The German pilot who crash landed on the Isle of Wight

He was approaching Park Place Farm when a man wearing an airman’s uniform stepped into the road and waved him down.

Harold pulled up and got the shock of his life ­— it was a German pilot in full flying gear.

Feldwebel (Sergeant) Horst Hellriegel had been in a dogfight over the Dorset coast when his fuel tanks were riddled with bullets.

With no way of reaching his French base he had landed his Messerschmitt 109 on Bowcombe Down near an old chalk quarry called Gypsy’s Hollow and had then made his way down to the road.

The very plane that Horst Hellriegel landed on Bowcombe Down. On the side is Mickey Mouse in boxing gloves and in the cockpit is Horst Jaenisch, the regular pilot of the 109. Picture by Alan Stroud.

To his great credit, Harold wasn’t fazed by meeting a German pilot.

He told the County Press: “I said to him, are you armed? He said ‘no, I no fight,’ but I wasn’t trusting any German so I ran my hands over him before I told him to get into my lorry and we drove off towards Newport."

As they pulled away Horst casually said, ‘Will you pull up at the Blacksmiths Arms at the top of the hill? I could do with a drink.’

Harold was flabbergasted. He told the CP “I asked him how he knew that and he said that he had often been to the Island because in peace time he worked on liners which called at Southampton.”

And so it was that a few minutes later the lunchtime regulars at the Blacksmiths were treated to the sight of a Luftwaffe pilot in full flying gear propping up the bar.

Refreshed, Harold drove Horst to Carisbrooke intending to hand him over at the local policeman’s house. Here, the plan fell apart ­— the village bobby was away on holiday!

So what do you do with a German pilot you’ve just captured? Well, as if the story wasn’t bizarre enough already, Harold drove Horst to his home in Gunville, where Mum was preparing his lunch.

As the CP reported, “His captor’s mother, a strong countrywoman, said: ‘I wasn’t frightened of him. I fancy he was a little frightened of me as he kept on saying that he was not a bomber and trembled like a leaf.

"He showed me a photo of his wife and little daughter and said he did not want to fight England. I said ‘Then why do your people come over here dropping bombs on women and children?’

A 1940 Luftwaffe aerial photo showing bomb damage at Cowes. Flugzeugfabrik - aircraft factory; Kraftanlage - power plant; Verkhalle - sales hall; Nebengebäude - outbuildings. Picture by Alan Stroud.

"He shook his head sadly and said ‘I know. It is terrible. It is very bad for our women and children too.’

“I gave him a cup of tea and a plate of meat and he took some toffees out of his pocket and gave them to my little girl. Harold went for the police and after about half an hour they arrived with eight soldiers, and two of them came into the kitchen. I said, ‘There’s no need for that ­— the man has already surrendered and you must wait outside until he’s finished his cup of tea!’

“He looked very frightened and whispered ‘Shall I be all right?’ I told him he would be treated well, as we didn’t kill or torture prisoners in England. As he left he shook hands with me and my son, and thanked us for our kindness.”

When Mrs. Blow later learned that there were six ‘victim’ stripes painted on Horst’s plane she said, “If I’d known that I should have felt more like putting my carving knife through him than giving him something to eat.”

However, the stripes and a large emblem of Mickey Mouse wearing boxing gloves painted on the side were nothing to do with Horst - they were the work of Sergeant Horst Jaenisch, whose plane Horst had borrowed for the day.

The story was still not over. The abandoned Messerschmitt sat on the downs guarded for the first few days, after which the locals arrived fully tooled-up and proceeded to strip the carcase clean!

Horst Hellriegel's landing site near Gypsy's Hollow on Bowcombe Down.

Prosecutions followed, the CP reporting two weeks later, “Portions of a Messerschmitt 109, ranging from an electrical generator to an engine cover 3ft long, were exhibited in Court when seven souvenir hunters were charged with removing parts of a German aeroplane.

"They were William Adsett, 36, electrician; Robert Church, 17, apprentice; Charles Hunnybun, 17, and Kenneth Harbor, 17, labourers; Cyril Stotesbury, 15, apprentice; Clive Burt, 16, and John Upward, 15, driver’s mate; all of Newport."

Edward Crinage, for the RAF, said: “On October 19 I inspected the complete Messerschmitt 109 but three days later it had been reduced to a heap of scrap.

"Everything removable had been taken, the fuselage and even parts of the engine cut out by hacksaws, and the wings mutilated."

Adsett said he went to see the plane on October 20 and found 50 or 60 people there using hammers and chisels to take parts away.

An Intelligence Officer explained German planes were only guarded until the armament, wireless, and flying instruments were removed.

Adsett was fined £2, Church and Hunnybun 10s., and the others 5s.

Horst spent the rest of the war as a POW. There were no camps on the Island until 1943 so he almost certainly went to the only British camp at that time, Grizedale Hall in Cumbria.

Sadly, despite best efforts, Horst’s post-war life is unknown.