Sequel to Wellington crash-landing

[Dave Homewood]

From the PRESS, 27 APRIL 1971


Sequel to crash-landing

Twenty-five years ago the crew of a Wellington bomber hit by flak while on a low-level night mission over the Netherlands made a deliberate effort to avoid crashing into the small village of Wirdum and successfully crash-landed in an adjacent field.

The villagers, apparently, never forgot the incident; this week three New Zealanders from the crew of the aircraft will return to the village. They will go as guests of the villagers and the newspaper of the nearest large town, Leevwarden.

Two of the men, Messrs G. Emerson and G. Whitla, are from Christchurch. The third, Mr H. Hughes, is from Wellington. Mr Emerson was the pilot and captain of the bomber, from 466 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force. Mr Whitla was its navigator and Mr Hughes the rear gunner.

Mr Emerson said yesterday that after the aircraft was damaged by flak he was faced with the decision of crash landing into the village or trying to hold it so that it flew over the town. Miraculously five of the bomber’s crew of six survived as a result of the pilot’s taking the latter course.

Soon after the plane hit the ground, the Germans arrived, but not before some of the villagers had, tried to help the injured crew members.

Last August Mr Emerson, who teaches at Lincoln High School, was in conversation with Mrs H. Kraak, a Dutch woman who has the school canteen. She mentioned to him that she and her husband were returning to the Netherlands for a holiday and remarked that she would be visiting Leevwarden, the home of her husband’s family. Mr Emerson asked her if they would try to find the village, near Leevwarden, which his plane nearly hit. The couple did this.

The villagers of Wirdum were surprised to learn that the bomber’s crew were still alive; they had been told by the Germans that the crew had been eliminated. The “Leevwarden Courant” newspaper published the story, with the result that the three men were invited as guests to the Memorial Day service on May 4. This national commemoration is observed in much the same manner as is Anzac Day in New Zealand. The three men leave for the Netherlands on Thursday.

[Dave Homewood]

From The Press, dated 4 May 1971

DUTCH VILLAGERS HONOUR CREW OF BOMBER

In the Netherlands today a village is honouring the crew of a war-time 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 Zeeland 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. Kruk, who emigrated to New Zealand from the Netherlands and 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 Main-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 and 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.