The Demise of ‘Yellow 15’
During September 1940, Unteroffizier Kurt Wolff of 3./JG52 experienced this mishap in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3 at Coquelles, France, and later posed happily by his ‘handiwork’. Whilst the cause of the mishap is not recorded on the original photograph, there does appear to have been a significant oil leak behind the propeller spinner which has spewed oil out and along the side of the engine cowling. This may well have led to the landing accident. However, whether this was simply some mechanical malfunction or failure, or if it was the result of battle damage, remains unclear. Nevertheless, Kurt Wolff would be shot down over England and captured shortly after this photograph was taken.
On 30 September 1940, on a free hunt to South London, twelve Bf 109 Es of JG52 were attacked by about 25 Spitfires climbing from below. Kurt Wolff reported that he had gone into a steep bank and partially lost control but was then singled out by a Spitfire which put hits through his engine and controls. The engine then stopped, and he circled downwards to the coast and eventually baled-out over Udimore in East Sussex, his aircraft (Werk Nummer 1262, ‘Yellow 14’) going on to crash at Clayton’s Farm, Peasmarsh.
Landing with a bullet wound in his right leg, Kurt Wolff was taken to the military hospital at Benenden School and began almost six years of captivity in Britain, and later in Canada.
According to the RAF intelligence report following his interrogation, Kurt Wolf (who had previously served as a Junkers 87 Stuka radio operator/gunner) had recently taken part in a raid against RAF Kenley when his engine stopped at 19,000 ft and yet, remarkably, he had managed to glide all the way home across the English Channel.
The possibility cannot be discounted, therefore, that the image depicted here shows the aftermath of that episode. It had been an incident which certainly saw a very considerable degree of skill and good luck for Kurt Wolff in his ability to bring his disabled aircraft all the way home over hostile territory and then across the English Channel.