"Weisse Emma" 1/32 Heinkel 111H-5: mysterious northern Dutch Battle of Britain connection

[elger]

During the night of September 6th/7th 1940 Heinkel 111H-5 1H+EM of 4.KG26 took off from its base of Gilze-Rijen in the southern part of The Netherlands for a long range bombing mission to Derby. The crew consisted of Oberleutnant Werner Kuckelt; unteroffizier Ernst Studt (pilot); obergefreiter Walter Hubricht; gefreiter T Schneider; and gefreiter Rieling.

The aircraft never reached its destination. "Vom Feindflug nach Derby nicht Zurückgekehrt" ("failed to return from attack flight to Derby") the record of KG26 states. A week and a half later, on September 17th, 1940, Ernst Studt's body was washed ashore near Stavoren in the north part of The Netherlands; Walter Hubrecht's body was found somewhere near Amsterdam and was buried there, originally. Werner Kuckelt's body was found over a month after the crash, on October 20th 1940, also again near Stavoren. The locations are marked on the map below: Gilze-Rijen is roughly between Rotterdam and Eindhoven; Derby is near Nottingham and Stavoren is on the IJsselmeer coast in the North of The Netherlands.

Nobody knows what happened to the aircraft. Apparently, the loss is mentioned in Francis Mason's book about the Battle of Britain, but according to that source, the aircraft was shot down and crashed in Lincolnshire. However, the bodies were found in the IJsselmeer - which is odd, given the direction of the aircraft's likely planned flightpath.

While the remains of 3 of the 5 crewmen were found, the actual aircraft was officially missing for decades. However, fishermen from Stavoren knew of a wreck about 5 miles north of Stavoren harbour; fish tend to gather around wrecks and it was a known location. Bits and pieces would sometimes get caught in the nets. In the late 70s, a piece was found with the name ARGUS stamped into it. Authorities realized it was a Heinkel 111, Argus being a subcontractor.

During the subsequent inspection and recovery of the wreck the researchers also came across the remnants of a large bomb made of concrete; an SC2000. This type of bomb was carried by Werner Kuckelt's crew on their mission to Derby and the wreck was identified as "Weisse Emma", the aircraft that had been missing since 1940, and had apparently crashed on its way to the target, for unknown reasons. The two crew members gefreiter T Schneider and gefreiter Rieling were not found and remain missing in action.

For this project I'm using Revell's H-6 kit

Weisse Emma was an H-5 however, which is a relatively rare subvariant. Its main distinguishing feature from other He 111Hs is that it had the internal bomb racks replaced with fuel cells, giving it a very long range. It certainly did not have the broad propeller blades as featured on the H-6, so I'll be using parts from the Revell P-1 kit to backdate it. I did buy the two kits, for this conversion. I might have been able to use resin H-type engines on a P-1 kit, but not having to use resin on the outside is worth the investment.

Speaking of the H-5, I wonder if anyone has any detailed reference regarding the fuel tanks in the fuselage. Photos are hard to come by; I believe the photo below might be the wreck of an H-5. From photos I gather that the front windows were deleted, but I wonder if anyone knows how the fuel cells would have been accessed. Anyone any ideas?

Anyway, thanks for looking!

[stevej60]

Superb,love to see History behind a build and looking forward to following this one,Good luck.

[Flyingdutchman]

I'm a Dutchman myself but still learn every day about interesting WWII facts. Thumbs up for your background informatie in this Heineken.

Will be following with interest.

Evert

[elger]

Things are progressing quite well. The size is a bit of a challenge but other than that so far the kit is without any major issues.

The interior is mainly the CMK set which is nicely detailed and fits really well for a resin detail set. A couple of Eduard parts were also used.

The slightly modified radio equipment on the left hand side. Eduard parts were used.

Ammunition cartridges from Aires for the defensive armament on the right hand side.

Thanks for looking!

[olympic1911]

Ooohh I like this! Someone got the the cockpit-colours right. I think it was from 1940 onwards that every part of the Cockpit that was visible through the canopy glazing was painted in schwarz-grau. The rest of the interior was painted grau-grün, as we can see here. Love it!

Peter

[Martian]

Nice work on the interior!

Martin

[F4u]

That interior looks great some nice details and well painted.

Guy

[Blastvader]

Great work there Elger. I have a real appreciation for the 111 and have two of these (in their 72nd guise) in the stash. Brilliant research too.

Ooohh I like this! Someone got the the cockpit-colours right. I think it was from 1940 onwards that every part of the Cockpit that was visible through the canopy glazing was painted in schwarz-grau. The rest of the interior was painted grau-grün, as we can see here. Love it!

Peter

Was the RLM02 not deleted entirely later on? I had thought that the interior was just the anodised looking aluminium that looked a little like the gold on the inside of a soup tin.

[batcode]

Very nice work so far, that pit looks great.. i plan to build one of my 1/48 kits in the new year

[ejboyd5]

During the subsequent inspection and recovery of the wreck the researchers also came across the remnants of a large bomb made of concrete; an SC2000. This type of bomb was carried by Werner Kuckelt's crew on their mission to Derby and the wreck was identified as "Weisse Emma", the aircraft that had been missing since 1940, and had apparently crashed on its way to the target, for unknown reasons. The two crew members gefreiter T Schneider and gefreiter Rieling were not found and remain missing in action.

Got curious about the "concrete" bomb and looked for SC2000:

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/sc2000.html

Does anyone have information about a "concrete" bomb?

[Cees Broere]

Very nice Elger,

Groeten

Cees

[HOUSTON]

Elger,

Oh Boy this is simply a very interesting build indeed.

I like historical backgrounds to model builds as it makes it

feel more real.

your cockpit and the interior is PRISTINE and EXEMPLARY workmanship.

I am going to enjoy this build very much

Keep us updated with your marvellous historical build.

[elger]

Thanks for the interest and comments! Spending my Christmas break working on the exterior. I'm using the thin VDM propeller blades and spinners from the P-1 kit, and the Jumo engine parts from the H-6 kit.

I'm using most of the Eduard set for the wheel bays.

The brake lines from Eduard looked a little two dimensional however so I used metal wire instead. I'm also using the P-1 legs.

And finally, the radiators.

Thanks for looking!

[Blogs On]

Very neat work

With very interesting history. Will be following with interest

[Secret]

Wow, amazing detail! Will be watching this one for sure.

[Hook]

Thumbs up for your background informatie in this Heineken.

When good autocorrection goes bad, :-)

Interesting project, I'll pull up a virtual chair!

Cheers,

Andre

[RMP2]

Nice work on what will turn out to be a rather large beasty. Ive found myself a chair.

Im curious - Concrete filled bombs? Whats the idea of that then?

[Hook]

Nice work on what will turn out to be a rather large beasty. Ive found myself a chair.

Im curious - Concrete filled bombs? Whats the idea of that then?

Destruction by kinetic energy instead of explosives.

Cheers,

Andre

[RMP2]

Hmm. I believed concrete was used for practice bombs during WW2 and only now we have precision bombing can they be considered any use as an actual weapon.

Something just doesnt add up in the story - Im guessing bombing practice was still carried out during the war?

[Hook]

Concrete filled German bombs were indeed used for target practice.

However, the OP states that the bomb was carried on a mission. Perhaps anti-ship work?

Cheers,

Andre

[mungo1974]

Looks like a great little project you have started....

I must say i enjoy the researching of any model project more than the actual building....always good for a model to have a story behind it and its crew.

[elger]

About the bombs, according to a late 70s newspaper article the production of concrete bombs had something to do with a shortage of bombs for the Luftwaffe in 1939; according to the article, the production of bombs was actually a low priority for the Nazi high command and by the end of the Polish campaign 60% of the existing bombs had been used up. Ehrhard Milch, inspector general of the Luftwaffe finally managed to persuade the high command to ramp up production on October 12th 1939.

The Luftwaffe had conducted succesful experiments using Kriegsmarine mines, dropped by parachute causing maximum damage. These weapons were complex and expensive and the Kriegsmarine did not appreciate their sophisticated equipment being used as block buster bombs on England.

Because of the shortage of available weapons and the need for high impact, heavy bombs, the SC2000 and SC2500 were developed as an interim solution. These featured concrete casings. Many bombs were produced, they were never used on a large scale in the Battle of Britain. The production of regular bombs was more efficient than anticipated; the project of producing more bombs took only 6 months rather than the anticipated 9 months so by the start of the Battle of Britain enough regular bombs were available.

In other news, this weekend I talked to a guy who knows a guy and it turns out that he has a piece of aluminium of a German aircraft accidentally caught by a fisherman on the precise location of the crash site of Weisse Emma; it is therefore likely that the piece belongs to that aircraft. It's always a bit strange to be holding a part of the actual aircraft you're building.

I think it's part of a wing spar.

Edited December 28, 2015 by elger

[RMP2]

Cheers for the bomb info, crazy days back then for sure.

Also great to have a chunk of Heinkel! I have a couple of pieces of Red Arrow that went down in 1987 (pilot ok) and its that one that I intend to build.

[Radleigh]

Very cool build, I intend on doing a 1/32nd He-111 someday... Watching with interest.

[spitfire]

A great looking build and fascinating info on the concrete bombs.

Cheers

Dennis