Account of STI 7441 by Alec Donaldson based on copies from Magazine of Aeronautical History received from Leif Gr. Thomsen, here translated from Danish back into English by Anders Straarup.

In 1970 at a lunch during a visit to England I happened to sit next to an English Police Officer, Sergeant Alec Donaldson. When he learned that I was Danish he told me that he had been to Denmark and that he had good memories from there. He was the Wireless Operator on a Short Stirling shot down over South Jutland in 1941. I told Donaldson about Jørgen Helme´s efforts to collect information about the air war over Denmark, and I got his permission to pass his name and address on to Helme. On Helme´s request Donaldson wrote an account of his "visit" to Denmark 29 years earlier.
Here it is in a slightly abbreviated and edited version.
                                                                                                  Hans Kofoed

"Our Squadron, No. 7 Squadron was the first bomber squadron of the Royal Air Force with 4-engined aircraft (Short Stirling).

On 29 September 1941 it was to guide the bomber force to its target in Stettin (Szczecin here). Our task was to light up the target for the main force, so our bomb load consisted of incendiaries and flares. It was shortly before the Pathfinder force was formed with No. 7 Squadron joining from the beginning.

In our crew all of us were Sergeants. We took off from Oakington at Cambridge at about 19.30 hours and took the northern route over the North Sea across Denmark intending to approach Stettin from the Baltic Sea.

However, when we approached the east coast of Jutland we were attacked by German Me110 night fighters. The first one attacked from a position below/behind us and damaged our port wing. Our Rear Gunner immediately opened fire and reported hits on the Me110.

I climbed the astrodome to confirm that it was shot down, and then I saw another Me110 attack us from our starboard side, high up and behind us. The shells from his guns caused great damage, put the port wing ablaze and interrupted the intercom.

The fire spread to the fuselage and the skipper ordered us to bail out.

At the start of this engagement we flew at a height of 10,000 feet, but I think that we were down at 2,000 feet, when I bailed out. The aircraft dived and crashed into the
sea a short distance off the coast. (Here - source Leif Gr. Thomsen)

I just had enough time for my parachute to deploy. I was over the mouth of a stream, but the wind took me a short distance in over land, and I landed in a ploughed field
hurting my back, which made walking difficult. (About here - source AOD)

I walked around for about an hour and then found shelter in a small shed at a farm. Later I found out that it was in Fjelstrup (here) about 30 km south of Kolding. The Hansens lived here.

Early next morning Mrs. Hansen entered the shed. She got a bit scared when she saw me, but when I had made it clear to her that I was an Englishman, she at once took me to the farmhouse and gave me a meal. Then I was put to bed - with one of your famous duvets.

There was a young daughter in the house. Later I learned her name, Asta Hansen. She found a map and showed me where I had landed. I had a limited conversation
with her - and fell asleep.

When I woke up the room seemed to be full of Danes offering me cigars and making the V-sign. I was told that the idea was to take me out of the country to Sweden, because there was an ongoing search for my crew.

Shortly after two Police Officers in plain clothes arrived and took me to the police station in Kolding (here), where I was treated extremely well. I remember that I was asked if I would like a fried steak. I answered yes and then had the largest steak I had seen since the war started.

I was told that I would be interned for the remainder of the war, but shortly after the Wehrmacht arrived and took me to a military barracks where I met my pilot, who
had been captured earlier.

Before I became a Prisoner of War I gave my mother´s address to my hosts, and later she received a letter from the Danish Red Cross that I was alive.

Then the Germans arrived with a third crew member, and in the evening we were taken to the air station in Flensburg (here), where we were entertained in the Officers´ Mess. When we talked to some of the officers, we met a pilot who claimed that he had shot us down, and that we had shot down one of his comrades.

After the usual interrogation we were taken to Dulag Luft in Frankfurt am Main. Here one of the interrogators told me that the Germans had located the wreckage and
that I had been flying a Stirling. He was also able to tell from which unit and the code letters of the aircraft. He was a little annoyed with me, because during the first interrogation I had given the impression that we were flying a Bristol Blenheim.

For several days a fourth crew member evaded capture. He had an uncle in Copenhagen, but he was captured when he tried to cross a bridge. The four of us met in
Stalag Luft 3 in Sagan, and we spent the next three and a half years as guests of the Germans." (See German POW-Camps. These 4 airmen were taken to the
POW camps listed in Lost Bombers.)