Heinkel He111P

Luftwaffe Fuselage Code 1G+OT

Stab 9/KG27

Crew:

Pilot: Lt Otto Uhlane(PoW)

Observer: Ogefr Hans Ramstetter (PoW)

Flight Engineer Uffz Josef Kremm(PoW)

Wireless Operator: Uffz Edo Flick wounded (PoW)

Gunner: Gefr Gerhart Rother(PoW)

​Date: 14 August 1940 – 18.05 hrs

Place: Puriton, Somerset, UK

The crash site of a German bomber in a back garden of a house in Puriton was a local legend. However, when the Heinkel crashed the land had been a field – part of Canns Farm – the houses having been built after the war.

A war-time photograph of the crash showed a house with a distinctive chimney in the background. Fortunately it was possible to match the photo with the building today and it was also fortunate that the impact point of one engine was in a garden – just!

Details from Luftwaffe Crash Archive, published by Red Kite:

Probably en-route to attack Cardiff Docks, but the crew claimed they were on a reconnaissance sortie.

They became separated from the other two aircraft in the formation and were attacked by Spitfires, the starboard engine caught fire and the crew abandoned the aircraft by parachute.

Markings: O in yellow.

It was Len Carp’s 16th birthday on 14 August 1940, the same day the German plane was shot down.

“I was out in the back garden because I heard this machine gunfire and looking up I could see it was a German and could see the Spitfire after it,” he said.

“It headed straight this way towards this area of the village and I actually saw it come down.

“We went to have a look but of course there were police there and they wouldn’t let us go nearer – they kept everybody back because you could hear the bullets going off – exploding with the heat.”

Vera Frost was playing with a friend when the German plane came down so low “it knocked somebody’s chimney off”.

“It came down very low and you could see there was no pilot in there and it blew up in a big explosion,” she said

“It was frightening.”