Re: Fw 190 landed at West Malling, Mar '43
 

beter late than never, but tagging on to the above posts, to clarify a small point about the 4th Pilot, oblt. Kurt Klahn...he bailed out sometime after over passing West Malling airfield, so didn't in fact attempt to land, presumably as a result of seeing what happened to his 3 colleagues. He in fact carried on in a SE direction until I believe he ran out of fuel (?) and bailed out too low and straight into trees in Staplehurst and died on impact. He came down in what is now our garden, much to the shock of our next door neighbour first thing on the morning of the 17th. He was buried I believe in Lenham or Bearsted cemetary initially until moved along with other remains in the 1960s. If anyone can shed any other bits of information about him/his background I'd greatly appreciate it. The remains of his plane still lie several feet down in a field to the rear of our house.

Re: Fw 190 landed at West Malling, Mar '43
 

Guy: What happened to Klahn (and his career) is covered in my book due out shortly and includes photos of the crashed ac. I cannot be certain but he was buried at Staplehurst (I saw the burial record some years ago) but is now at Cannock Chase

Re: Fw 190 landed at West Malling, Mar '43
 

Hi Chris - thanks for the update, do you have a photo of Klahn anywhere as this story has been bugging me for the past 21 years or so?! I know there were alot of misgivings amongst some locals at the time about burying a German Airman in the local churchyard, and that seemed to be the case for a number of other pilots who crashed/died in that part of the country (I know of at least x4 others). Still, good sense prevailed it seems, but I had no idea he was actually buried in Staplehurst itself until being taken up to Cannock. I appreciate you probably don't want to give any info away that will be covered in the book, but anything you have would be appreciated....let me know the name of the book/publication date as both I and my father would be keen to get a copy.

guy

Re: Fw 190 landed at West Malling, Mar '43
 

Guy: If you scroll down to the Books section of this board, all the details of my new book are there. I am afraid that I have no photo of him but a number of his crashed ac. Do PM me if you would like to know more about his career