Luftwaffe Over Britain 1939-45
‘The Dornier on my left exploded violently…’
While Luftwaffe fighter operations over Britain tailed off at the end of 1940, bomber crews were involved in sorties against the country from October 1939 through to March 1945.
By 16 August 1940 the Battle of Britain was certainly upping in tempo – if not imminently reaching its crescendo. It was also a day that saw Dornier 17-Z pilot Leutnant Heinz-Georg Möllenbrok shot down over Kent to be taken prisoner with very serious injuries. He was also witness to the destruction of another Dornier 17 from his unit flying alongside him. The former Luftwaffe pilot takes us back to events that day:
“It was my seventh raid on England with KG 2, although the commander of the Gruppe was troubled that he had to continue sending his young crews over England knowing that many would be shot down.
“I had been involved in the raid on Eastchurch on 13 August 1940 when we were without our fighter escort because we didn’t receive the radio signal that had cancelled the raid. So far, apart from Eastchurch, we had attacked Manston twice, Lympne, and Hawkinge - as well as shipping in the Channel. Although I don’t think we did much damage to the vessels we attacked.
“On 16 August, we were flying from our base at Cambrai, our target being RAF Hornchurch, but when we reached the Thames Estuary around 15.45 hours, we found the London area shrouded in fog and the cloud base at only 3,000ft - although we had been promised clear weather in the late afternoon. As we were still under instruction only to bomb military targets, and when we found we could not attack our target, we ditched our bombs over the Thames and our 27 Dorniers all turned for home.
“As we were turning, dropping our bombs, and heading for France, we were suddenly attacked by Hurricanes and the Dornier on my left exploded violently. We feared all the crew must be dead. We tried to keep formation, because we all had our ground-attack 20 mm cannons and could fire on any fighters that came from the front or below – but the Hurricanes instead came from the rear and above.
“Four Hurricanes attacked our section, and the starboard engine was hit on my Dornier. Although I tried to hold the machine on one engine, we started to lose formation. Later, when I had dropped out of formation and we were alone, the steering mechanism was then hit making the bomber difficult to control and I now found myself flying over Canterbury.
“In the final attack, which was near Eastry, we were sent spinning down and on fire. The hatch was below the cockpit, and both the observer and I tried to exit at the same time and because of the spinning motion of the aircraft we became wedged against the fuselage sides. One of the other two crew members knocked out the glazed panel above the cockpit and both exited that way. I am sure they must have hit some part of the aircraft because they were both almost surely dead before they struck the ground.
“The first thing I remember after baling out was hanging from my parachute straps in a tree and seeing the barrel of a shotgun being pointed up at me. I couldn’t see much while I came down because it was misty, but I thought how the farms with their little fields and meadows looked just like the countryside at my home in Schleswig Holstein. But it was enemy territory. Not home.
“Two men, whom I now know were Ron Crier and Tony ‘Curly’ Wanstall, tried to get me down from my harness. They twisted the release box and gave it a good whack. I couldn’t help myself as my right arm was badly injured and hanging from just a strip of flesh.
The bone was completely smashed and broken from hitting something when I had left the aircraft.
“The two men helped me to a sofa in a farmhouse, but as I was bleeding so much and didn’t want to spoil the lady’s furniture I asked for a chair. The lady had been a VAD nurse in the first war, and she was so kind, gentle, and quiet as she patched me up before I was taken off to hospital. I think someone also gave me a drop of whisky, too.”
The experience of Heinz-Georg Möllenbrok, and his treatment at the hands of his captors, was not unusual for Luftwaffe airmen brought down over Britain.
Leutnant Möllenbrok went on to be treated at the Royal Herbert Military Hospital, Woolwich, where his damaged arm was saved by a RAMC surgeon. Later, because of his severe injuries, he was repatriated to Germany. (See also pages 128 - 130).