Date:	Friday 13 September 1940
Time:	03:15 LT
Type:	Heinkel He 111P
Owner/operator:	8./KG 27 Luftwaffe
Registration:	2670
MSN:	1G+DS
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 4
Other fatalities:	2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	32 Stow Park Avenue, Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Rennes – St-Jacques airfield, France
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Heinkel He-111P was assigned to 8th Staffel of Kampfgeschwader 27 and had taken off from Rennes, France. It was one of nine Heinkel’s tasked, flying in pairs or solo, to bomb dockyards at Bristol, Plymouth, Merseyside, Swansea and Cardiff. The Heinkel successfully bombed Ellesmere Port and then turned south to bomb Cardiff. With the weather closing in, the navigator was flying by instruments alone. The crew eventually saw the tracks of a railway line and following it in flew into a barrage balloon cable.

The starboard wing broke off and the plane slewed into the ground. The aircraft crashed into 32 Stow Park Avenue, Newport, and exploded into flames, killing three of the four crew, along with two teenage children (Malcom Phillips aged 17 and Myrtle Phillips aged 14) who were killed and their parents injured

Crew of 1G+DS:
Oberleutnant Harry Wappler (Pilot): Safe Parachute descent. Became Prisoner of war.
Unteroffizier Fritz Berndt (Navigator, aged 25) Personal ID 62693-23 - Killed. Buried Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery, Grave 7 Section 295.
Oberfeldwebel Johannes Elster (Wireless Op/Air Gunner, aged 34) - Killed. Buried Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery, Grave 7 Section 294.
Unteroffizier Herbert Okulock (Bomb Aimer, aged 25) Personal ID 62693-95 - Killed. Buried Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery, Grave 7 Section 296.

They were initially buried at St Woolos Cemetery, but were later disinterred and reburied at the German war Cemetery at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire post war.

Harry Wappler, the pilot and the only aircrew member to escape the inferno was captured immediately and taken to St Woolos Hospital with a broken arm. Wappler was arrested after landing in a tree (and breaking his right arm) in Queen’s Street. Laterthat same morning Mr and Mrs Phillips arrived at his bedside and forgave him for the death of their children.

After interrogation, Wappler was sent to the pilot was taken to the Royal Herbert Hospital, in Woolwich before being sent on to No. 13 PoW camp at the Shap Wells hotel located between Kendall and Penrith in Cumbria. He later was shipped to more secure confinement in Canada. Harry Wappler died in 1985 but his wife Ruth and daughter in law Khrista visited Newport and the site of the crash.

1. Sources: Doylerush, E, 2008, Rocks in the Clouds: High Ground Aircraft Crashes in South Wales, p.42-9
2. Durham P and Jones, D, 1982, Warplane Wrecks of South Wales and the Marches, p.11-12
3. http://www.thisisnotgwent.co.uk/story_of_the_german_bomber_b.htm
4. http://www.ggat.org.uk/timeline/pdf/Military%20Aircraft%20Crash%20Sites%20in%20Southeast%20Wales.pdf
5. Luftwaffe losses aircrewremembrancesociety3.com

Wreckage on Stow Hill in Newport.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-May-2019 23:29	Dr. John Smith	Added
15-Jul-2019 15:29	TigerTimon	Updated [Registration, Cn, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Embed code]
08-Dec-2019 18:12	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]
10-Sep-2020 18:41	Davies 62	Updated [Photo]