Escape from Denmark See Map of Visit to Denmark Updated: 05 APR 2011
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Comment by AS:
King
Christian X and Denmak celebrated his 70th birthday in 1940.
'On Thursday 5th April 1945 at 14.30 hours a force of Mosquitoes comprising 14 from 235 Squadron, 13 from 143 Squadron. 10 from 248 Squadron and two outriders from 333 Squadron, Royal Norwegian Air Force left Banff and led by W/Cmdr. Simmonds DFC, flew very low across Denmark to attack a convoy of five merchant vessels and escort sailing north in the Kattegat about three miles south of Anholt. The attack left the vessels burning furiously and one Mosquito hit the mast of a vessel and dived into the sea about 100 yards from its target and broke up. Another aircraft was seen at 17.50 hrs over Western Jutland with a glycol leak trail and was reported to have belly landed in a field (50.48N 08.21E) and one member of the crew was seen to get out safely thought to be the pilot)".... "The crashed aircraft was Mosquito "LA-F" RS6I9 of 235 Squadron piloted by P/O R. K. Harington with F/Sgt A. E. Winwood as Navigator. It was a Mark FBVI with Merlin 25 engines and had been produced at de Havillands, Hatfield between 13.10.44 and 22.1.45. The crew had joined 235 Squadron, having served with 603 Squadron in the Middle East and had been engaged in anti-shipping strikes on targets around the Aegean and Greek Islands flying Beaufighter TFX's from Gambut in North Africa. They joined 235 in February 1945 and had already taken part in anti-shipping strikes during patrols of the Skagerrak and attacks on targets in the Norwegian fjords, at Norangs Fjord, Porsgrunn Harbour and Sandefjord. When LA-F crash-landed, the aircraft had already hit the ground al about 280 knots, having dropped in the slipstream of an aircraft ahead, itself avoiding flak from escort vessels in the harbour at Nykøbing Mors, West Jutland. The port propeller was badly deformed and despite Bert Winwood's prompt attempt to feather the propeller, the aircraft became difficult to control so close to the ground. Ray Harington decided to crash land, judging that any plan to fly back to the UK after an operational flight and attack at extreme range was unlikely to succeed. The aircraft finally crashed in a flapless landing at about 140 knots. When the crew left the aircraft through the top hatch, they found both propellers lying on a gentle rise behind them. Glycol was dripping from the port nacell. A few Danish farm workers leaning on pitchforks looked on impassively and showed no particular enthusiasm when Harington pointed to his wings and said "Jeg hav RAF" in Norwegian, read off a dog-eared language card from his battledress pocket, on which Danish was not featured!
Although not under
specific orders to do so, they decided to destroy all operational equipment
by setting fire to the aircraft. They put hay under the wings and fired a
Verey cartridge into the open engine nacelle. The machine refused to burn.
Attempts to drive holes into the under-fuselage to form a "brazier" merely
resulted in the fire axe bouncing back vigorously off the laminated timber!
Eventually they pulled a parachute in the cockpit and set it on fire with a
Verey cartridge. Our hastily conceived plan to find a boat and work our way eastward along the Limfjord to the Kattegat and thence to Sweden began to seem less promising. However, we were thankful to accept Anna's offer of a haystack overlooking a small waterway to the north, a pre-war Shell motoring map and some food brought out to us from the farmhouse in the later evening. Hidden in our somewhat scratchy haystack we peered out across the waterway and marvelled at the large group of evening strollers apparently looking straight at us - could they really see us in our smelly hideout? We inched around the back of the stack to see a plume of oily black smoke rising hundreds of feet into the still, cool evening air. Freddie was saying his last good-bye and every German for miles around would appreciate the gesture! Eventually the evening strollers drifted off in the gathering dusk, and we shivered in the keen spring evening air and began to feel lonely, wondering above all, how our families would receive the inevitable telegram saying we were "missing on operations over enemy territory". We resolved to get out of the area as soon as possible.
We were unaware that we were becoming the
subject of interest to various people, not least the Germans at Snedsted, a
mere six miles away to the North east, whose telephone conversations were
being monitored by the Manageress of the local telephone exchange. She
reported to the Resistance, and two of their members who knew of our landing
at Tandrup Farm were making plans to get us away from the area and into safe
hands. At about 21.15 we heard footsteps They led us some five miles along field tracks, ditches and culverts and under guarded bridges to the churchyard at Bedsted, Thy, where we hid behind the stonewall of the graveyard. At midnight they returned with a taxi, fuelled by producer gas, and some civilian clothes which we donned over our uniforms. The German Commandant often used Peter Nielsen's taxi, and Peter usually knew his whereabouts. While we cowered in the dark recesses of his taxi, he stopped at the Bedsted Hotel - German HQ - to ask if he was wanted that night, knowing perfectly well that the Major was not in. The guards at the road control, having seen the taxi stop at HQ waved us on with friendly "Alles gut" and Peter made for Skjoldborg about twelve miles away, via minor roads, farm tracks and even someone's kitchen garden in order to avoid further contact with guard posts on main roads, where he had been stopped earlier that evening on his way to the Church at Bedsted. At Skjoldborg we met Richard's family, who ran the local store, and Peter's wife who gave us a good hot meal. It was 2.30 am and we were fairly exhausted, having been walking in sloppy flying boots over all sorts of terrain. At 4 am we were taken to the Praestegaard and graciously received without prior warning, by the Pastor, Hans Dahl Hansen and his wife Annemarie, who was nursing a young child. We were given the most comfortable bed in the world! Next morning the maid had to be consoled on finding two tramps soundly asleep in her immaculate room, and the Pastor had to explain us away hurriedly without creating suspicion. Later that day we were conducted to accommodation more appropriate to our scruffy condition - the hayloft above a piggery, after having eaten six fried eggs each! This haven was short-lived. A Resistance worker had sabotaged a troop train passing on the nearby railway line, and our host, Henry Christensen, had to deal with soldiers from the train who were angrily questioning him as to what he knew about it. Once he had managed to divert them, he got help from the local Resistance Leader, who insisted we remove our uniforms before taking us off in a taxi. Henry hid our uniforms in the hay loft. When the Germans arrived to search the farm soon afterwards, we had gone and the uniforms were not found. In the taxi we were taken to Thisted, a major garrison town mainly populated by German troops who manned the coastal defences which ringed the eountry. There the Proprietor of the local Outfitters, a Resistance Leader, gave us new clothes. He also supplied makeshift identification cards made with pictures of people who resembled us, cut from a family photograph album. Despite our manoeuvrings we were still only fifteen miles from the crash site and were glad to pass across the long bridge over Vildsund to Nykøbing Mors. We crossed the bridge in a taxi and tried to look unconcerned as the bridge guards examined our fake identification cards. (This gains interest when we learned after the War that these guards were almost certainly Russians in the Wehrmacht!) In Nykøbing we put up at Markvorsens Hotel, exclusively used by the Resistance. It is now a commercial building. There we met area officers, including the military leader Col. Ejby Nielsen, who insisted on our being photographed properly and issued with new identity cards. It is apparently Col Nielsen's view that we are the only Mosquito crew to have got out of Denmark alive. To our immense relief we were told that arrangements were being made to radio to England the news of our safety. We were now able to wander about the town and harbour, where we saw German flak ships with stencils of twin-engined aircraft on some of their superstructures and funnels. We were shown a cellar full of weapons dropped by the RAF and stored in prime condition ready for immediate use. On or about the sixth day (11th April) we went by ferry to pick up the railway to Aalborg from Skive, escorted by another Resistance member. The train was fairly full of civilians and some soldiers travelling in our carriage. We kept apart, standing in the central passage and trying to avoid anyone's eye. Bert had a nasty moment when he offered a vacant seat to a woman who refused to sit down! At Aalborg the station was very busy - just like Waterloo - with military and naval personnel hurrying for trains and we were glad to get onto the forecourt to follow our escort who walked off rapidly down a road opposite. He suddenly stopped to strike a match which didn't seem to light, turned on his heels and went off quickly in the opposite direction. A passing cyclist thereupon parked his hike and fell in step with us, announcing himself to be a friend.
We all went to the
mid town office of Lawyer Svend Andersen and our friend, Knud Nielsen (alias
Jakob) wished us well and quietly left. Svend Andersen took us to his flat
in the NW suburbs where he lived with his wife and daughter aged about 12 -
a delightful family. The rear balcony of the flat overlooked the Luftwaffe
air base NW of Aalborg and the front window overlooked the Gestapo HQ across
the We hung around in the flat for about an hour before being called for by another Resistance man who put us up for two days and then took us to a summerhouse somewhere on the Limtjord. There we met Resistance Leaders from the area north of Aalborg, led by Just Carl Pedersen who was responsible for export arrangements of escapees and refugees. They drove us to Strandby, about eight miles north of Frederikshavn and 25 miles south of Skagen at the northern tip of Denmark. Here we staved with the local schoolmaster and his wife and frequented the home of the Aaen family comprising Grandad, Grandma, Herluf, his wife Asta and sister Rigmor, and his large family of sons - all fishermen like himself. Herluf was also engaged in organising the passage of refugees to Sweden under orders from Just Carl Pedersen. We assembled every night for about four nights running with seven or eight others (two of whom were German soldiers who had helped the Resistance). Finally, one very dark night in the early hours of 24th April, we crept down to the quayside and boarded the fishing vessel FN264 "Maagen" skippered by Andreas Larsen of Strandby, who stowed us behind sliding panels in the athwartships lockers. We left at 3 am and at dawn were allowed on deck to find a calm sea in mid Kattegat and a larger boat alongside. She was "Merkur", flagship of the Danish Help Service operating out of Göteborg, where we were put ashore around midday on 24th April. Unlike RAF and USAAF crews who had force-landed in Sweden and were interned, we were treated by the Swedes as refugees from Europe, and after being medically examined by the Swedish Immigration Authority's doctor, were driven to the British Consulate, where we were debriefed, then sent on to Stockholm by train, arriving on 28th April. On reporting to the British Embassy we were given money to buy clothes and instructed to wait for transport back to the UK. On the night of 1st May we assembled with other RAF and civilian personnel at Bromma Airport, where Ju 52s of Deutsche Lufthansa were parked on the apron next to that of BOAC! Our aircraft, a Dakota, was almost certainly one of the Swedish line A.B. Aerotransport. which ran a service between Bromma and Leuchers, Scotland, where we landed in the early hours of 2nd May. (It is interesting to note that the Swedish ABA line also flew regular services to Berlin! ) Epilogue While many talked of the war being virtually over, the Strike Wings were still engaged in the seas around Denmark attacking U Boats and Convoys as it was feared the Germans might make a last stand in Norway. The final shipping strike of the War, an attack on Kiel, led by W/Cmdr Foxley-Norris DSO, took place on 3rd May, the day after we got back to the UK. Eighteen aircraft were lost on operations during the period 21/2/45 - 4/5/45. All crews except one injured navigator were killed. |
On 5 April 1945 
