During the night of 12/3/1941 over Birkenhead,Liverpool Junkers Ju-88 Werk No 7188 FL+BT from KG76, Chateaudun , France had just released its bombs the bomber which had also been damaged by an encounter with a Defiant flown by Sgt Jankowiak , 307 Squadron when it was stuck by flak setting the starboard engine on fire the pilot Feldwebel G.Unger knowing his plane was lost ordered his crew to bail out , after the crew left Unger directed the bomber towards the sea and parachuted himself .
7188 without a crew decided to head south east instead flying for an
amazing 100 miles until finally it could fly no more, skimming low over
Droitwich and past the Large Transmission towers just south of the town
the bomber clipped the garage at a large house near Wychbold [much to the distress of the Home guard sheltering there] the
plane broke up and burned in the field behind the house one bullet
cooked off and hit a window in the house but luckily no one on the ground
was hurt although the 80 year old owner and family was given a mild
start and all went back to bed after a look at the wreck.
Finding the house today nothing shows the events of the night so long ago the house has not changed , though no one was at home I did get a good view of the site from the lane The second from last picture is is taken from the long out of print but well worth a hunt for book [took me 10 years to find a copy ] 'Forgotten Heroes' By Glyn Warren the last is of Sgt Jankowiak with his 307 Squadron Defiant after his kill of an He-111 .
Crew =
Fw G Unger,
Uffz F Bergmann,
Fw A.Meier
Oberfw W Dirk
all POW.
No comments:
Post a Comment