Date:	Tuesday 23 January 1945
Time:	afternoon
Type:	Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-9
Owner/operator:	11./JG 54 Luftwaffe
Registration:	210091
MSN:	gelbe 1
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Kloosterhaar, Overijssel -   Netherlands
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Varrelbusch airfield, Germany
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 23 January 1945, despite having suffered together 8 losses in the morning, I./JG 26 and III./JG 54 were ordered off on a further operation early in the afternoon, to provide cover at Münster-Handorf airfield for 9./KG 76‘s Ar 234s which were to undertake a bombing attack on a concentration of Allied armour in the Julich area. A small JG 54 formation was again led by Oblt Dortenmann, taking off at 1515 hrs to meet the JG 26 aircraft over Fürstenau. They were then to patrol over the designated area from 1600 to 1630 hrs. As they approached, the bombing raid was cancelled and their mission was changed to a ‘Frei Jagd‘. Both units then reported encountering Spitfires and Tempests.

Their opponents included Tempests from both 56 and 486 Sqn RAF, who reported encountering ‘20+ Bf 109s‘ near Rheine. Sqn Ldr Umbers of 486 Sqn claimed a Bf 109, as did jointly Flg Off J H Stafford and Wt Off A H Bailey. Three pilots of 56 Sqn made claims, Flg Off V L Turner for a Bf 109 and Flg Offs W R MacLaren and J J Payton a Fw 190 each. All these claims were in fact Fw 190Ds, the type‘s long nose contributing to the misidentification.

III./JG 54 lost three aircraft and two killed in this battle, for only one claim: Uffz Renatus Spitz of 10./JG 54 claimed a Tempest shot down but none was lost. The Tempest V NV715 of Sqn Ldr Umbers was hit but not seriously.

One of the German losses in this battle was Oblt Heinz Seiffert, an ex-bomber pilot and the Staffelkapitän of 11./JG 54. He bailed out from his Fw 190 D-9 WNr 210091 "yellow 1" but too low for his parachute to deploy and he hit the ground very hard. He died from his internal injuries on the way to hospital. He crashed 100m from the Dutch village of Kloosterhaar, at 1430 hrs according to the Dutch crash list below, but this is not coherent with the other times above.

The wreck was found and recovered between 20 September and 25 October 1975.

JG 54 loss list, by Günther Rosipal (http://www.jg54greenhearts.com/LossList.htm)
"2nd Tactical Air Force. Volume Three : From the Rhine to Victory. January to May 1945", by Christopher Shores and Chris Thomas. ISBN 1-903223-60-1
https://www.defensie.nl/binaries/defensie/documenten/brochures/2008/04/08/verliesregister-1945/verliesregister-1945.pdf
http://www.nfla.nl/list.pdf
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloosterhaar
http://www.maplandia.com/netherlands/overijssel/kloosterhaar/
https://verliesregister.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/rs.php?aircraft=&sglo=T5161&date=&location=&pn=&unit=&name=&cemetry=&airforce=&target=&area=&airfield=
Google Maps

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-Dec-2008 11:45	ASN archive	Added
24-Jan-2017 07:19	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Phase, Source, Narrative]
15-Jan-2020 16:37	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Operator]
21-Jan-2020 20:57	TigerTimon	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Cn, Location, Departure airport, Source]
21-Jan-2020 21:42	TigerTimon	Updated [Time]