One Fokker G.I got away

[Marcel]

After the Germans occupied the Netherlands, there were still some 14 Fokker G.I’s of the B-type under construction in the Fokker factory. They were immediately ordered to be completed and after they had been test-flown, they were transferred to Germany as advanced fighter trainers.
All these test-flights were flown by Fokker pilots. In order to hinder any escape attempt, these planes only got fuel for half an hour of flight. Further more these test flights were escorted by a German chase-plane, which had to shoot down the plane if it tried to escape.
On the 5th of may 1941 two men were again testing one of the new G.I’s. They were test pilot Leegstra and ir. Vos, someone of the Fokker staff. With the aid of some collaborators among the ground crew, they filled the tanks of their arcraft, number 362. They tried to convince the German supervisor of the necessity of another test flight, before the plane could be accepted by the Luftwaffe. At first, the German showed some reluctance, but after a few drinks in the Schiphol canteen, he agreed. As usual, a chase-plane, being another G.IB manned by Luftwaffe personnel was to accompany them. At 4 o’clock, the two airplanes took off and flew east toward the IJsselmeer. Once ofer the water, the two dutch pilots started to make a series of sharp turns and succeeded in losing their escort by flying into the clouds. The german pilot thought they had crashed into the Ijsselmeer and returned to Schiphol.

The dutch set course to England. Over the North sea they were intercepted by Hurricanes. They quickly lowered their undercarriage to show their surrender so the Hurricanes refrained from shooting at the strange “German” aircraft. As they crossed the British coast, they were being shot at and damaged by flak (the plane still wore the LW’s black crosses on the wings). The plane finally touched down in a field somewhere south of Yarmouth.



Below, the G.I with British markings

[comiso90]

Interesting...

I wonder what happened to the Germans that authorized the test flight and lost them in the clouds.

I assume the chase planes were 109's?

.

[Marcel]

I don't know. The german pilot in this case was aparently Emil Meinecke, I think he was an ace in WWI and later became a test pilot for Fokker between the wars. I don't know what happened to him, I found this after googling:
Emil Meinecke

[Bullockracing]

The story states the chase plane was another G.1...

[Marcel]

Yep, on this flight it was, not sure if this was the case on all flights.

[delcyros]

Marcel, do You know how Fokker G1 particiaption was during may 1940?
Do they or other dutch planes achieved / claimed Luftwaffe planes or flew ground attack sorties?

thanks in advance + good info,
delc

[Marcel]

Marcel, do You know how Fokker G1 particiaption was during may 1940?
Do they or other dutch planes achieved / claimed Luftwaffe planes or flew ground attack sorties?

thanks in advance + good info,
delc

Yes, several German planes were claimed by dutch D.XXI's, T.V's and G.I's in those days. I believe G.I's shot down at least 3 BF109's and several He111 and Ju52's.
A lot of ground strafing has been done, at least in the area of Wageningen (Grebbeberg) the main battle area in those days.
If you're really interested, I could look up some war records and post hem here when I have more time. I have described a sortie involving a T.V bomber and 2 G.I's in this thread:

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/sto...bers-7126.html (The last of the Dutch bombers)

[delcyros]

The dutch efforts in 1940 remain unclear to me and I would be very happy to learn anything You can provide on this. But it isn´t necessary to check any archives for this, just if You have the figures in books or at hand. I always had the impression that the dutch airforce, albeit smaller than the Belgic, did more effective resistance to the Luftwaffe and utilized it´s forces more effectively. But I have nothing to proove this other than a number of combat sorties flown, no breakdowns, no claims and no details of the involved forces.

Best regards,
delc

[v2]

Interesting story....

[Marcel]

The dutch efforts in 1940 remain unclear to me and I would be very happy to learn anything You can provide on this. But it isn´t necessary to check any archives for this, just if You have the figures in books or at hand. I always had the impression that the dutch airforce, albeit smaller than the Belgic, did more effective resistance to the Luftwaffe and utilized it´s forces more effectively. But I have nothing to proove this other than a number of combat sorties flown, no breakdowns, no claims and no details of the involved forces.

Best regards,
delc

Well, I'm not sure as I know absolutely nothing about the efforts of the Belgian airforce in that period. I have a list of crashed german aircraft on dutch soil between 10-15 may 1940. The German Luftwaffe lost about 520 aircraft in The Netherlands during that time period. Most of them were shot down by dutch flak as far as I know. I'm not sure how much were downed by the LVA. I can run through the list and count them, but it'll take some time and won't be very reliable, as of most crashes the reason is not exactly known.

The dutch LVA existed of 124 planes, of which 23 were G.I's and 28 were D.XXI's, futher more they had 9 T.V bombers and the rest were really outdated planes. 3 more G.I's were at the Fokker plant and rushed into action the last two days at a moment that the LVA was virtually wiped out.
The amout of sorties according to my info is:
May the 10th: 51
11th: 31
12th: 48
13th: 23
14th: 18
This is from various sources.

[delcyros]

Thanks for Your help Marcel.
I will keep a saving for future reference.

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

Thanks for the story.