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Westa 2, Oberkommando der Luftwaffe

Whether Westa 2 ever carried out any improvised bombing missions in France is not clear. On 20 May 1944, it had three “He 177 A-3C” on strength: Werk Nummern 332473, 332501 and 335145 while five more had been allocated to the Staffel: W.Nr. 332407, 332500, 355132, 355134 and 335145.

Four days later, the Staffel’s Technical Officer reported that He 177 A-3/R2, W.Nr. [two figures missing] 5452 had been taken over from the transit depot at München-Riem. On the 26th, W.Nr. 355132 was taken over from the same establishment.

Six days later, the unit duly reported that it had taken over “He 177 A-3C” W.Nr. 355132 from München-Riem; on 9 June Westa 2 was allocated He 177 A-3 W.Nr. 355137 from Faßberg and 1./Fl.ÜGr. Nord was to arrange delivery.

On 10 July the Staffel reported having seven aircraft in Mont de Marsan, where the Staffelführer had been for five days although the Transport Platoon was still stuck in Vesoul and a rear party was in Burg making the remaining aircraft serviceable. The Staffel's first operation was expected on the 13th (four days later than originally planned). The sortie was duly flown, with an expected duration of about 10 hours.

A report of 4 August 1944, thought to be from the Staffel, listed nine machines not ready for operations: 853, 8125, 628, 614, 14, 132, 144, 363 and 500. Presumably these figures were abbreviated Werk Nummern: for example “132” and “500” may correspond to He 177 W.Nr. 355132 and 332500 respectively.

The order to equip aircraft so that they could drop bombs was issued on the 12th and next afternoon the Staffel was able to report that W.Nr. 372628, 372614, 332500 and 355120 were serviceable both for normal tasks and for bombing while W.Nr. 355132 and 355144, 355114 would be ready in five days’ time. Two machines could not be made operational by the Staffel’s own workshops, W.Nr. 355363 and 550201 (the latter was being taken over from Orléans). Whether the Staffel ever did fly bombing sorties is not known although single machines were flying out over Biscay and the Atlantic at least as late as 14 August (when an He 177 spotted Convoy NY-118, en route from New York to Falmouth).

When Allied Technical Intelligence teams arrived at Mérignac aerodrome on 24 September 1944, they found a large number of He 177s, some so efficiently destroyed that they had been “reduced to molten lead.” Two Westa 2 aircraft were identifiable however: D7+DK, burned out in a hangar and D7+BK, W.Nr. 332473 which had a yellow B on its nose and was in pieces.


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