Night fighter shot down by Airgunner JU52

[Orwell1984]

Originally Posted by Ben McKinnon

Turns out that a Beaufighter NV213/5 was lost on a night intruder mission north of Crete crew comprised of a Canadian pilot F/O Soderland and Navigator FLT SGT Nichol both taken POW.

So I reckon this was the one, based on the area of operations and the fact that there was a Canadian pilot flying the aircraft seems to fit the bill, what do you think ?

Ben

Two small fixes to the above. The Beaufighter was NV213/S. And it's Soderlund, not land.
see here:
http://aviationarchaeology.gr/wp-con...1941-19464.pdf

But your identification of the aircraft seems spot on.
Interview with Harold Soderlund in 2016 when he was 94
https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/...urvived-276007

On the night of August 30, 1944, Soderlund was on patrol over the Aegean Sea north of Crete.
"All of a sudden I saw the silhouette of a Junkers 52 (an easily recognized, three-engined German plane, used to transport troops and/or supplies)."
"I pressed the cannon-firing buttons but I don't think I hit him," Soderlund said.
"The next thing that happened was that I nearly collided with a second Junkers 52…I turned to get behind him (to attack) and then bullets battered into my aircraft and it disabled my port engine."
Soderlund's Beaufighter began to descend for a crash-landing on the surface of the Aegean Sea.
"I felt a bump at the back of the aircraft, that was the tail wheel touching the water, and in a few seconds the plane slid under the water…(before that) I hit my head on the windscreen but I didn't get knocked out, I grabbed the escape hatch lever overhead and climbed out onto the wing and into the water, and we inflated our Mae Wests (a nickname for inflatable life preservers)."
"So there we were (Soderlund and his navigator Ian Nichol, who was uninjured), both in the water, but the sea was calm and warm."
"The plane was supposed to be equipped with a two-man dinghy, but in the moonlight I saw a square package floating, which was a one-man dinghy, I pulled it open and we climbed onto that…Ian sat on the back and I sat on the front, my legs dangling in the water."
"We saw a Swedish hospital ship about a mile away and we tried to signal it with a little light we had, but they didn't see us."
"We realized it was gone, and we accepted the situation we were in."
The two men spent two days in that helpless state before being picked up by a German patrol boat.
"We were now prisoners of war."