Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 18, 2022 0:39:52 GMT 12
From The Press, 4 May 1971
DUTCH VILLAGERS HONOUR CREW OF BOMBER
In the Netherlands today a village is honouring the crew of a wartime bomber—including three New Zealanders—who crashed almost on the villagers’ doorstep when on operations against the Germans.
A small green tiki given to a Dutch girl by the New Zealand captain of the crashed Wellington bomber in 1943 has led to the reunion in the Dutch village of Wirdum today of the surviving members of the crew and the villagers. The three New Zealand crew members are: former Flight Sergeant G. Emerson (captain) and Sergeant G. Whitla (navigator), of Christchurch, and Sergeant H. Hughes (rear gunner), of Wellington.
The New Zealanders' trip to the Netherlands has been sponsored by the Dutch War Graves Committee and a newspaper. The damaged bomber, hit by flak, crashed into a railway embankment beyond the village, killing the second pilot and injuring the others. The crew, in addition to Messrs. Emerson, Whitla and Hughes, comprised Sergeant D. Watts, wireless operator-air gunner, a Welshman: Sergeant D. Prior, bomb aimer, of London: and Sergeant W. R. Fisher, second pilot, of Middlesex, on the trip for "experience.”
After the crash, in which Fisher was killed, Emerson gave a green cross and a tiki to the daughter of the stationmaster, Margien Bennink, who went for medical assistance. Margien is now married to the owner of a bar in nearby Assen, and mother of two married daughters. She was traced through the efforts of Mr and Mrs H. G. T. Kraak, who emigrated to New Zealand from the Netherlands end returned on a visit last year. They knew Mr Emerson, who had told them the story. He asked them to try to trace “the girl with the tiki." When the “Leeuwarden Courant” printed the story with a picture of the crashed bomber, Margien Bennink, now Mrs la Maln-Bennink, came forward.
Mr J. van der Veer, a historian of the aerial war in the area, then took up correspondence with Mr Emerson, seeking further confirmatory evidence about the aircraft, its crew, and the events of the night. From this emerged the invitation from the village of Wirdum to the New Zealand survivors of the crew to attend today’s Memorial Day celebrations, when the graves of the fallen are revisited and their memory honoured.
Though the invitation gave the New Zealanders extremely short notice for the trip, first one, then the other and finally all three decided to go. Meanwhile efforts were made through New Zealand House in London to trace Messrs Watts and Prior, carrying on a task already started by Mr Whitla, who was trying to plan a crew reunion In the next year or two. Mrs Hughes, Mrs Emerson end Mrs Whitla accompanied their husbands on the trip.
T for Tommy, the Wellington Mark X bomber with the New Zealanders aboard, was one of three aircraft from B flight, 466 Squadron, R.A.A.F on operations that evening, January 21, 1943. They were on a "gardening" mission the planting of parachute mines to trap German pocket battleships in Dutch waters. Only one aircraft returned: the second went down in the sea.
T for Tommy took off about 4.45 p.m. on what was to be a “short" trip—so short that Hughes did not even bother to take cigarettes. For him, and the other members of the crew, it lasted more than two years—through hospitals and German prisoner of war camps. The aircraft was flying at 800 ft when a flak ship hit her just before she reached the haven of a bank of fog.
The port engine was wrecked. Then the bomber hit high tension or telephone wires, draping conductors and insulators round the tail and dangerously complicating the problem of handling the aircraft. Emerson was now in need of help to pull the bomber up over obstacles. Fisher, standing in the cockpit and heaving on the stick, added his weight. Finally the Wellington could be contained no longer. It lifted over the row of houses and crashed in the area beyond, hitting the railway embankment. Fisher was killed. The other members were at emergency stations and, though injured—in some cases severely—all survived.
Margien Bennink, then aged 24, was getting milk from a nearby farm when she saw the plane level off over the houses and crash behind the railway station. She rushed to the aircraft, where the crew warned her that the mines aboard were liable to go off; they asked her for a stretcher for Hughes, who was particularly badly injured.
The village doctor, Dr D. Tebbens, attended the wounded. One of them gave her father a binocular, which he still proudly owns. Emerson was bleeding badly and gave Margien the impression he was afraid he would die. She bandaged his head, trying to do as much as she could for him. He gave her the green cross and tiki, and a piece of paper on which there were some addresses. The Germans took the paper.
When the Germans came, the crew were taken to Bonifatius Hospital at Leeuwarden. When Margien went to visit them a few days later she was told they had been moved to Utrecht. Their long road through the prison camps had started.
DUTCH VILLAGERS HONOUR CREW OF BOMBER
In the Netherlands today a village is honouring the crew of a wartime bomber—including three New Zealanders—who crashed almost on the villagers’ doorstep when on operations against the Germans.
A small green tiki given to a Dutch girl by the New Zealand captain of the crashed Wellington bomber in 1943 has led to the reunion in the Dutch village of Wirdum today of the surviving members of the crew and the villagers. The three New Zealand crew members are: former Flight Sergeant G. Emerson (captain) and Sergeant G. Whitla (navigator), of Christchurch, and Sergeant H. Hughes (rear gunner), of Wellington.
The New Zealanders' trip to the Netherlands has been sponsored by the Dutch War Graves Committee and a newspaper. The damaged bomber, hit by flak, crashed into a railway embankment beyond the village, killing the second pilot and injuring the others. The crew, in addition to Messrs. Emerson, Whitla and Hughes, comprised Sergeant D. Watts, wireless operator-air gunner, a Welshman: Sergeant D. Prior, bomb aimer, of London: and Sergeant W. R. Fisher, second pilot, of Middlesex, on the trip for "experience.”
After the crash, in which Fisher was killed, Emerson gave a green cross and a tiki to the daughter of the stationmaster, Margien Bennink, who went for medical assistance. Margien is now married to the owner of a bar in nearby Assen, and mother of two married daughters. She was traced through the efforts of Mr and Mrs H. G. T. Kraak, who emigrated to New Zealand from the Netherlands end returned on a visit last year. They knew Mr Emerson, who had told them the story. He asked them to try to trace “the girl with the tiki." When the “Leeuwarden Courant” printed the story with a picture of the crashed bomber, Margien Bennink, now Mrs la Maln-Bennink, came forward.
Mr J. van der Veer, a historian of the aerial war in the area, then took up correspondence with Mr Emerson, seeking further confirmatory evidence about the aircraft, its crew, and the events of the night. From this emerged the invitation from the village of Wirdum to the New Zealand survivors of the crew to attend today’s Memorial Day celebrations, when the graves of the fallen are revisited and their memory honoured.
Though the invitation gave the New Zealanders extremely short notice for the trip, first one, then the other and finally all three decided to go. Meanwhile efforts were made through New Zealand House in London to trace Messrs Watts and Prior, carrying on a task already started by Mr Whitla, who was trying to plan a crew reunion In the next year or two. Mrs Hughes, Mrs Emerson end Mrs Whitla accompanied their husbands on the trip.
T for Tommy, the Wellington Mark X bomber with the New Zealanders aboard, was one of three aircraft from B flight, 466 Squadron, R.A.A.F on operations that evening, January 21, 1943. They were on a "gardening" mission the planting of parachute mines to trap German pocket battleships in Dutch waters. Only one aircraft returned: the second went down in the sea.
T for Tommy took off about 4.45 p.m. on what was to be a “short" trip—so short that Hughes did not even bother to take cigarettes. For him, and the other members of the crew, it lasted more than two years—through hospitals and German prisoner of war camps. The aircraft was flying at 800 ft when a flak ship hit her just before she reached the haven of a bank of fog.
The port engine was wrecked. Then the bomber hit high tension or telephone wires, draping conductors and insulators round the tail and dangerously complicating the problem of handling the aircraft. Emerson was now in need of help to pull the bomber up over obstacles. Fisher, standing in the cockpit and heaving on the stick, added his weight. Finally the Wellington could be contained no longer. It lifted over the row of houses and crashed in the area beyond, hitting the railway embankment. Fisher was killed. The other members were at emergency stations and, though injured—in some cases severely—all survived.
Margien Bennink, then aged 24, was getting milk from a nearby farm when she saw the plane level off over the houses and crash behind the railway station. She rushed to the aircraft, where the crew warned her that the mines aboard were liable to go off; they asked her for a stretcher for Hughes, who was particularly badly injured.
The village doctor, Dr D. Tebbens, attended the wounded. One of them gave her father a binocular, which he still proudly owns. Emerson was bleeding badly and gave Margien the impression he was afraid he would die. She bandaged his head, trying to do as much as she could for him. He gave her the green cross and tiki, and a piece of paper on which there were some addresses. The Germans took the paper.
When the Germans came, the crew were taken to Bonifatius Hospital at Leeuwarden. When Margien went to visit them a few days later she was told they had been moved to Utrecht. Their long road through the prison camps had started.
