[Hans Nauta]

Dear Mr Prien,

Thanks for your quick reaction.

You probably may have identified this Bf.109E-7 already as the Schwarze 9 Werknr 1272 of 1./JG1 which crashlanded on 31st March 1941 and sustained 40% damage.

In fact the back ground story is rather sad. This Bf.109 took off from Bergen (North-Holland) and hit either the Einjäger Warmehalle on the Western edge of the airfield or a dune top 1 km West of the airfield.
After the collision the Bf.109 made a crashlanding from North to South on the cycle path besides the road Egmond-Bergen at 08.40 hrs. Unfortunately two schoolboys were cycling from Egmond to their school at Bergen and one of them, 12 years old, was hit mortally. While nearby citizens were rushing for help, the pilot was still in his Messerschmitt yelling "Das Kind, das Kind!"

After the war and uptill now a persistant rumour was heard in the village of Egmond that during the war at this very road an English Spitfire made a wheels down landing, owing to lack of fuel. The pilot could make use of a coincidentally passing fuel bowser, topped up his tanks and took off to fight another day!

This kind of rumours are very common, however the existance of this one could be linked with the rather sad story.

The names of both the pilot and schoolboy are known to me, but I think it will not be appropriate to mention them on a public forum. You will find the name in a message in your private mailbox of this server.

Kind regards,
Hans Nauta