Hptm. Wilhelm Enßlen's Me 109 E-4 (WNr. 3784 ) excavated at Burmarsh 1982

Simon

I checked with my colleague but, as suspected, the artwork isn’t there.

I think I still know where the original is. Word of caution; it was based upon Mike Payne’s speculative best-guess as to what the aeroplane possibly looked like!

Snowen250

A colleague who has all of Michael Payne’s colour profiles has contacted me to say he will look to see if the one you want is there. However, I am not sure if it will be there as Mike did the artwork specifically for me in 1982 and I had the original before it went to Andrew Rae. Thus, I don’t know if he kept a copy.

Andy,

thanks again! I am actually on holiday for two weeks come saturday, so if anything does turn up and i dont reply please dont think im being rude. I’ll check back here upon my return of course.

Simon

Snowen250

A colleague who has all of Michael Payne’s colour profiles has contacted me to say he will look to see if the one you want is there. However, I am not sure if it will be there as Mike did the artwork specifically for me in 1982 and I had the original before it went to Andrew Rae. Thus, I don’t know if he kept a copy.

I agree. I found the ‘Finding the Foe’ quite moving at times and you’re mentioning has reminded me to order the other two books. You’ve done well out me this month Mr Saunders, what with your new Stuka book also. 😀

Snowen250 you will not be disappointed with the book. I have all of the books and they are excellent. Finding the Few/Foe/Fallen ( As well as his other publications!). Cases in the books, like Flying Officer Franciszek Gruska and Lt.Helmut Strobel are mind blowing in the callousness shown by the people involved on the initial digs on the cash sites. Thankfully there are people like Mr. Saunders who strive to find these missing aircrew and afford them a decent Christian burial and give closure to any surviving relatives.

Andy,

that’s very kind thanks a lot.

Simon

I think the Michael Payne artwork is still owned by Andrew Rae in London. I will contact him about it for you.

Thanks a lot for the replies guys.

I shall have to piece together what i can for the scheme of the 109!

A copy of your book is winging its way to me from Amazon Andy.

Simon

I am not sure if, even now, the headstone has been replaced.

It is certainly on the VDK’s ‘to do’ list but they have big funding issues and it is a case of prioritisation with all cases they have on the books – including the recovery and marking of previously ‘lost’ graves in the former Soviet bloc. Unlike the CWGC, I understand the VDK funding is not from the German government but more akin to something that is charity-based.

I have a few small parts. This pic of his grave was taken in 2010 during our BoB pilgrimage

Andy,

Thanks, It’s no rush. Whenever you get a chance as I take your word for it on the Verlustmeldung info. 🙂

It was established as an E-4 from the main constructors plate. (See Guy’s post above and photos)

AI(g) report reads as follows:

“Report No 4/114
Crashed on 2/11/40 at Dymchurch. Map Ref R.5347. No details of this aircraft can be given. Following fighter action in the neighbourhood this aircraft dived into ground at high speed and is completely buried. Pilot probably dead in crater. A piece of one shell gun was found, the armament therefore probably being 2 shell guns and 2 MG17s. Signed: Wg Cdr J A Easton.”

I think the E-7 was as recorded on the Verlustmeldung document along with the ‘+2’ marking but it will take me a while to find that…and I should be writing book captions right now!!

Andy, do you know why in the Battle of Britain (or Blitz?) Then and Now Enßlen is captioned as flying ‘+2’ but not a Gruppenkommandeur marked <<+ machine. Also it mentions he was flying an E-7. For the period I don’t doubt this as being a possibility but it puzzles me quite how this was established considering the severity of the crash. Sadly I do not have the A.I1.(g) report for this one. Were these details able to be ascertained from the wreckage at the time? 🙂

BTW: Great photos Guy, thanks.

I have one of the cowling clips, which shows yellow paint.
here are a couple of pictures of the dig.
I recall the digger going all day in the wrong place, and it being found elswhere at about 4.00 p.m. (in fact you can see the first location behind the digger in the photo)
Guy
[ATTACH=CONFIG]220828[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]220829[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]220830[/ATTACH]

Simon

Pleased to have been of some help.

By the way, the late Michael Payne produced for me a colour profile of how he believed the 109 probably looked, but that is now with a collector in London. Certainly, we discovered that it had a yellow nose and I am pretty sure we found yellow rudder fabric, too. But I am not sure about the last bit. It was a long time ago, now.

Andy,

thanks a lot, I have PM’d you.

Simon

Simon

Yes, I can PM you the exact map reference. Also, I don’t want this to appear a sales pitch, but I cover the case in my book ‘Finding The Foe’.

It is rather long, but here is an extract about the incident:

“Hptm Wilhelm Enßlen had taken part in the Spanish Civil War as a fighter pilot and was one of only twenty-eight men awarded the Spanish Cross in Gold with Swords and Diamonds. An experienced fighter leader, the twenty-nine-year-old flier had taken part in the campaigns in Poland and France and had seen the Battle of Britain through, steadily adding to his score of claims. On 2 November 1940, however, he tangled in combat with a Spitfire flown by Sqn Ldr J A ‘Johnny’ Kent, the Canadian CO of 92 Squadron. Kent describes the combat in graphic detail in his biography One Of The Few:

“…The rest of the formation dived for the coast and did not attempt to turn and fight, at least all but one. We chased after the fleeing Germans and I caught up with this one and attacked. I found that I had picked an old hand; instead of just running away he waited until I was very close and then suddenly broke to the right and into the sun. I momentarily lost sight of him but as he continued to turn he moved out of the glare of the sun and a tail chase developed. As we came round full circle he repeated his manoeuvre but this time I pulled my sights through him and, although losing him under the nose of my aircraft, gave a short burst in the hopes that I might get some tracer near enough to him to frighten him into running for home. I misjudged my man, however, and he continued his tactics and apparently had no intention of running at all but finally after the fourth or fifth circle I drew my sights through him again, gave a longish burst and was startled when he suddenly appeared from under my nose and we very nearly collided. I still have a very vivid mental picture of him looking up at me as we flashed past not twenty feet apart. I distinctly remember that he had his goggles up on his helmet and his oxygen mask in place.

“I also recall the gashes along the side of the Messerschmitt where my bullets had struck and the tail of the aircraft with practically no fabric left on it and a control cable streaming back with a small piece of metal whirling around on the end of it. It is one of those pictures of a split-second’s action that remains indelibly imprinted on one’s mind. I did not, in the heat of the moment, fully appreciate the significance of all this and was jubilant when I saw that my opponent was reversing his turn, a fatal move in a fight, and gave him one last burst from ‘fine quarter’ into his left side. A thin trail of grey smoke appeared and the aircraft rolled quite slowly onto its back and started down. I immediately thought that he was getting away and followed him with throttle wide open hoping to catch him as he levelled out.

“The last time I glanced at the airspeed indicator it was registering something like 450mph but still the Me 109 outdistanced me and I finally lost it against the ground. While continuing my dive and waiting to see the grey plan-form of it as it pulled out, I was startled to see a vivid red flash and a great cloud of jet black smoke appear as the machine hit the ground and exploded.

“I came down low to see where the aircraft had struck but could see no sign of it, until I noticed some soldiers running across the fields waving to me. Then I saw it. A gaping hole that looked just like a bomb crater and hundreds of little bits scattered around.

“A few days later the Intelligence Officer told me that the pilot had been quite a highly decorated major (sic) but it had not been possible to establish his identity. Apparently I had shot away his controls and he was on the point of baling out when my last burst killed him. This was deduced from the fact that his fighting harness was picked up undone and undamaged and the left half of his tunic was found with six bullet holes in it.”

In his extraordinarily detailed account of this aerial duel, Kent is absolutely correct when he says that he must have picked on “an old hand”, and he is equally correct when he explains that the pilot was highly decorated although it had not been possible to establish his identity. In fact, and although he hadn’t witnessed what had happened when the aircraft disappeared against the countryside below, Wilhelm Enßlenn had apparently abandoned his Messerschmitt and seemingly fallen with an unopened parachute or had somehow dropped out of his harness. Quite what happened is unclear, although it is known that he fell into the sea just beyond the low water mark at Dymchurch. According to mortuary records he was “rescued” from the sea, which rather implies that he was pulled out alive and died later. However, it seems more likely that he fell dead without an open parachute. What is not debatable, however, is that for some unknown reason his body defied identification and he was ultimately buried at Folkestone (New) Cemetery in Hawkinge under the name A Schenck.

Quite where this name comes from is a mystery, although it is entirely possible that it was a tailor’s name or some-such in a piece of clothing, or maybe the name of a previous owner or even a manufacturer on his parachute harness for example. Either way, no identity disc was discovered and although personal effects were found they clearly did not help put a name to the man. A piece of linking evidence, however, was found when enthusiasts excavated the wreck of a Messerschmitt 109 in 1982 at Hagueland, Burmarsh, just a few yards from the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway track. (Coincidentally, this was just a few fields away from the crash site of Lt Werner Knittel’s Messerschmitt which is dealt with in Chapter One.) With the knowledge from RAF air intelligence reports that this crash had happened on 2 November 1940, and the fact that the unknown German airman pulled out of the sea just a short distance away had fallen from this aircraft, the discovery of the main aircraft data plate showing it to be a Messerschmitt 109 E-4 with the Werke Nummer 3784 confirmed this to indeed be the aircraft being flown by Hptm Enßlenn when he was lost. Whilst circumstantial only, and providing insufficient proof that A Schenck was indeed Wilhelm Enßlenn, it was nonetheless a most valuable piece of the jigsaw.

With all the pieces of the puzzle assembled and presented to the German War Graves Service it is heartening that this evidence has now been accepted and a named headstone will be erected to this previous ‘missing’ pilot. Whilst the headstone is awaiting replacement at time of this book going to print it has at least been officially confirmed that this is indeed Enßlenn’s grave. His elderly widow, left wondering for nearly seventy years as to what had happened to her man, is content that in her last years she finally knows.”

I hope this helps? He is the pilot (with his wife) in the photo top left of the book cover. As I say…not an intentional sales pitch and the detail and cover illustration are posted simply to answer your question.