Straw Boaters, Bowlers, and Top Hats

One of the regular participants in the socalled Baedeker attacks was Oberleutnant Werner Borner, a Beobachter (observer) serving with 4./KG2, flying on Dornier 217 E-4s.

His experience of the period started with an attack on Canterbury on 1 June 1942, which he described as a ‘revenge attack’ and in which his aircraft (U5 + KM) delivered four x SC 500 bombs against the target. On 3 June, he attacked Ipswich with four incendiary bomb containers. The next night his target was Poole, where four x SC 500 bombs were delivered.

With no respite to the sorties he flew, Borner and his crew were attacking Sunderland on 5 June with four x SC 500 bombs, before going back to Canterbury on 7 June with yet another four x SC 500 bombs.

These sorties, and the pace of them, were typical for Luftwaffe aircrew members participating in these attacks.

Borner flew very many sorties against Britain throughout the war, but on the night of 21/22 July 1942, in the same aircraft in which he had conducted all the ‘Baedeker’ sorties (U5 + KM), the aircraft was hit and sustained 50% damage from night fighter action, his radio operator being wounded.

Borner, interviewed in 1976, recalled that crews were unofficially awarded various hats with typically English connections to mark the number of sorties they had flown over the country. For 80 sorties, it was a straw boater. For 100 sorties, a bowler hat. For 120 it was a top hat and for 140 missions, a top hat garlanded with oakleaves was presented.

With 156 sorties over Britain to his credit, Werner Borner had earned himself the full range of commemorative millinery.