Here is the impressive and very sad story happened on Wednesday September the 4th, 1940 in the Nieuwstraat in Gilze. About 15 meters from my own house. The plane flown into my neighbours house you could say... ================================================= The II./KG26 had given his first objective that day, they will start the attack on Liverpool with 200 other airplanes. The planes where inspected, loaded with ammunition, bombs and fuel. And about 08.00 pm the crew is moving to their “Gefechtsstand” for the flight-planning, at that time 40 planes are standing ready for the coming mission... to attack Liverpool. About 22.00 pm the crew is ready to board the airplanes that stand ready. And soon later the first planes take to the runway to fly away. One after the other... and after 7 planes got safely in the sky the He 111 of the 6th Staffel stands ready to do so as well. The pilot is Lt. Siegfried Baltes, born in Gleichamberg, Germany. Slowly the planes moves to the head of the runway, for a moment Lt. Baltes looks at his crew before he's taking the plane into the sky. At first 25 meters high, than faster... 50 meters, 100 meters... and away he goes. And then the fatal moment strikes, when Lt. Baltes pulls in his landing gear his He 111 suddenly trembles! And losing altitude. Towards the village of Gilze ... With open eyes he sees the houses of the Nieuwstraat coming closer and closer. At that moment the people of Gilze are mostly making ready to go to bed or are already sleeping. Not knowing of what is happening above them. Just like the family Wezel, living across from the hotel De Kronen of family Vermeulen. Its now 12.00 at night. In the kitchen son and mother Vermeulen are cleaning the room and talk with some late guests. Its a warm night and the 16 year old Gerrit Vermeulen has fallen in sleep upstairs. Not for longer than 30 minutes cause then hell breaks loose... An awesome sound, with a huge bang. Bricks, wood, metal, pieces of airplane everything is flying around! Into the windows, tearing huge holes in the wall. The only thing Gerrit could think of at the moment is getting away from that terrifying noise! He jumps outside his window on a small roof and runs towards the street. Close to him explosions sounds and a huge fire has started. Than he sees human bodies laying on the street, and then he realizes he was not alone at home. But still he keeps running till he reaches the family Beijsterveldt further down the street, who he tells there are all dead at his home. Thinking that the bodies he had seen where from his family and dead. At the crash site the situation is incredible, panic and terrifying. The plane of Lt. Baltes flown into the house of Willem van Wezel across the hotel De Kronen, taking everything with it, bricks, wood, walls on to the street. Also the people who were laying in bed where thrown outside with the rouble and burning fuel that is know moving to the Hotel De Kronen. Its a miracle that all the people that were present in the hotel De Kronen just got away with severe burn wounds. The crashsite now has become a true hell! Sounds of exploding ammuntion, the intens fire, the alarm bell that rings, and the still overcoming German airplanes! And than the 3 bombs of the He 111 exploded making al the windows and roof tiles break in the environment. Many neighbours run outside and look at the damage and burning hell, and than on a sadly way also a member of the Vermeulen family dies, the ante of Cor Vermeulen. She as all the others run outside and saw the damage, the last thing she said was "Och bij onze Jan" and than she got an heart attack, that killed her. After that help had arrived and the battle against the fire begins, and taking care of the wounded and dead. After about 30 minutes the message reaches the family Beijsterveldt that the family Vermeulen is save and still alive, only with severe burning wounds... At first there is unbelief in the eyes of the young son Gerrit Vermeulen, but than he sees the Doctor Hoeks with his dad, mother and kees, Anna and Cor. Injured but still alive. Also his sister Luus survived. His dad was heavily injured, with severe burn wounds. But that is not the only miracle, it seems there is also a survivor of the family Wezel, its Jan van Wezel, he fell with his bed outside his house into the street. Making him the only member of his family that was present who survived. After many hours the battle against the fire is won, and a new day breaks. Leaving the lives of the people of Gilze: Wilhelmus J. van Wezel age 55 Wilhelmina P. van Wezel -van Kruisbergen age 51 Antonia M. van Wezel age 21 Petrus A. van Wezel age 19 Martinus 0. van Wezel age 15 Jacobus M. van den Broek age 25 And the four German aircrew members, burned in their plane... Their names were. Siegfried Baltes, Lt., Pilot, Geb: 14-12-1919 Gleichamberg. Gottfried Pottgüter, Lt., Observer, Geb: 27-8-1916 Duding hausen. Karl-Heinz Graunke, Gefr., Radio., Geb. 18-4-1917 Berlijn Erich Pfretzschner. Flight engineer., Feldw., Geb. 27-10-1914 Plau /Yogtl. "Opdat ze rust en vrede mogen vinden, en nooit vergeten zullen worden." Maybe soon some photo's of the crashsite. Regards, Nick
Is there a memorial to the crash, Nick? Sobering story. It must have been hard for the following crews to fly over the crash site knowing that their friends had died just below them. I, for one, have rarely read about life on the Luftwaffe airfields during the Battle of Britain so this is an interesting insight. Does the airfield still exist in some way?
Sad for all concerned. I wonder what went wrong? The pilot, Lt Baltes, was only 20. Almost certainly the commander of the aircraft would have been the Observer, Lt Pottguter - in German bombers of the time the Observer was senior to the pilot, and the same was true in WW1 (though not true of Stukas and ME110s)
