He111 on display in UK Identification

[Clint Mitchell]

Hi, has this He111 been I.D.'d?

Attachment 6937

[Peter Cornwell]

11 September 1940: 3./KG1 Heinkel He111H-3 (3233). Starboard engine disabled by AA fire over London during attack on West India Docks,lost formation and severely damaged in attacks by F/L D.G. Parnall, P/O T.F. Neil and P/O W.B. Pattullo of No.249 Squadron. Belly-landed at Hildenborough 4.33 p.m. where crew attempted to destroy the aircraft. FF Uffz Herbert Steinecke and BO Uffz Walter Hirsch both captured unhurt, BF Uffz Erwin Kramer, BM Gefr Willi Pfeiffer, and BS Gefr Heinrich Pümpel all captured wounded. Aircraft V4+KL 100% write-off.

[Clint Mitchell]

Thank you Peter, I have found some war time accounts of this incident:

Except from Des Sheed's war memoirs:

"On September 11th, a Heinkel 111 was hit by AA fire over London and lost an engine; it was attacked by three hurricanes and forced to land in the village. The crew tried to set fire to it; Two crewmembers were captured unhurt and two were wounded. The wings were taken off the plane and the body was loaded onto a Queen Mary trailer (60 feet long). It was taken further up the village but they realised it was too wide for the main road. It was then parked outside the Half Moon Pub for a few days. I cycled down one morning and stood gazing at it and the solder guarding it said “Look after it while I go and have a cup of tea.” I was speechless."
Source: Des Sheed's War Memoirs

Also

Page 18 & 19 of 47:

Wednesday 11 September, 1940

One Canadian pilot, Flying Officer Yuille, attacked a lone Heinkel-111 piloted by Corporal Steineck of Bomber Group 1. According to his own after-action report, Yuille made a number of attacks on the Heinkel and seems to have worried it like a terrier with a rat, pursuing the bomber down and blazing away at it as it lost altitude. He was joined by two other Hurricanes, one of which was flown by Sergeant Scott of 222 Squadron. Scott charged headlong into the attack, completely oblivious of any other British fighters nearby; Yuille complained later of getting shoved out of the way by Scott while he lined up to make his own attack. In this fashion they pursued the hapless bomber down over Leigh, low over the church and virtually grazing the roof of Upper Kennards, until it made a crash landing behind Old Barn. Corporal Steineck managed to put the plane down more or less intact, sliding between two rows of poles which had been put up to prevent glider landings, and finally the Heinkel came to a stop, riddled with bullet holes and with three of the live crew injured.
Several people remember seeing the bomber go over, including a man who was part of a party picking hops in a field near Meopham Bank. “We saw it coming in,” he recalls, “and we knew it was going to crash. We ran straight across the fields to get to it.” The duty Home Guard had also seen the plane come in and had run along the railway line, but were ultimately beaten to the scene by some soldiers who had come along the road from the Hildenborough direction, arriving in time to receive the surrender of Corporal Steineck who had walked across the fields towards Meopham Bank.

Most of the village seems to have gone out to see the plane, and by the time Sir Eric Macfadyen arrived home from London his farm appeared to have suffered an invasion. “I arrived home yesterday to find an enemy bomber,” he wrote in his diary “a Heinkel-111, dividing barley corn meadow from the Old Barn big field. It had been driven down by four Spitfires, and had taken the ground in the big field... Of the crew of five, three were slightly hurt. ...This happened about 3.45 pm. By six o’clock when I got home, several hundred sightseers had collected. A man was at the gate into the road with a hat, collecting for the Spitfire Fund.” A woman who remembers being taken to see the wreck as a small girl recalls that after it was removed from Sir Eric’s field it was kept, minus its wings, on show for some time in the car park of the Half Moon pub in Hildenborough. She also remembers vividly seeing a blue and white badge on the side of the aircraft, which she was astonished to learn after the war was the insignia of BMW.
Source: Leigh atWar.pdf

Over on the Kent History Forum the location has been positively identified as being outside the Half Moon Pub in Hildenborough. The building in the front of the Heinkel is the building across the road from the pub.

[Peter Cornwell]

Clint,

Thanks for the further observations on this incident. But I regret that the account you quote from Leigh At War is seriously at fault with regard to the RAF pilots involved. YUILE of No.1 (RCAF) Squadron flying as 'Caribou Yellow 3' on that sortie was involved with others in attacking the 3./KG26 He111 that fell at Dormansland. He reported seeing the crew bale out before it crashed and exploded. He further reported Hurricane VK*N (probably BLAKE but possibly ROZYCKI both of Blue Section No.238 Squadron) and two others also being involved. SCOTT of No.222 Squadron (Spitfires) may have been one of these but I am unable to confirm so. He simply reported attacking an He111 west of Tunbridge Wells, before coming under attack himself, and seeing a wreck burning on the ground and two parachutes. The hapless Heinkel received the attention of at least nine RAF fighters as follows:

3./KG26 Heinkel He111H-3 (3157). Hit in one wing by AA fire during sortie over London, lost formation and both engines disabled in attacks by F/L G.R. McGregor, F/O H.de M. Molson, and F/O A. Yuile of No. 1 (RCAF) Squadron; S/L M.V. Blake and P/O W. Rozycki of No.238 Squadron; P/O J.F.J. MacPhail of No.603 Squadron; P/O C.F. Currant and P/O W.J. Glowacki of No.605 Squadron, and Sgt S.A. Levenson of No.611 Squadron. Crashed and exploded at Hoopers Farm, Eden Road, Dormansland, near Lingfield, 3.45 p.m. FF Oberlt Wolf Abenhausen baled out and captured unhurt, BF Fw Heinz Hauswald baled out and captured wounded, HB Fw Henry Westfalen baled out but parachute snagged aircraft and fell dead on Starborough Estate, BM Uffz Bruno Herms and HS Gefr Fritz Zähle both killed. Aircraft 1H+ML 100% write-off.

[Clint Mitchell]

Peter, thanks for correcting the info.

Cheers

Clint

[Andy Saunders]

There are other photos of the aircraft displayed elsewhere.

This is only from memory, but I seem to recall I had linked Sgt Scott with the He 111 loss on that same day at Gate House Farm, Staplecross, although 92 Squadron also seem to have had a part in that, too.

The fact that Scott saw the aircraft burning on the ground might tie in with this, although that is speculation. However, the two parachutes he saw descending may have been unrelated - if he was indeed involved with this aircraft. I think Scott also had his cockpit canopy shattered by return fire in this episode, but I cannot find his Combat Report at present. I may have filed it in my Sgt Scott file which is the loft.

Wade and Williams shot down a He 111 on which they saw a white letter 'A' on the fuselage, which would tie in with the Staplecross crash which we know to have been 1H + AH.

[Steve Brew]

Hi Gents

Just to complicate matters, 41 Squadron's Fg Off John N. Mackenzie also claimed a He111 at Hildenborough that same afternoon. Aside from evidence in his Combat Report, he recorded in his own logbook that day, "Shot down a Heinkel 111K Sth. of W. Maling [sic] HILDENBOROUGH. Gave first burst into fuselage and then held sights on port engine, which eventually stopped and aircraft crashed landed near Tonbridge. P/O Lock was with me at the time of attack but as he was out of ammunition did not fire at it. We both landed at West Maling [sic] with petrol shortage."

Could there have been more than one He111 down in the Hildenborough area? Does 249 Squadron positively identify the crash location as Hildenborough?

Regards
Steve