John Langdon reports a 'Typhoon' in his book. A completely independent source (War History of G Company 8th Rifle Brigade also states 'Typhoon'...but no official record or book mentions Horstmar...I've also consideeed various Spitfires etc but, again, none reported close to Horstmar.....you can see my dilemma.
Hmm, 'tis a mystery. Maybe something more in the ORB of the Wing rather than squadron? Or in one of the other ground unit war diaries I suppose. Sorry, I'm probably not helping am I. Good luck. Regards Tom
Thanks. Again confirms details that 'fit' (I presume the W next to his name means Wounded) with it being Spellman's Typhoon....except it again mentions Wettringen.... The Spitfire near Rheine is a candidate...except the time stated is far too late for it being the aeroplane involved in the incident unless that's incorrect! Again depends on what all those lower case letters mean. Question: what do the lower case letters in front of the word 'Wettringen' mean?
The actual crash sites are usually somewhat different from the reported locations. F/O Rankin's Tempest, for example, is reported E Vechta, but the impact took place almost 16km SE at St. Huelfe, a small hamlet just NE Diepholz.
Ah! I think a mini Eureka moment - although I've got to get into the finer details, bearing in mind where their sortie had already taken them, if he was hit by flak near Wettringen, then continued on his/their planned route whilst attempting to get back over the British lines, that would take him over Horstmar, would explain why records say he was seen (by other Typhoons) being aided by Allied soldiers, and would also explain why Phillips (same Squadron etc) crashed where he did (further along their planned flight path). In that context, crash landing a few miles further along a route makes total sense - it can really only be Spellman being hit by flak near Wettringen but actually Forced Landing near Horstmar. There is a photo of Spellman's crashed Typhoon on the Internet and even the topography appears to match the road near Horstmar where Langdon et al say a Typhoon crashed. Additionally, and it discounts it being a Spitfire etc, tanks were used to be being supported by Typhoons so they would know the difference between a Spitfire and a Typhoon. Thanks again chaps - problem hopefully solved?......
Silly question but how do you know about those two locations (reported location and impact location) and would the same source have the equivalent information about Spellman's Typhoon?.....
Rankin is listed on Orwell's scan. (I only became aware of it because of Vechta, because I grew up near there....and used to do a lot of research on crashes in the region.) Then I opened the link here: New Resource - Aircraft losses in Lower Saxony enlarged the map, selected the boxes for "RAF" and "1945"..... and checked the cockades in the vicinity of Vechta for corresponding data. Unfortunately, the data records are only for Lower Saxony. I couldn't find anything else about "your" crash either, but that doesn't surprise me much: at the time in question, the local population was mostly sitting in cellars and bunkers and won't have noticed anything. And depending on whether the plane burned out or was salvaged, there was not much to see later either By then the war was over and people had more pressing problems than dealing with the abundant war debris lying around.
Yikes. I've got Vol 4 gathering dust on my shelves and had no idea what it is worth! Now in dread of Mrs JDKR finding out.
