Sonderkommando Blaich  (Pt.3)

The Heinkel He 111 took off from Sabha on January 20, 1942 destined for Camp Uno, some 330 km to the South, Hauptmann Blaich following in his Bf 108. The Italians were already there, ready to top up the fuel tanks of the He 111. 

A Luftwaffe war correspondent, Leutnant Fritz Dettmann, was detailed to report on the raid and this is his picture of Italian and German crewmen in front of their aircraft at Camp Uno. The man in the center with no cap is Maggiore Vimercati-Sanseverino.


Sonderkommando Blaich  (Pt.3)

In January 1942, Luftwaffe’s Hauptmann Theo Blaich planned and led a daring bombing raid against the strategic important French depot at Fort Lamy, southern Chad. Blaich was one of those characters larger than life: a rich plantation owner in Africa, he flew back to Germany in his own Fw 108 and joined the Luftwaffe in 1939. Knowledgeable of Africa, Blaich soon realized the importance of Fort Lamy as a main hub of the Allied supply route between the Americas and the African/Middle Eastern theatre of operations. Seen as impossible by the Luftwaffe’s top brass, the raid received the approval of Rommel and authorization for a lonely Heinkel He 111 H-6 medium bomber to try the 5000 km round trip was given. 

The raid, codenamed ‘Sonderkommando Blaich’, was a joint operation logistically supported by the Italian Regia Aeronautica. 
In this first photo Italian Maggiore Ottaviano Vimercati-Sanseverino stands in the center (he was to fly a Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 carrying extra fuel for use on the bombing run). The German Hauptmann to the right is Theo Blaich, the leader of the operation. 


Sonderkommando Blaich  (Pt.1)

Luftwaffe ace Werner Mölders (1913 - 1941).