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."
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