Date: 8th April 1941
Time: 10.12.p.m.
Unit: 9 Staffel/Kampfgeschwader 26
Type: Heinkel He 111H-5
Werke/Nr. 3628
Code: 1H + ET (E Yellow)
Start: Le Bourget, France.
Location: Vickers Farm, Bendish, near Hitchin, Hertfordshire.
Pilot: Leutnant Julius Tengler Badly wounded
Observer: Gefreiter Wolfgang Euerl Killed
Radio/Op: Unteroffizier Hubert Faber Badly wounded
Radio/Op 2: Unteroffizier Hans Zender Unhurt
Flt/Engineer: Gefreiter Franz Reitmayr Badly wounded
REASON FOR LOSS:
This aircraft was shot down by S/L A. T. D. Sanders and P/O Sutton in a Defiant of No.264 Squadron. Heinkel broke up in the air and crashed at Bendish, Hertfordshire.
Started from Le Bourget to attack Coventry with one 500 kilo and Incendiary bombs. Before reaching Coventry, when flying at about 17,000 feet, this aircraft was attacked by a Night Fighter. The first attack damaged the port engine, which stopped, and the bombs were jettisoned. The second attack hit the starboard engine, and the aircraft caught fire. The crew baled out, the observer was killed in the wreckage, but the other four members of the crew, three of whom were badly wounded, landed safely. This crew took part in an operation on the previous night to Glasgow, but the operation was described as scrappy because of unfavourable weather conditions. (Source: A.I.1.(k) Report No. 129/1941)
The rear fuselage of Heinkel He 111 under guard at the crash site
Burial details:
Wolfgang Euerl still lies in the Hitchin Cemetery and has not been moved to Cannock Chase
