Handley Page Hampden ?
 

Hello !

Last weekend i ´ve bought a foto album "Meine Dienstzeit" on a flea market.
It belongs to a german soldier who served in France.
One of the pictures shows a crash landed airplane. Is this a Handley Page
Hampden?
Unfortunately there are no other information on the backside.
Is anybody out there who knows more?
Thank you in advance!

Herzliche Grüsse aus Oberschwaben,

Wolfgang

Re: Handley Page Hampden ?
 

61 Sqn 23-24 May 1940 between Horb & Rottweil?

Re: Handley Page Hampden ?
 

Hampden I VN°X P2070 50Sq Lautersheim 25/26 AUG 1940.

Re: Handley Page Hampden ?
 

Hi Wolfgang,

It is VN-X of n°50 sqdn.

Bertrand

Re: Handley Page Hampden ?
 

61 Sqn 23-24 May 1940

Rail Targets

L4146

61 Sqn "QR - P"

Force land in Germany out of Fuel

F/Sgt T G Ross
Sgt J W Wootton
Cpl L Walker
Sgt E R Corrigan+ (died whilst in captivity)

All POW

Landed out of fuel in a grass covered clearing in the Black Forest.
It was noted that this Hampden did not have the modifications to the Perspex of the navigators position.

Due to a faulty gyro-compass the crew of L4146 landed in a grey light of dawn on a patch of clear ground in an otherwise wooded area. The crew were so certain that they had landed in Scotland that the pilot sent the navigator to the nearby village to telephone the nearest RAF aerodrome to arrange transport to come and pick them up. The grim realisation that they had come down in Germany, in the Black Forest region between Horb and Rottweil, arrived too late for them to do much about it: even if the pilot thought that taking-off was a 'jolly good' idea, the wheels of the Hampden had all ready sunk into the soft ground thereby making it impossible to shift the bomber.

They had no alternative but to try and prevent its capture.

WoP Len Walker: "believed that the aircraft was on fire when the crew left it, as the pilot had fired the Verey cartridges into the fuselage to destroy the aircraft. All that seem's to have happened was that it created an impressive amount of smoke without causing any damage at all!"

"The observer/lower gunner Corrigan, contracted peritonitis whilst a prisoner of war and died in hospital, in spite of the concerted efforts of the German hospital staff to save this young life."

Andy Bird

Re: Handley Page Hampden ?
 

Hello!

That is amazing!
Thank you very much to all!

Herzliche Grüsse aus Altshausen,

Wolfgang

Re: Handley Page Hampden ?
 

Wolfgang,

I have their story too via papers from 144 Squadron for some reason:

A German radio broadcast was picked up on 26 August 1940 and translated. It revealed a slight error in the navigation on the part of Sgt J Scholfield in P2070.

The broadcast described how the inhabitants of Osthofen and Worms heard the drone of an aircraft flying at a low height, with anti-aircraft batteries firing.

Shortly afterwards the twin-engine Hampden landed at Lautersheim. To the astonishment of the local people who surrounded the aircraft, the aircrew calmly alighted and the pilot P/O Wawn addressed the crowd in Oxbridge English. Several German officers immediately arrived on the scene, Wawn announced that he thought they'd landed in Scotland and the people were speaking a Celtic dialect !

When asked if they were not surprised at being shot at by AA guns, he replied, 'Oh, no. We're used to that sort of thing in England.'

The Hampden's carrier pigeons, were still in there baskets: 'Well if we'd released them they'd have had a long flight home!' replied Scholfield.

Crew: PO R D Wawn, Sgt J Schofield, Sgt R. H. L. Smith, Sgt H J Bushell

Mark: Hampden I

Take-Off: 2158 Lindholme

Target: Berlin

Heard on w/t by Heston at 0412 asking for a bearing.

Believed forced landed 0634 near Lautersheim, Germany.

Hope this helps ?

Andy Bird

PS I'll have to ask my mother-in-law as she lived in Osthofen in WW2.

Re: Handley Page Hampden ?
 

Hello,

You might notice the insignia on the nose of No.50 Sqn Hampden I P2070. It is an Australian aboriginal boomerang and waddy (nulla nulla)*.

The pilot of P2070, 41505 P/O Robert David WAWN RAF, was an Australian serving in the RAF. He originally came from Waverley, N.S.W. Wawn was granted a short-service commission in the RAF on 14th December, 1938.

Wawn passed away in N.S.W., on 10th August, 1992.

Robert Wawn's older brother, 261720 S/L Jack Aubrey WAWN AFC RAAF, was also a PoW. He went missing in 25 Sqn RAAF Liberator A72-133, on 26th April, 1945. He survived Japanese imprisonment and died on 2nd December, 2004.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddy

Col.

Re: Handley Page Hampden ?
 

Hello !

Thank you for sharing!
Andy-one question to the carrier pigeons!
Were they usual passenger on enemy flights?
Last possibility to contact the own country after forced landing in
Germany ?

Sorry-I am a greenhorn! I have much more questions than answers !

Herzliche Grüsse aus Altshausen,

Wolfgang

Re: Handley Page Hampden ?
 

Yes, carrier pigeons were carried on RAF flights.

See, for example, these:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...ntral-17138990

http://www.arcre.com/archive/pigeons/pigeonsraf