More information : Sunday 15th February 1942, 2150hrs.
Dornier Do217 E-4 Werke Nummer 1167 U5+BD of Stab 3/KG 2 was shot down into the sea 4 miles east of Blyth, by a Beaufighter of 141 Squadron from RAF Acklington...This incident was confirmed by the ROC at St. Mary's Lighthouse.
Crew: Leutnant K Pellar; Major G Klostermann; Unteroffizier J Uhl; Feldwebel H Goggerle. All crew reported missing.
Note: On 5th May 1978 an engine was brought up from this crash position by the fishing boat DAGNY of Blyth, captained by Bobby Watson. Later this engine was thought to have been bought by a man from Yorkshire...
On 6th March 1995 a tyre and oleo leg from a Do217 were recovered from the same position by the fishing boat WANSBECK from Blyth, skippered by Paul Dent of Newbiggin. The tyre and oleo leg are now on display in the Bamburgh Castle Aviation Artefacts Museum. (1)
`40 aircraft of IX Fliegerkorps laid mines in Tyne Bay on the night of 15/16 February, 1942. The attackers included a number of aircraft from KG2, one of which dropped bombs on dock installations in the area. The operation cost KG2 at least two aircraft, U5+BD (w/n 1167) and U5+NT (w/n5343)...
`It is believed that U5+BD was shot down by Flying Officer James G "Ben" Benson (with Sergeant Lewis Brandon) in a Beaufighter of 141 Squadron, Acklington, and crashed into the sea four miles east of Blyth. Major Gerhard Klostermann, the Dornier's observer on that occasion, was the Kommandeur of 111/KG2. Like the rest of his crew, he was never found.
`141 Squadron put up three patrols at 19.00 hours on the night of 15 February. Two minutes later, Benson (in Beaufighter X7577) was ordered to patrol 8 miles east of Blyth at 8000 feet. Under GCI Control, Brandon got two unsuccessful AI contacts before the Beaufighter crew intercepted U5+BD. Some 10 miles east of Blyth, Brandon guided his pilot into visual range of the Do217 and at about 20.02 hours Benson opened fire from dead astern and slightly below with a two-second burst. No result was observed in this first attack but the enemy machine started to lose height very rapidly. In fact, in the course of the short engagement...there was no return fire at all from the raider and no evasive tactics...During two further bursts of one second each from 150 yards dead astern, Benson observed strikes on the Dornier's fuselage and tail and saw a red flash. The bomber was then at 1500 feet and disappearing into the ceiling of 9/10ths cloud. The Beaufighter did not see it again. They claimed "one Dornier damaged" but the bomber was later claimed as destroyed following independent reports from the local Observer Corps and staff at St. Mary's Lighthouse that an enemy aircraft had crashed into the sea four miles east of Blyth at 20.06 hours.
`In recent years, divers have discovered the wreckage of what is thought to be a German bomber aircraft 5.5 miles north-east of Blyth's north pier. The wreck lies in 42 metres of water at map reference 55 09.049N 001 23.63W.' (2)
Lewis Brandon's account in his book "Night Flyer" is reproduced in source (2), which contains the following description of the incident:
`The Dornier was weaving gently from side as it flew along. Ben throttled back very slightly and lifted the nose of the Beau. It was a little over to port now. It seemed strange that it should be completely indifferent to the presence of a Beaufighter so close...As it passed through his gunsight, Ben turned the Beau almost imperceptibly to follow the Dornier. All hell broke loose as he pressed the gun button and four cannons and 6 machine guns banged and chattered away...
`Ben had given it a two-second burst of gunfire but although the Dornier began to lose height, we had seen no strikes...We were now following it down in a very sharp dive and Ben gave it two more short bursts from about 300 feet range. This time we saw strikes all along the fuselage and tail unit, from which there was a great red flash that illuminated the whole aircraft.
`Ben was having a devil of a job to keep behind it now. We kept getting into the slipstream, which threw us about violently. Before Ben could get another burst in, the Dornier had entered the clouds, diving into them at a very steep angle. We were about a thousand feet behind it by then and at a height of only 2000 feet Ben pulled out of the dive. We circled the spot where we had last seen the Dornier, hoping we might see an explosion...' (2)
Builder: Dornier-Werke GmbH
Unit: Stab 3/Kampfgeschwader 2 (1); 9/Kampfgeschwader 2 (2)
Crew: 4 (1)(2)
Crew Lost: 4 (1)(2)
Owner: Luftwaffe
Date of Loss Qualifier: A
Additional sources cited in Broken Eagles 2:
Ron Young: The Comprehensive Guide to Shipwrecks of the NE Coast, Tempus, 2001, p189
Lewis Brandon, Night Flyer, William Kimber, 1961 |