Hampden I AE300 - Note from J. A. S. Philson På dansk Links Omkring PhilsonAround Philson Updated: 10 FEB 2012

On 12 September 1941 at 03.25 hours HAM AE300 crashed here 400 m southeast of Hornum Kærvej 12, 7140 Stouby. See Google Map p047 Hampden AE300.
On 23 November 2010 www.airmen.dk received this note with a correction from J. A. S. Philson via Kristian Zouaoui:

”Philson has asked me to inform you that it is quite correct that they were attacked by an unknown enemy plane, but that Hampden´ at no time was on fire. They lost
the starboard engine and they lost fuel from the starboard wing tank, but there was no fire on board.
Philson states that they decided to send a message home and
return over the North Sea – back to Denmark – as they would be unable to reach England with the spare fuel.

Actually the message was intercepted at home (Philson has a letter addressed to his father from his commander-in-chief) and the calculations there and aboard the aircraft were nearly identical given their true position. When Philson’s signal disappeared the base was convinced that they had crashed into the sea.

The possibility of reaching Sweden was discussed on board, but the pilot stated that he would be unable to take evasive actions, if they were attacked again, so they chose to bail out at Stouby.

Incidentally, Philson is certain that Pilot Bannister was not stuck in the cabin, but that, standing on the wing with one hand on the controls, he threw himself forward
and out and subsequently hit the tail section in his fall.

By the way Philson states that in spite of being only 21 years old he had been in 106 Sqdrn the longest time with 36 operational sorties and that he was responsible
for the training in the use of arms. It is Philson’s express wish that you quickly take the changes into account – on the otherwise brilliant site.”
 

Comment: A wise decision to bail out over land instead of drowning in the North Sea. In at least 3 other planes they also found it hard to reach England:

BLE T1889 reached the North Sea after an attack on Aalborg airfield, Fliegerhorst Aalborg West, on 13 August, 1940, turned around and crash landed. The crew
survived!

After an aborted attack on Aalborg on 22 February 1944 B17 42-31377 returned after 20 minutes over the North Sea. 9 airmen survived.
Schrenk has a lot
more.

On 24 August 1944
B24 4440443 reached the North Sea. Apart from the pilot the crew bailed out. 9 airmen drowned!

Fortunately Philson survived! On 30 December 2011 he wrote to me:
"Dear Anders, Thank you for your kind good wishes.  If I tell you that my late wife & I had six children, from which there are now twelve grand-children & eleven
great grand-children, you will have some idea of how quiet Christmas is with us!  There is no shortage of laughter from little children -  the music of angels."