20 by the 6th.

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