Airwar over Denmark

Airwar over Denmark

 By Søren C. Flensted

Home

Allied:
1939-1940 Updated 12/2-23
1941 Updated 28/4-22
1942 Updated 17/8-23
1943 Updated 18/8-23
1944 Updated 23/7-23
1945 Updated 4/12-22


German:
1939
1940 New - Updated 22/1-23
1941 New 23/7-21
1942 Updated 16/3-23
1943 Updated 28/1-23
1944 Updated 23/7-23
1945 Updated 16/7-23

Books  New Book by Steve Smith
Sources
Contact
Links

Search this site by entering search words:



powered by FreeFind

Halifax III MZ826 crashed Nørre Halne 15/10 1944.


The aircraft belonged to RAF 10 Sqn. Bomber Command and was coded ZA-M.
T/o Melbourne 18:42. OP: Gardening “Yewtree”.

The Halifax was on its way to the target area in the sea of Kattegat east of Frederikshavn, carrying four 1850 Lbs. mines, when it came under attack. It was flying at 4200 metes when attacked by a German night fighter piloted by Oberleutnant Fritz Brandt of Stab II./ NJG 3.
 
The Halifax caught fire, exploded in the air and fell to the ground just southwest of the village of Nørre Halne a few kilometres north of Fliegerhorst Aalborg West at 21:06 hours.
 

Navigator F/Lt William R. Parks.
Picture taken in Aalborg for false ID-card


Only Navigator F/Lt William R. Parks managed to bail out and landed near the village spraining an ankle in the process. After the crash several first-aid men from the village gathered and rushed to the crash site to help. In a field not far from a large part of the fuselage they found a young flyer standing holding his parachute.
Near the fuselage was also found a dead flyer lying on the ground while five flyers were found inside the fuselage.

No one of the men spoke English and therefore they took Parks along to the school teacher Worm. Worm however was afraid to house Parks and tried to call the Fliegerhorst to inform about what had happened. The lady at the switchboard, Karen Mentz, who was in connection with the local underground, was “not able to get connection due to a break down of the telephone system”.
Instead she called Erhard Jacobsen who picked Parks up and took him to his house.
 
Early next morning farmhand Jens Tjell, who was driving a horse drawn carriage, was passing Jacobsen`s house on his way to the moor to collect peat for heating.
Jacobsen approached him and asked him bring something to the moor. He then went back in the house, to return with Parks who was carrying a bandage on one foot.
Parks was placed on the carriage body and covered with some empty sacks. Tjell drove him north on the moor to Luneborg where he was met by a civilian car driven by Mr. Rasmussen who took Parks to Aalborg. After a short while Parks was passed on to forest owner Kaj Sørensen who lived with his family in Dorf. Here Parks stayed for about a week before he was picked up by two members of the resistance and taken to Doctor Nørgaards home in Aalborg.
He was given a false ID card in the name of Brush-maker Larsen and wearing a yellow armlet with three black dots he was supposed to pretend that he was deaf and blind.
From Aalborg he was taken to Grenaa and on 26/10 he was sailed to Sweden.
Via the English embassy in Stockholm he was flown back to England in the bomb bay of a Mosquito.
 


                                       (Via Jens Tjell)

The German Lager Vadum


                                (Edith Nielsen via Claus Madsen, Aalborg)

The place where the crew were initialy buried


The perished crew of MZ826 was loaded on a truck and taken to the German Lager Vadum where they were dumped in a hole that had been dug in the ground close to the barracks.

The crew were Pilot Sq.Ldr. Stanley W. Hart, Flt. Engr. Sgt Francis B. Sheard, Air bomber P/O Sidney A. F. McHardy, W/Op P/O Albert L. Slatter, Air Gnr. P/O William Jardine and Air Gnr. P/O Reginald H. Porter.

 


                                                      (Ian Slatter)

W/Op P/O Albert L. Slatter

 


                                     (Ian Slatter)

Air bomber P/O Sidney A. F. McHardy

 


                       (Jean Thiim nee Porter)

Air Gnr. P/O Reginald H. Porter

 


                        (Jean Thiim nee Porter)        

Air Gnr. P/O William Jardine

 


                        (Martyn Wake via Ian Slatter)

Flt. Engr. Sgt Francis B. Sheard
 

After the liberation of Denmark on 4/5 1945 it became known where the Germans had buried the flyers and during the night of 2/6 Jens and Svend Tjell with the grave digger of Vadum cemetery and his sister disinterred the remains of the flyers and placed them in coffins. Late in the afternoon the coffins were taken to the chapel of Vadum church.
 


                                (Via Jens Tjell)

The coffins on the way to the cemetery
 


                                      ( Via Jens Tjell)

 


                                (Via Jens Tjell)


Sunday 3/6 approximately 2000 Danes came to the church to honour the flyers.
Vicar N. Møller officiated at the graveside ceremony and a detachment of English soldiers as well as a number of Danish dignitarys attended.

 

 

The funeral

Below 2 letters describing the funeral:

Click on image to enlarge ( PDF file will open in a new window)

 

Click on image to enlarge ( PDF file will open in a new window)

 

Letters from Ian Slatter via Ole Rønnest

 


     (Ole Rønnest)

 


  (Ole Rønnest)

 


  (Ole Rønnest)

 


  (Ole Rønnest)

 


  (Ole Rønnest)

 


  (Ole Rønnest)

 


  (Ole Rønnest)

 


  (Ole Rønnest)

 



Sources: Ole Rønnest, Aabybro, AIR 27/145, LBUK, TW, Jens Tjell, GWGC.


 

Back to 1944

Top of page
Top of page
 

 

  Copyright  ©  Søren C. Flensted 2004 - 2023