Plt Off Wooldridge Hampden v He111s 5/6 September 1940

[BrianC]

Hi

Has anyone details of Plt Off John Wooldridge's adventures on the night of 5/6 September 1940, when returning from a raid on Hannover in his Hampden of 144 Squadron (?). He observed an aerodrome with its landing lights on and then saw three He111s with their navigation lights on, waiting to land.

He and his gunners fired at one and saw it crash and burst into flames. All lights were extinguished, but one then switched on again - and the Heinkel was shot at by AA fire.

The Hampden then overflew Nordenay airfield, which was also showing lights, and released two bombs, one of which exploded near a hangar and a He111, which the crew was believed destroyed.
.
These details extracted from David Master's "So Few".

Can these actions and claims be verified? John Wooldridge had received DFM, and the DFC (presumably for this flight)

Possibly Gilze-Rijen, home of II./KG26?


Stay safe
Brian

[Chris Goss]

From what I can see he did not get the DFC until August 1942

[Leendert]

Brian,

The SGLO database has some He-111 losses on 5 and 6 Sept 1940 at Gilze-Rijen airfield, but not clear what time and if due to this particular Hampden's action.

I wonder where 'Nordenay' airfield may have been?

Regards,
Leendert

[TigerTimon]

Norderney: landing ground (Landeplatz) and seaplane station (Seefliegerhorst) 66 km WNW of Wilhelmshaven on Norderney island, Germany.

[Chris Goss]

No mention of air attack causing KG 26 casualties & Nordeney is a distance from Gilze. Methinks Leendert was joking!

[bearoutwest]

The book 'So Few' can be read online via the Internet Archive website:
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.../n289/mode/2up

The section on Wooldridge's action - see pages 273-275 - indicates the target for the raid as Stettin. Could UK-based Hampdens reach Stettin, now in Poland, and return? A return route from Stettin to the North Sea could take the aircraft over Nordenay (Norderney Island).

The book notes that the crew has some exciting time when bombing the oil refineries at Hanover, but it is not clear whether this was an alternate target on this same night 5/6-September, or if the 'excitement' had occurred another time.

It does seem plausible, but likely to be a mixture of hear-say stories intermixed with fact.

The book also notes earlier about Squadron Leader R.S. Allen and his Hampden dorsal gunner shooting down a He111 and a Ju87 on the same night in 1940. See earlier chapter (starting p.105), Allen received a DFC for this in the book; but in reality, it was for bringing back a badly damaged bomber.

Neither John Wooldridge nor R.S. Allen appear in the Shore's book of 2-4 victory scores "Those other Eagles", perhaps because the kills were scored by their gunners? (Allen's gunner Sgt Williams isn't listed either.)

Pity. The stories sounded very interesting. Good propaganda for the dark days of 1940-41 perhaps.


...geoff

[Nick Beale]

The daily sitrep at German Docs in Russia has the following:

23.25 hrs. on the 5th, Norderney: 1 bomb fell on the mud flats, no damage.

The Germans estimated 95 RAF raiders that night and bombs fell all over the place but the biggest number recorded was at Pölitz (30–40 HE and incendiary).

There were also "several bombs" at Jasenitz near Stettin, burning down to farmsteads. Open country was hit at Altdamm too.

I didn't spot anything about attacks on airfields or aircraft.

[MW Giles]

A P/O Wooldridge was on 61 Sqn and went to target A.104 at Pölitz on the night of 05/06 Sept 40 in P4399
No mention in ORB of shooting down anything or bombing airfields

No Wooldridge on 144 Sqn this night

Martin

[Juha]

I doubt that Hampden could bomb Stettin from the UK and return, the one-way flight from Sumburgh to Afrikanda, appr. 100 mls south of Murmansk, in 1942 was very so-so, some Hampdens running out of fuel. After operations there the surviving Hampdens were given to Russians because a return flight was considered too risky, SE winds are predominent here in the Northern Europe.

[MW Giles]

Hampdens sent to Pölitz oil refinery near Stettin (Szczecin) on consecutive nights 04/05 and 05/06 Sept. They took off from 3 Group airfields in Norfolk/Suffolk to reduce the distances

Crews claimed to have bombed target. Therefore there is the range to get there. You will be aware of the relationship between load and range

In general in 1940 most crews got to the right general area, their problems was finding the right town or factory once they got there

What they actually hit or achieved is a discussion for another day

Martin