ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 53195
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| Date: | Tuesday 26 August 1941 |
| Time: | 05:55 |
| Type: | Handley Page Hampden Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 144 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | AE265 |
| MSN: | PL-M |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Ockenburg airfield, Zuid-Holland -
 Netherlands
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF North Luffenham, Rutland |
| RAF North Luffenham, Rutland |
Handley Page Hampden Mk.I AE265 (PL-M) 144 Squadron, RAF. Lost on combat operations on night of 25-26/8/1941.
Mission: Mannheim. Took off from RAF North Luffenham, Oakham, Rutland. Forced Landed due to being out of fuel onto Ockenburg airfield. All four crew survived, were captured and became POWs. Whilst in captivity Sgt J Erskine exchanged identities with a Marine A Hydes (Author does not give a reason).
Crew
Pilot: Pilot Officer I.G. St. C. Pringle (POW)
Navigator: Sgt J R Blake (POW)
Wireless Op: Sgt J Erskine (POW)
Air Gunner: Sgt S C Brown (POW)
According to a rough translation into English of eyewitness reports (see link #4 for original Dutch text)
"Handley Page Hampden AE265
On August 26,1941 at 5:55 a.m., an English bomber made a belly landing at the airport. This involved the Handley Page Hampden AE265 of the 144 Squadron of the Royal Air Force which had taken off from North Luffenham the night before, August 25th, for a mission to Mannheim. Returning from Mannheim and uncertain of their exact position, the crew had to make an emergency landing due to a lack of fuel.
The later aviation painter Dirk van Rijn was an eyewitness of this emergency landing. Van Rijn was at that moment with an aunt at the Thorbeckelaan. In the early morning, he heard a plane with an engine failure coming over and then went outside. At that moment he was able to observe that the Hampden made a belly landing. He also saw that the crew were captured and taken away.
The emergency landing of the Handley Page Hampden AE265 was reported to the Air Protection Service at 06:30. It was reported: "Supreme captain Kok from the office Willem III street Loosduinen reports that an English airplane has made an emergency landing at the airfield.The crew consisting of 4 persons was captured by the German army."
The Public Prosecutor of the State Inspectorate, captain De Zwart, was then informed about this emergency landing. At 5:45 am, the sector III watchdog of the Air Protection Service reported in the Roman Catholic Church at the Emmastraat in Loosduinen that an unknown plane above Loosduinen was shot with light rail ammunition; presumably this is the same device.
At 7:13 am, the Chief Government Inspectorate asked the Air Protection Service whether the report concerning the landing of an English aircraft had been passed on to the Ortskommandantur. The investigation showed that this was done by the Public Prosecutor of the Ordnungspolizei. The entire crew assumed that they were flying over East Anglia and had landed safely on a suitable landing strip at 05:55.
For the crew, it must have been a relief that the aircraft landed safely but that it must have quickly turned into a real horror. After all, the crew members of the aircraft had landed safely at an airport in an occupied Netherlands where they were made prisoners of war. In an overview "Im Luftgaubereich abgeschossene und abgesturzte Feindflugzeuge in der Zeit vom 22.8.41 - 31.8.31" of the Luftgau Kommando Holland in Amsterdam, this landing is reported as follows:
"26.8.41 1 Hampden, Notlandung, 4 Mann gefangen. 05.55 Uhr. In a Low message is reported: 26.8.1941, 1 Hampden auf Flugplatz The Hague note set. 4 Prisoner. The aircraft was supported after landing by an airbag and a jack under the wing indicating that there was a failure of the chassis. The aircraft was then flown by the Germans to Beutepark 5, Nanterre (Paris) where it was stripped and stored."
The Handley Page Hampden consisted of 4 crew members, namely Pilot officer IGS Pringle, Sergeant JR Blake, Sergeant J. Erskine and Sergeant SC Brown. All crew members were later transferred to various prisoner-of-war camps for mainly captive Allied fliers. Pringle ended up in Stalag Luft III Sagan, Blake ended up in Stalag Luft VI Heydekrug and Erskin with Brown in Stalag 357 Kopernikus. It is striking that the Germans indicate 'Flugplatz The Hague' as landing location and the English only thought later that they had landed at Ypenburg. The Germans probably wanted to prevent Ockenburg from becoming known as a fake airfield. The crew may have been transported to Ypenburg after the emergency landing and this is noted as the location of the landing. The Handley Page Hampden AE265 was later flown to Beutepark 5 der Luftwaffe in Paris-Nanterre.
Sources:
1. W.R. Chorley: Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1941 Page 126.
2. https://verliesregister.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/rs.php?aircraft=&sglo=T1219&date=&location=&pn=&unit=&name=&cemetry=&airforce=&target=&area=&airfield=
3. https://studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/25-26-08-1941-sglo-t1219-handley-page-hampden-mk-i-ae265-pl-m/
4. http://www.vliegveld-ockenburg.net/pages/1940---1945/hp-hampden-ae265.php (Dutch text)
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 26 March 1942 | AE200 | 144 Sqn RAF | 4 | North Sea N of Vlieland, Friesland | |
w/o |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-Dec-2008 11:45 | ASN archive | Added |
| 06-May-2016 15:55 | Red Dragon | Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 01-Aug-2018 19:59 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Time, Cn, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 17-Oct-2018 05:40 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 20-Mar-2020 10:27 | TigerTimon | Updated [Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative] |
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