Further reading found on Internet via Drude's son ...
… Came across a book on-line titled: An Old Airman's Tale by Leslie "Uncle Will" Hay.
Apparently he and others were sitting on the runway at Dyce when Drude came in and crash landed on 12/26/44. He writes it up like this:
“He and others spot a 109 wagging it's wings while coming in for a landing. The plane bounced several times before flipping over on it's back and all these guys run over and lift up the plane allowing dad, who was unhurt, to climb out. He goes on to say: You'll never believe this, but the first thing he (Drude) did was to take out his comb, look in his mirror and comb his blonde, wavy hair! There were handshakes all around.”
… Drude told that the first thing he did was shut off the fuel and magneto to prevent a possible fire.
Being short of fuel by the way, has absolutely nothing to do with making a crash landing, but a boggy
pot holed runway does…
He (uncle Will) goes on to say:
“Uffz. Willi Drude took off from Aalborg at approx. 13:50 hrs in ME109G-14 on 26.12.44 on a flight to Stavanger. Drude had starting problems and delayed take off. Then the engine started (so no plane substitution was made), instead of following the formation, he took the opportunity to defect.
Flying initially at 1,000 metres in a NW direction, he used the T/T (whatever that is) to inform his base that he was ditching; he then descended to 25 metres and headed due west to Dyce. At 15:20 hrs, on approaching the airfield he climbed to 200 metres and waggled his wings indicating that he was about to land. The aircraft touched down, bounced violently several times and turned over on it's back.”
- So not really a training flight but a delivery flight.
- No photos? Sure? ...
