Battle of Britain: Hursley's German airmen

There can be few images more iconic than that of the Supermarine Spitfire wheeling high in the sky above the fields of Southern England as their young pilots fought a desperate battle to defend Britain in the summer of 1940. Many are aware of the close ties that Hursley has with that aircraft and the men and women who designed it, but perhaps fewer with the more brutal reality of that conflict and it’s very real and direct impact on the area as well as both the British and German pilots.

It has also left a mystery that is unanswered to this day.

What follows is the result of an inquiry from a researcher for the “In From The Cold” Project (IFCP) whose aim is to identify all those missing from the official Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) list of casualties from WW1 and WW2. In particular they are trying to trace several German airmen linked to Hursley.

In 1940 the objective of the Luftwaffe, the German air force, had been to destroy the RAF on the ground; to target airfields and prevent them fighting. A few miles north-west of Hursley was the key RAF ‘Fighter Command’ airfield of Middle Wallop. Today it is home to the Army Air Corps, in 1940 it was home to Spitfires of 609 and 234 Squadrons and on 14th August it was to become the Luftwaffe’s latest target but despite inflicting damage and several casualties they failed to put the airfield out of action, forcing them to return the following day.

Thursday 15th August 1940 was to see some of the heaviest fighting in the Battle of Britain and was to become known as ‘Black Thursday’ in Germany because of the severity of their losses. In Hampshire a large force of German aircraft (sixty Ju88 bombers with forty Messerschmitt 110 fighter escorts) evaded the defences on the South Coast and attacked Worthy Down and Middle Wallop. Again the damage caused to the airfields was relatively slight. The Spitfires of 609 Squadron had managed to “scramble” from the airfield in the nick of time and were able to turn on their attackers as they attempted to return to their bases in occupied France.

Joined by 249 Squadron’s Hurricanes, 609’s Spitfires were to make the German fighter escort pay a heavy price. Three of the Messerschmitt Bf110 fighters were brought down. One crashed in Broadlands Park having passed over Romsey in flames before crashing. A second came down on Plaitford Common at West Wellow. However, it is the fate of the third aircraft, and of another airman which form the Hursley part of the story and the mystery.

The third Bf110 to be “downed” crashed at Slackstead. The two airmen could not, at the time, be identified but were brought to Hursley, and on 20th August 1940 they were buried in the graveyard. A Ministry Burial Return (Air 2/8736) for 15th June 1941 lists:

Place of Burial: Hursley

Cemetery: Hursley

Unit: ? German Air Force

Name: Unknown (2)

Date of Death: 15-08-40

Date of Burial: 20-8-40

However, somewhat curiously the Hursley Parish Register for Burials tells a slightly different story. There is a burial record for 20th August but it only records a single German airman:

Name: Fritz Larbusch

Place of Birth: Frankfurt

Date of Death: 15th August

Age: 24

Based on correspondence between Ian Hutton (who helped excavate the crash site at Slackstead in 1993 but was unable to identify the aircraft or crew) and Stan Rawdon in 1998 (who was keeper of the cemetery records at All Saints Church and refers to this incident in his book on Hursley Memories) there are no funerary records but the cemetery plan showed a plot for “2 German Airmen (transferred)”, and these were in addition to Fritz Larbusch.

It is thought Fritz Larbusch was the Gunner from a plane shot down over North Baddesley who had “bailed out” but whose parachute failed to open and he had landed in Hursley, at the end of Poles Lane. However, it has proved difficult to actually find a record for him in the German records and it is believed the body was repatriated to Germany in the 1960s so who he really was and why he was recorded when the other airmen were not is unclear.

In 1962 the two unknown airmen’s bodies were transferred to the CWGC site in Cannock Chase and it is now believed they were Oberlieutenant Gerhard Bremer and Unteroffizier Leo Pauli. It is hoped that the project has at last been able to give names to these men but the work of the project is still incomplete as they are still trying to trace other unnamed casualties. Hopefully they will succeed and all of those unnamed soles who suffered in the conflicts will at last have their names returned to them.

However, these were not the only German aircrew to crash locally, nor the ones for whom some mystery remains.

Other crashes

On 14th August 1940 a Heinkel 111 and Junkers 88 crashed locally following the first raid on Middle Wallop. An article published by the Southern Daily Echo in August 2015, looking back at the events of 75 years earlier, told how the aircrew were captured by local farm workers:

"As we got out of the car three German airmen came walking towards us across the field. One man said to me in fairly good English, ‘We are your prisoners’ and I motioned to them to put up their arms and they obeyed.

“I undid the belt of the man who appeared to be the leader and took from him his revolver and a big clasp knife.

"I also disarmed a second man and my gardener disarmed the third. After we had taken their weapons the Germans put out their hands and we shook hands."

After helping a fourth, very dazed, airman out of the bomber the group conversed with the airmen while awaiting the arrival of the military with the English-speaking airmen saying admiringly, “Your Spitfires are wonderful.”

for the full article go to Looking back: Nazi airmen captured by Hampshire farmers

However, one of the most mysterious stories concerns the disappearance of the bodies of four German aircrew following at crash at Kings Somborne on 21st August 1940.

The CWGC research into the unknown airmen at Cannock initially suspecting that the mysteriously disappeared bodies were in fact those in the Hursley graveyard. However, this no no longer appears to be likely and the final resting place of the crew remains unknown.

The crew are however, commemorated. Many years after the crash a memorial to the, then unknown, airmen was erected (also with an incorrect date) at the crash site. Following more recent investigation the names of the airmen are now known:

Obergefreiter Gerhard Freude - pilot Oberleutnant Max Birkenstock - observer Unteroffizier. Rudolf Schulze - radio observer Gefreiter. Franz Becker - gunner

For more detail on the Memorial go to the Imperial War Museum Memorials and To 4 unknown German airmen

However, although their names are now known their fate is still a mystery. A mystery described by author Andy Saunders in his book "Finding the Foe"