50 Squadron Hampden I P2070 VN-X P/O. Wawn, RAF Lindholme, force landing, Lautersheim Germany Newcastle Evening Chronicle 29 August 1940 Crew listed as Pilot Officer Robert D. Wawn (41505) Sydney, Australia Sergeant John Schofield (580741), Doncaster Sergeant Ralph Smith (538619) Newcastle Sergeant Henry Bushell (904757) London
UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 Name: H J Bushell Rank: Warrant Officer Army Number: 904757 Regiment: Royal Air Force : Officers & Other Ranks POW Number: 206 Camp Type: Stalag Luft 6 Camp Number: L6 Camp Location: Heydekrug, Lithuania Section: Royal Air Force : Officers & Other Ranks Name: R D Wawn Rank: Flight Lieutenant Army Number: 41505 Regiment: Royal Air Force : Officers & Other Ranks POW Number: 1255 Camp Type: Stalag Luft 3 Camp Number: L3 Camp Location: Sagan and Belaria, Poland Section: Royal Air Force : Officers & Other Ranks Cant find the other 2 at present TD
How on earth could they have believed they were in Scotland? This was the first significant Bomber Command reprisal attack for the "accidental" bombing of London on the night of 25th August, and that changed the Luftwaffe attacks from bombing Fighter Command airfields. That took the pressure off and allowed the RAF to continue the BoB fight to a successful conclusion. Had they been bombed out of South Coast airfields then Sealion may well have happened. Still don't see how they could think they were in Scotland......
Found one of the others UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 Name: J Scholfield Rank: Warrant Officer Army Number: 580741 Regiment: Royal Air Force : Officers & Other Ranks POW Number: 227 Camp Type: Stalag Camp Number: 357 Camp Location: Kopernikus, Poland Section: Royal Air Force : Officers & Other Ranks and finally - with a slightly different service number Name: R H L Smith Rank: Warrant Officer Army Number: 538519 (above it is 538619) Regiment: Royal Air Force : Officers & Other Ranks POW Number: 228 Camp Type: Stalag Camp Number: 357 Camp Location: Kopernikus, Poland Section: Royal Air Force : Officers & Other Ranks TD
This Hampden loss was very similar to the Hampden L 4146 QR R of No 61 Squadron,out of Hemswell which made a forced landing,out of fuel on 23-24 May 1940 south west of Stuttgart while on a communication targets operation. The crew thought that they had landed in Scotland and it transpired that the navigation error was probably due to the failure of the gyro compass. The range of the Hampden was critical for operations into Germany and many returning aircraft are recorded as running out of fuel,resulting in the loss of aircrew after re-entering British air space.It is possible that the No 50 Squadron aircraft was lost due to a similar gyro compass defect and was wandering around German air space until the it ran out of fuel. I knew the widow of the gunner on the Hemswell aircraft....she told me that the aircraft landed in a meadow. Chiefy,the pilot, told her husband, L,"pop down into the village and ring up the squadron to collect us".L returned quickly and declared in appropriate language "we're in Germany"....all the crew went into the bag.
I'm reminded of the story of J15379 F/O Carlyle Edgar Heggtveit, of No. 1401 Met Flight, flying Spitfire AB131 on a PAMPA over the Irish Sea on 12 April 1942. For some reason he landed at St Trond, Belgium and ended up at Luft III. There are photos of his aircraft repainted in Luftwaffe markings. He later pretended to be schizophrenic - his service file goes into great detail on how he successfully pulled that off - and was medically repatriated. RCAF Casualty list # 1000, 28 September 1944, has him "Previously reported Prisoner (Germany) Now Exchanged and in the United Kingdom"
