Hope you can help with any info on the ID + crew of a German Bomber shot down and crashed near Tournai around 12th may 1940 could be a few days around that date. one of the crew was the officer Peter piper from Hamburg, i wonder if he was sent back to the UK as a POW. click on image to enlarge. Keith
Heinekel He 111 H from 4./LG1 Both engines destroyed in attacks by FO Gore, FO Weatherill and PO Stewart of No.607 Squadron over Marquain during sortie to bomb airfield near Lille and force landed at Marquain, west of Tournai 0600hrs. Uffz R. Obst killed. Fw H-P Piper and Uffz H Szigat captured wounded. Fw E Wolter captured unhurt. Aircraft L1+LM a write off.
They either escaped later during the confusion or they were taken back to the UK. The entry above for another german aircraft loss states that one of the crew captured was killed at Dunkirk when the ship that was taking him to the UK was sunk in an air raid.
Both Peter PIPER and Erwin WOLTER remained PoWs and were taken back to the UK and subsequently saw out the war in Canada. WOLTER was repatriated to Germany in 1947. Due to the severity of his wounds, Herbert SZIGAT remained in hospital where he was overtaken by the German advance and released back to Germany on 27 June 1940. Details from WOLTER's interrogation by RAF Intelligence can be consulted in A.I.1.(k) Report No.110/1940 and extracts from PIPER's diary in A.I.1.(k) Report No.111/1940 - both held in document AIR40/2397 at the NA(PRO) Kew.
Thank you Peter for the info, they were taken to No.8 Casualty Clearing Station at Rouvroy for treatment. Keith
