Who sunk Dutch trawler Protinus 19.03.1940

[Leendert]

Dutch newspapers of that time also give conflcting accounts. In one article in the Leeuwarder Courant of 30-03-1940 one can read that according some crew the trawler had hit a mine. After having abandoned ship and after three days the fishermen were strafed by a German airplane, resulting in two dead.

And on 01-04-1940 the Oprechte Haarlemsche Courant gives another version, also according some of the survivors. The trawler was bombed by a German airplane, with two dead, while two more succumbed in the lifeboat. Here no mine and no strafing....

Interestingly, in this latter newspaper the crew described the noise of the bomber as a "shrill, whistling sound". Then it returned and made an attack in a "almost daredevillish, steep dive" The bombs missed, but two 30-cm bombs of the second attack, again in a steep dive, hit the steering house, killing two fishermen. The other crew never saw them again.
Date and time is given as 20 March 1940 and around 17:30 hrs. when the crew saw the airplane appear. At first the crew paid no special heed because it had happened before that aircraft had flown over. But this one circled the trawler some five times before commencing the attack in above mentioned fashion.

I'm no expert on German airplanes, let alone that I'm familiar with this case, but the combination of a high pitched sound and a steep dive may point to a Ju-87?


Regards,

Leendert