The Forgotten Heinkel
Mick Sharp takes a helicopter to visit the site of a crashed World War Two bomber
A puncture on a busy road in wind and rain was not the best way to start a visit to Lundy. At the harbour there was news both bad and good: it’s far too rough for the ferry, but we can use the helicopter!
Named Puffin Island ( lundi ey) by the Norse, Lundy breaks waves in the approaches to the Bristol Channel off the coast of Devon. It is just over three miles long north-south and only half a mile wide (5km x 1km), but packed with interest: a National Trust survey lists some 1,400 archaeological sites. They include flints left by hunters and fisherfolk in the late Mesolithic; a Bronze Age settlement with hut circles and field walls; prehistoric standing stones, burial cairns and mounds; early Christian inscribed stones and burials; Henry iii’s royal rabbit warren and a 13th-century castle (rebuilt in the 17th century); medieval farmsteads and fields; a Civil War gun battery; a Victorian granite quarry; three lighthouses and a fog-signal gun battery; a 1920s golf course and a 1930s airfield; and World War Two anti-aircraft ditches and three bomber wreck sites.
One of the latter was a British Armstrong Whitworth Whitley – twinengined, crewed by five and designed for night operations – which crashed on West Sideland south-west of Old Light lighthouse. The other two are Heinkel He iiis.
This German fast medium-bomber was designed in 1934 with future use by the Luftwaffe in mind: it was developed and put into service in the guise of an airliner and cargo plane. Also twin-engined planes, with distinctive “greenhouse” noses made of Plexiglass panels giving excellent sight lines to pilots, Heinkel 111s did great damage during the Battle of Britain and were used particularly for night “terror bombing” during the Blitz ending in May 1941.
That year a iii (the “Lost Heinkel”) crashed inside a medieval field system south of Halfway Wall. All five crew were captured unhurt and sent to the mainland. One of them, Elmar Bötcher, revisited the island in 1991 on the 50th anniversary.
A month later, on April 1, a iii smashed into the cliff at West Side, south-west of the Earthquake and north-east of Dead Cow Point, killing two men and seriously injuring the rear gunner. The remaining two crew members of the “Forgotten Heinkel” jumped to safety, but all three survivors were quickly captured by islanders. Engine remains of are still embedded in a granite cleft; burnt pieces of aluminium fuselage lie scattered around.
Old Light was completed in 1820 for £36,000. At 96ft (29m) it was the highest tower in Britain. Since 1969 the Landmark Trust has been responsible for restoring the buildings and services for the islanders and visitors. Twentythree houses and cottages are available to rent including the castle and lighthouse. Five of us stayed in the upper part of the keepers’ quarters. We were able to have our meals (featuring local rabbit) in the reglazed lantern overlooking Beacon Hill early Christian cemetery, excavated by the late Charles Thomas. When culinary inspiration failed, and journeys up and down the 135 steps seemed too daunting, we retired to the Marisco Arms for food, drink and a game of Lundy Monopoly.