ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 227518
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| Date: | Sunday 19 May 1940 |
| Time: | 16:55 LT |
| Type: |  Hawker Hurricane Mk 1 |
| Owner/operator: | 145 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | N2600 |
| MSN: | SO-G |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Groenenboomgaardstraat, Pamel-Roosdaal, Flemish Brabant -
 Belgium
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Mervile, France |
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I N2600 (SO-G) 145 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (failed to return) for a combat air patrol 19 May 1940. Pilot bailed out, and survived. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/427): "Hurricane N2600 shot down at Neuvilly, France, 19 May 1940. Pilot Officer M A Newling: missing, later reported to be safe".
No 145 Squadron's first action of the war on the 18th of May. On May 18, 1940, Hurricanes of 145 Sqn landed at the French base Merville, arriving from Manston. That same afternoon, a flight was dispatched to intercept a formation He 111's of Kampfgeschwader 4, flying west of Brussels. At least one Heinkel was shot down, but because of combat damage, F/O Michael Newling was forced to leave his formation and to fly towards his base. Over the village of Pamel-Roosdaal (province of Flemish Brabant), Newling was forced to abandon his Hurricane. He landed safely by parachute and was led trough the German lines by Gerard Kestens, then 13 years old, who remembers:
"Not too far from our machine gun shots were heard between 2 and 3 p.m. It was soon followed by the noise of a Hurricane flying from Brussels, over Ternat towards Ninove. Suddenly he caught fire ... and a little later fell a yellow-shiny suit down, it all went so quickly and suddenly that we couldn't have said a word to each other.
Immediately my father shouted "It is an English paratrooper, come and help him." We walked over and a little later we heard a great explosion. The burning Hurricane had crashed into the orchard of Jozef Stockmans (Groenenboomgaardstraat), where the whole thing had buried itself a few meters deep in the ground.
When we all came to the Englishman, he was just stripped of his parachute. I had never seen a parachute or a pilot. The parachute seemed to me to be a very large golden satin-like sheet with many cords, belts and buckles. The pilot, in a nice blue uniform, was a good-looking, young, slender and athletically built man, with blond hair and blushing cheeks.
His first words were "Englishmen ..", and we all reacted spontaneously in flat Flemish and in an intelligible sign language that we made it clear that the "English" had only just left, that he had to follow him and that we would follow him. point.
We walked along a small road, between half-grown grain fields and a little further hidden behind a high hedge. We feared that at any time the Germans would arrive on the Ninoofsesteenweg. Indeed, a few moments later it was time, as we could see through the hedge. Immediately above and around the row of houses a German barrage of exploding shackles developed, which made us rush in. The Germans guessed exactly where the pilot could already be at that moment. During that "hiding", the sweat of sweat ran off the pilot's blushing face. But we too were all scared.
From the Dries our way passed Fons de Vos, velomaker, and in the "De Pilter" café we were called in to drink 'nen Bock' soon. The pilot sounded the 'Bock' in one sip ... and we were gone again, to Pamel-Dorp. At real rapid pace it went straight to "canal" (Dender). On the other side lay the English who were in position on the other side of the Ninove-Denderleeuw railway.
The pilot waved his arms in the air and blew a whistle ... to attract the attention of the English. Before wading through the Dender, the pilot wanted to give us a memento. I suppose it must have been a piece of money or another license plate. Fortunately we refused. I still don't know why we refused that from a weeping goodbye pilot. Arriving at the bridge, the man descended into the silt of the bed of the Dender. The sludge reached him as far as the chest. Immediately on the opposite side a jeep with four soldiers came over. They cast a few ropes with the help of which the pilot was pulled to the other side. "
Needless to say, young Gerard got a huge scolding in the evening. Yet he had contributed to an 'avant la lettre' escape by an allied pilot. P/O Newling arrived at Manston Airport on 20 May. But Newling could never thank his young helpers.
On the morning of Saturday, February 22, 1997, an aviation archeology group located and excavated the wreckage of Hurricane N2600 (see link #6)
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft N1000-N9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1977 p 14)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/427): https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502098
3. https://www.luchtvaartgeschiedenis.be/content/hurricane-n2600-te-pamel
4. http://francecrashes39-45.net/page_fiche_av.php?id=7155
5. http://www.theygavetheirtoday.com/oakham-school-wwii.html
6. http://users.telenet.be/airwareurope/en/bergingen/hurricane_pamel_e.htm
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 23-Jul-2019 22:18 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 23-Jul-2019 22:29 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 24-Jul-2019 08:17 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator] |
| 26-Jun-2022 02:12 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location] |
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