Remarkable kill

[Marcel]

The Netherlands, may 1940:
Sergeant pilot J. Roos was flying the Fokker D-21, reg.nr. 225. With two others he had escorted a flight of T-5's, bombing the Maas bridges at Rotterdam. On their way back they were attacked by 12 Me's from Waalhaven. Three of them chased Roos. He was driven in a corner that way that he decided to bail out. As he threw off his cockpit cover to jump off his aircraft he saw the canopy struck the propeller of the following Me, so it was knocked out.
chased D-21
He didn't jump but escaped in the clouds.
Coming out of the clouds he was surprised to be on the tail of another Me. An ideal position to open fire, so he shot down the Messerschmitt.
The moment Roos thought he was safe, his plane was hit by a projectile, obviously from Dutch anti aircraft fire from the ground, and he was thrown out of his open cockpit. Just before reaching the ground he succeeded in opening his parachute and landed, seriously wounded, in the surroundings of Leiden.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Could you imagine the -109 driver explaining what happened to him?!?

 

[ccheese]

Sounds like what happened to the late Tex Hill. He shot the right wing off
a Japanese bomber. The disabled plane did a hard roll to the right and smacked right into another bomber. Tex claimed two downed aircraft.

Being in the right place at the right time....

Charles

 

[Heinz]

Fair effort indeed.

 

[Marcel]

Could you imagine the -109 driver explaining what happened to him?!?

Yeah, I don't suppose someone could find the german side of this incident? Would be interesting.

 

[Njaco]

from my sources Marcel. Not sure if its the same.

May 10, 1940: After the landing of German transport planes at Waalhaven airport from Schipol airport, an attempt was made by the Dutch defenders to destroy the invaders. Three T-5 bombers escorted by 7 D-21 fighters performed a successful raid and destroyed several Junkers on the ground. The aircrew of II(J)./TrGr 186 had a busy day, shooting down 8 Fokker D-21s - one by Ofw. Kurt Ubben and 2 by Uffz. Herbert Kaiser of 5(J)./TrGr 186 - but lost one Bf 109 near Den Helder and a Bf 109 to ground fire near Borkum. Oblt. Dieter Robitzsch, staffelkapitaen of 5(J)./TrGr 186 was shot down by a D-21, flown by Lt. Jan van Overest and crash landed on De Koy airfield where he was taken prisoner. D-21s from Ja V.A. from De Koy gave the Luftwaffe trouble as they were able to shoot down 4 Bf 109s and harrassed most of the airbourne operations over the Dutch airfields.

I don't have much else. It would seem - and I am assuming - that it would possibly be within the first week of 10 May. I don't have any Dutch flight attacking the bridges, just protecting airfields. But I can check for which units were at Waalhaven.

 

[Graeme]

From an article by Heink J van Overest (Air International October 1977).

 

[joy17782]

yeah wouldnt you hate too stand in front of the guys and say ,well i was knocked out of the sky buy a cockpit!! sometimes stuff happens

 

[Marcel]

from my sources Marcel. Not sure if its the same.

May 10, 1940: After the landing of German transport planes at Waalhaven airport from Schipol airport, an attempt was made by the Dutch defenders to destroy the invaders. Three T-5 bombers escorted by 7 D-21 fighters performed a successful raid and destroyed several Junkers on the ground. The aircrew of II(J)./TrGr 186 had a busy day, shooting down 8 Fokker D-21s - one by Ofw. Kurt Ubben and 2 by Uffz. Herbert Kaiser of 5(J)./TrGr 186 - but lost one Bf 109 near Den Helder and a Bf 109 to ground fire near Borkum. Oblt. Dieter Robitzsch, staffelkapitaen of 5(J)./TrGr 186 was shot down by a D-21, flown by Lt. Jan van Overest and crash landed on De Koy airfield where he was taken prisoner. D-21s from Ja V.A. from De Koy gave the Luftwaffe trouble as they were able to shoot down 4 Bf 109s and harrassed most of the airbourne operations over the Dutch airfields.

I don't have much else. It would seem - and I am assuming - that it would possibly be within the first week of 10 May. I don't have any Dutch flight attacking the bridges, just protecting airfields. But I can check for which units were at Waalhaven.

I think this was a different attack, as it mentiones 7 D.XXI's and sgt Roos flew with 3 D.XXI's.

Waalhaven was used by 3-JaVA, which had 11 G.I on strength. 8 of them could take off before the germans captured the airport. They shot down 14 german planes before having to crashland on the beaches and fields around Rotterdam because of lack of fuel and no place to land. The last part about Overest is the same as Gaeme's and it happened to to the north.

From an article by Heink J van Overest (Air International October 1977).

Interesting article. Based on the facts in this article, I think this guy flew from the airfield De Kooij, near Den Helder and the fighting took place over the Waddenzee, between the frisian islands and the mainland in the morning of the 10th of may. By 12.30u all but one D.XXI at De Kooij. were out of action because of lack of ammunition and lack of fuel.

 

[Njaco]

I'm not very good at european towns and cities but from Michael Holms site it appears these Luftwaffe units stationed there may have been the following:

I./JG 20
I./JG 26
Stab./JG 51

Now II./JG 54 was stationed at Waalhaven about a month later but might have been fighting over the area earlier.

 

[Konigstiger205]

Yeah, I don't suppose someone could find the german side of this incident? Would be interesting.

The german side of the incident:"They where 20 planes on my tail and after shooting down 19 the last plane gone kamikaze on me..."

 

[Marcel]

The german side of the incident:"They where 20 planes on my tail and after shooting down 19 the last plane gone kamikaze on me..."

That would be funny, because on May 11th the dutch only had about 10 fighters operational

NJACO, according to my sources, the messerschmitt was a Bf110, could it have been 4/ZG26?

Nice toutch, the Fokker D.XXI of sgt Roos was excavated and is on display in a small museum near Schiphol. I foud a photograph here, cannot post it here because of copyrights.

 

[Njaco]

Marcel, didn't know it was the Bf 110, changes things!

I don't see any units stationed at Waalhaven but... the attack on Waalhaven 10 May was done by Ju 52s escorted by Bf 110s of I./ZG 1 led by Hptm. Werner Streib. Here is what I have: "After the landing of transport planes at Waalhaven Airport from Schipol airport, an attempt was made by Dutch defenders to destroy the invaders. Three T-5 bombers, escorted by 7 D-21 fighters performed a successful raid and destroyed several of the Junkers on the ground. During these attacks, two of the T-5s and one D-21 were downed by German fighters. Shortly after the first attack, Hptm. Streib and his Zerstroers were able to fend off an attack by Blenhiems."

So maybe it was this attack on Waalhaven and defended by ZG 1?

 

[Marcel]

Searched in my own list of shot down aricraft and found out that Roos claimed his Bf110 on May 11th,, so not on may 10th.
According to my sources ZG1 was also active in the area of Rotterdam on 11th of may, so it's a likely candidate. The story happened on 11th of may, not 10th of may.

BTW, found some more pictures of the Fokker, the last picture was an emergency landing before the war. The AC wasn't no. 225 as told in the story, but no. 229.

 

[Konigstiger205]

That would be funny, because on May 11th the dutch only had about 10 fighters operational

Just 10 fighters...wow...talking about air superiority....

 

[Marcel]

Just 10 fighters...wow...talking about air superiority....

I'm exaggerating, I'll have to count, but I guess it isn't more then 20 still active the next day and they hardly had any fuel or ammo left. Imagine the LW had about 240 fighters on strength against my country.

 

[Njaco]

On 10 May the Netherlands Army Air Force had on hand 132 aircraft including 23 Fokker G1s and 28 Fokker D-21s.

Marcel, that pic of 229 nose into the ground, is that the plane of Sgt. Roos? I ask because isn't the canopy still there?

 

[Marcel]

That's the same plane, only this crash took place before the war. All photo's are no. 229, the plane of sgt Roos. Numbers about the dutch LVA is correct, I was only talking about May 11th, most fighters were wiped out during the first day, so there weren't many left on day 2.
To compare the two airforces at the time:

LVA ready to fly on may 10th:
9 Fokker T.V bombers
28 Fokker D.XXI Fighters
23 Fokker G.I fighters
12 Douglas 8A fighter bomber
6 Fokker D.XVII fighter
17 Fokker C.V reconnaissance planes
15 Fokker C.X reconnaissance planes
32 Koolhoven FK-1 training and reconnaissance planes

LW flying in the NL 10 May 1940:
28 Ju-87 (
34 Ju-88
196 He-111
6 de Do 17 F
9 Do 215 K
180 BF109
62 Bf110
9 Hs-123
28 He-115
12 He-59 water planes
11 Fs-156

 

[Njaco]

Thanks Marcel. I didn't have the numbers for 11 May.

 

[Marcel]

Thanks Marcel. I didn't have the numbers for 11 May.

This was the strength at the start of the hostilities in the morning of May 10th. In the evening the following planes could still be flown:
2 G.I's
11 D.XXI's
57 of the biplane reconnaissance planes (C.X, C.V, FK-1)
6 T.V's