Werk Nr.	????
Type	T
Events	Delivered or transferred to Seenotstaffel 7, Information coming from Die 7 Seenotstaffel. September 26th 1944 made a night evacuation flight from Athens to the Suda Bight on Crete and back with the crew of Sommer. During the flight the aircraft was shot at by light and medium flak coming from a British destroyer group. October 6th 1944 at 05:50 Gerhard Huth received the order to start a rescue mission in search for a He-111 crew that was reported floating in the Mediterranean east of Volos. After a long search the crew received the message that the He-111 crew was already on land. The crew of the Do-24 received orders to refuel and to fly to Saloniki-Mikra (See), which they did. October 7th 1944 the aircraft took off from Saloniki at 05:18 for a flight to Athens. Shortly before 06:00 the crew sighted at about 40 degrees 36 minutes north and 22 degrees and 40 minutes east a raft with two oil smudged people in it. In the water there were many yellow swimmingvests so the aircraft immediately landed. On the raft was a naval officer and an Obersteurmann. The crew take them and 25 others on board. Ten of them were badly wounded. The captain, Leutnant zur See Hans-Joachim Westfalen, mentioned that this was what remained of the 142 crewmembers of the torpedoboat TA37, the former Italian Gladio. Taking the survivors on board was not easy as their leather clothes were fully drenched with water, maiking them heavier than usual. The saved sailors said that the British destroyers Termagant and Ruscan machinegunned them while they were in the water. With a megaphone they were shouted at from one of the ships: "We will be back". The crew had to work fast and hard because they could already see the smoke of the incoming destroyers. The take-off was succesfull and all were brought to Saloniki-Mikra, where all the medical equipment was ready for them as the crew of the Do-24 had radioed ahead of the mission. Had the Do-24 crew given in to the request of the basecommander to fly about 30 freight parachutes to Athens, although the evacuation had already begun, then they would have taken a different course and the men of the TA37 would have surtainly all died. The crew received a personal thank you ffrom the commanding general of the Luftwaffe in Greece, Generalmajor Korte. October 10th 1944 tak-off at 03:14 with the crew of Feldwebel Sommer for a transportflight from Athens to Leros. The returnflight was at the same day at 17:14. October 14th 1944 take-off at 03:01 with the crew of Oberfeldwebel Sommer for a flight from Saloniki-Mikra to Milos. October 15th take-off at 04:50 for the returnflight from Milos to Saloniki-Mikra. Overflying the island of Naxos the aircraft takes on hits from four English boats in the harbor. Due to the total of 70 hits the engines, trimming and fuellines were damaged. The crew were unhurt and the landing was at Saloniki at 07:25. October 23rd 1944 Seenotgruppe 70 evacuates Greece and the 4 (6) remaining Do-24's fly to the Lake Chiem via Vienna. The crew of Oberfeldwebel Sommer, Feldwebel Förster, Unteroffizier Klammt, Feldwebel Lachenmeyer, Obergefreiter Kießling and Feldwebel Steinbock suffered a failure of the left engine at 07:00 and had to land on the Donau river near Vukovar. the next day at 06:07 they took off and on two engines without a stop-over reached Vienna at 08:25.
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