Sadly, in March
2007, Spitfire Society Stalwart, Helper, Enthusiast, Newsletter
Contributor and Friend, former 33 Sqn. Pilot, Bert Harman,
passed away. As a small tribute to him, we are reproducing here
two items written by Bert for the 2001 Newsletters.
The first part
looks at a mission undertaken by Bert in 1944 flying over
Belgium in Spitfire Mk IX PV202. It was with some pride that
Bert viewed the fact that PV202 still not only exists but does
so in full flying condition. Following a fatal accident in the
90’s the aeroplane, now operated by Historic Flying Limited at
Duxford is, understandably, known by its post-war designation of
IAC Tr.161.
Tr.161, in its
two-seat configuration, is used in a variety of roles and is one
of the busiest flying Spitfires in the world. Bert was a great
admirer of our late Vice-President Alex Henshaw and was, I know,
immensely pleased when in 2006 Alex took to the skies in ‘161 to
help celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first
Spitfire flight.
The second
fascinating account looks at that fateful day in February 1945
when, following an encounter with enemy ‘109’s, Bert was obliged
to put his Hawker Tempest (its mighty Napier-Sabre engine having
fallen silent) down in a field behind enemy lines, leading to
his capture and being made prisoner of war.
We hope that
you will enjoy with us our old chum’s reminiscences.
P.W. July 2007
A Sortie
with 33 Squadron
"In November
1944 I was serving with 33 Squadron, part of 135 Wing in 2nd
Tactical Air Force stationed at Maldegem in Belgium. On 25th
November, we were given a target to attack – the railway in the
region of Ede in Holland, the object being to deny the use of
these railways to the enemy who was using them to support his
forces in central Holland (and later to assist in the evacuation
of these forces). These targets were known as ‘rail
interdiction’.
We took off at
14:30 Hrs carrying one 500lb bomb on each aircraft and the
target was duly located and attacked. A total of 12 bombs were
dropped, but the permanent way seemed to have survived. It
subsequently transpired that we may not have attacked the
designated target, which was the main line at Ede between
Utrecht and Arnhem, but a small branch line at or near Lunteren,
which only had a single line.
On the return
flight I ran short of Fuel and decided to land at Antwerp, B.70
to take on more. Antwerp at that time was an advanced landing
ground held by a servicing party. I landed on the runway and
followed a jeep with a ‘Follow Me’ sign – but he took me across
the mud to the servicing area.
They had put in
about 20 gallons from jerry cans when a V2 landed uncomfortably
close by; Antwerp at that time being attacked by V2’s targeting
the area around the docks where we were attempting to bring in
supplies. I therefore decided it would be advisable to leave so
taxied out and took off, arriving back at Maldegem some twenty
minutes later. However, on the approach, I noticed that the air
pressure was almost zero but, by keeping the flaps up, I had
sufficient pressure to use the brakes. On inspection, the
flexible pipe from the compressor was found to be leaking.
The ground crew
were pleased to get their aircraft back, but not so pleased when
they saw the state of it – covered in mud, particularly the
undercarriage and inside the wheel wells. I offered to help
clean it, but my offer was declined – so I made amends with a
few bottles of beer from our Mess."
Flg Officer
A (Bert) Harman joined the RAF in August 1942, undergoing flying
training at 33 EFTS Caron, 41 SFTS Weyburn, Saskatchewan and 1
OTU Bagotville, Quebec. Returning to the UK in Sept. 1943,
following spells at 57 OTU and 3501 GSU, he was posted to 33
Squadron on D Day – 6 June 1944. In December the Squadron
re-equipped with the Hawker Tempest V. A period of
familiarisation with the aircraft followed and on 21 February
1945 Bert flew EJ868 5R-T from Manston to B77 Gilze-Rejen,
Holland, carrying out his first operation in a Tempest four days
later:
"On 25th
February 1945 we were briefed to carry out a sweep in the Rhine
area of Germany. We took off at 07:05 Hrs and shortly afterwards
were vectored by Control to intercept some enemy aircraft that
were soon sighted – identified them as Bf 109’s and prepared to
attack. I switched to main tanks and dropped my wing tanks but,
suddenly my engine stopped. I was quite low at about 1000 ft.
and, as I looked around for a place to land, a 109 appeared and
opened fire. I broke hard left and he clipped my starboard wing
but did not continue his attack.
Finding myself
very low over rough open country I managed to land by
side-slipping into a field with the aircraft sliding through a
hedge and ending up on the edge of a pine forest. I had braced
myself but the Sutton harness gave way and my nose received a
nasty blow from the gun sight and was subsequently found to be
fractured. Getting out of the aircraft, I saw that the engine
had broken away and was some distance from the fuselage.
I made my way
well into the forest and stayed in hiding until nightfall. As
soon as it was dark, I set off in heavy rain following a road
towards the North West and, although I passed quite a lot of
people, they took no notice of me. The road eventually led to a
large town which I took to be Munster and just kept on walking
in the pitch black and pouring rain. When dawn broke, I was in
open country again and had a job to find any cover, eventually
coming across a barn to hide in.
The Germans
found me, however, at about mid-day and took me to a nearby
village where I was locked up in the jail and imprisoned for a
couple of weeks. An elderly German and a soldier brought me food
twice a day. I was also visited several times by an
Interrogation Officer, although he only asked me my name, rank
and number. There was also a young German army doctor who spoke
excellent English and examined my nose. The doctor said he
didn’t think much of Hitler, but I suspected this was a ploy.
I was then
collected by two Germans who arrived in a car powered by
charcoal! We stopped at another village where an RAF chap was
bundled in with me. We were warned not to talk to each other and
were driven across the border to a Luftwaffe base at Twente in
Holland where I could see both Bf109’s and FW190’s landing and
taking off. Here we were joined by about 25 other captured
aircrew. The main Luftwaffe interrogation centre was at
Oberursel and, although we set off there two days later
travelling by horse and cart, train and on foot, we continued
the same day to Wetzlar. On that journey we passed through
Frankfurt am Main which had obviously sustained heavy bombing
and we now found that the Americans had bombed the railway
forcing us to cross the bridge in single file before being
loaded into cattle trucks and setting off for an unknown
destination, moving in fits and starts and being shunted into
sidings. Russian POW’s were repairing the line – Mustangs and
Thunderbolts flew overhead during the day and we had the
attentions of Mosquitos at night – not a very pleasant
experience. Our route took us through Wurzberg, Schweinfurt and
Bomberg, the last two being totally flattened with hardly any
buildings standing and consequently, we were locked in and told
to keep quiet as the guards could not guarantee our safety.
It took six days to travel to Nurnberg, which had also been
badly affected by bombing, and we were marched to a camp some
way through the city.
On Wednesday
4th April I was part of a very large column of POW’s who left
Nurnberg to march to a camp at Moosberg, almost 60 miles to the
South East. We were escorted mainly by quite elderly soldiers
and, as we were younger and much fitter, we helped them along
carrying their kit and, on occasions, even their rifles! My
recollections of this 16 day march are varied. Food was only
issued occasionally and we had to forage around the fields to
see what we could find. Sometimes we stopped in villages or at
farms, on other occasions we slept at the side of the road.
Often we marched in very heavy rain. We saw numerous allied
aircraft and I know that some prisoners were killed and others
injured when P47’s bombed a railway bridge – one day we made a
big ‘POW’ sign on the ground from toilet paper and Red Cross
tins to let our aircraft know who we were.
We arrived at
Moosberg POW camp on Friday 20 April and although the conditions
became quite bad we did not have much longer to endure them
because, on Sunday 29 April, the camp was liberated by troops
from the American 6th Army followed very shortly
afterwards by General Patton and his staff! He was mobbed and
cheered, especially by the American POW’s, and the Americans
soon had the camp organised with supplies – coffee and
doughnuts, and later on freshly baked bread! A few days later we
were evacuated by trucks to Straubing, by Dakota to an American
reception centre at Rheims where we were fed and given
cigarettes and chocolate , and then on to Jouvencourt. The last
leg of the journey was by RAF Lancasters to Wescott near Oxford
– back in the UK on 10 May – whence by train to Cosford where I
was de-briefed, kitted out and had a welcome pint of beer! Then
home on indefinite leave ……"
You might like to know that signed drawings /
pictures of Bert and his aircraft are available from Peter
Wesson. You can find further details here:
The previous Spitfire Society Interview with Alex
Henshaw can be found here:
