Dogfight
Bob van der Stok
Last update: Oct. 3, 2001
The true story of a Dutch Pilot
One of the pilots from the first hour, Bob van der Stok, has described his part of the dogfighting.
2nd Lt. Bob van der Stok (left)
1st Lt. Foquin de Grave(middle)
2nd Lt. Jan Bosch(right)
The last one was "seriously" wounded....a
scratch on his little finger!
"May 10, 1940.
During dawn
that morning we were already in the air over Air Base “De Kooy” near Den
Helder.
We now had
radio’s , that - at least in short distance - performed reasonably.
We saw the
Messerschmitts-109 coming. Obviously they did not know that we already
had a whole “JaVA” (JachtVliegAfdeling = Fighter Squadron)
in the air; at least they attacked the buildings of the air base. It seemed
that they did not see us as opponents of any importance. But that proved
to be a little different!
Fokker D-21
There was problaby
a slight hesitation.
I saw four
Messerschmitts with a D-21 on their tails and there was shooting.
Everywhere we saw German tracer-bullets flashing through the air. One “Hun”
had already a long white petrol-tail and dived vertically into the water.
I suppose
Doppenberg was flying alongside me; just in front of us was a Messerschmitt
in a slow turn. We both opened fire at the same time and again there was
a tall petrol-stripe behind the Huns plane and he went off quickly in Eastern
direction.
Hardly this
was passed or I saw a Me-109 from the left coming straight towards me.
Just in front of me I saw his propeller-nose, antenna-rod and rudder in
one line, so his bullets couldn’t hit me: every fighter-pilot knows that
a
deflection
angle is needed to hit a moving target.
I maneuvered
my D-21, that was still in perfect condition, in a curve to the left as
sharp as possible and the German tried to follow me. Three complete circles
were necessary to come on his tail, but you cannot fire anyway. You need
this deflection angle. The German pilot, realising that the D-21 made a
narrow curve, changed course to the right and performed a dive. A very
big mistake! Changing course means loss of velocity and so he put himself
exactly on the right angle for me to shoot. The additive velocity
of the dive came too late.
This time
I saw a white plume and a black stripe of oil; even some of it came on
my windscreen. The Me pulled up in a jerk and started to spin (what we
called a “vrille” in those days).
Everywhere
above De Kooy I saw the Me and D-21 fighters. Again an Me-109, now with
flaps down but gear up.
Much further
away, two Me’s, one with a white plume, the other obviously as escort.
At the horizon some black spots towards the East.
I saw a couple
of us landing and suddenly all was quiet.
My fuel tank
was still filled for a quarter, my “ammo” not yet all used and my “crate”
was flying perfectly.
At my side
“Spanky” van Overvest appeared with a heavily damaged D-21; full
of bullet holes and his flaps half lowered. He made “thumb-up” and I understood
that he had made hits too.
Now the ridiculous
message came on the radio: “German Army troops have passed the borders
of the Netherlands and the Government considers our country in state of
war with Germany”.
We landed
at De Kooy and the chaos was of course discussed extensively.
A Messerschmitt
had performed a belly-landing on De Kooy Airport.
*) Dietrich Robitsch
Rank: Hauptmann
Age 28
Nickname: "Der Alte"
Commander 1/JG 186
Spanky
supposed he had shot the aircraft and so did Doppenberg. Finally I saw
him hit a German.
Jan Bosch
had also made hits and nobody knew who had downed the first plane that
dived into the water.
I knew that
I had hit two Me-s.
We believed
that the German “Geschwader” lost at least five pilots and their
aircraft during the first attack.
Who exactly
did what damage to the enemy, I don’t care at all. We had no cameras in
the wings and couldn’t prove anything; so lateron in the war a prove of
any “Air Victory” was very necessary.
What impressed
me deeply was that we had pilots like Dop, Jan Bosch, Spanky, Jaap and
many others, who immediately and without any hesitation accepted the action
and that those people were my friends.
The next four days were unreal like a dream.
Coming back from a flight and just after my landing I heard some hits in my tail. I taxied to the bombed hangar as quickly as I could, jumped off my “crate” and ran for shelter.
A bullet ricochetted from the concrete and hit my shoulder - fortunately only in my leather coat.
We made several
attack flights on ground targets where the Germans had already fixed positions,
but I don’t believe that we delayed the progress of the already long planned
attack of the mighty German Army.
A large number
of Dutch pilots fulfilled heroic actions that were almost unbelievable.
The old Fokker
C-V and C-X reconnaissance planes were brought into action and downed Germans.
A member of
my class, Rozenboom, was attacked by three Me-s and it is supposed that
he shot two of them before he himself was shot down and killed.
The T-5 bombers could do hardly anything but yet they downed Germans. Those were pilots, like Van Steenbergen and Swagerman!
We have dealt losses to the Luftwaffe, much more than Goering had supposed. One of our attacks is staying sharp in my mind: the raid on Waalhaven Airport, which was already in German hands. With all we had - D-21s with bullet holes, lost windscreens and leaking brake-systems - we attacked with the sun in our back. Waalhaven was full of Junker-52 transport planes, a few of our G-1s an many other equipment. Those planes just stood there in rows on the grass of the airport; I suppose there were a number of fourty to sixty of them. With about ten fighters we did a raid on those easy targets and fired our entire ammunition what no doubt caused a lot of damage.
There is a story that the Luftwaffe lost in our four days war more than sixhundred aircraft during dogfights, AA-gunning, by demolition on the ground and by their own failing landings on the beaches and other places from where they impossibly could take off.
On the last day we were at Schiphol and the message of capitulation (to avoid further losses) did not come unexpectedly. We brought our remaining damaged fighters together and shot them in fire. The chaos of the surrender was bad enough, but to have to look at panic, desparate weakness and impotency of some of our own militairy leaders, made me sick. Never will I speak the names of our weak brothers, because their miserable cowardice was improved in an excellent way by the Schmidt Cranses, Spankies, Jan Bosches, Doppenbergs, De Haas’s and hundreds of other pilots and ground crew, who fulfilled their duties and not despaired.
One of our
best friends, an excellent pilot and a strong Oranjeklant
(Orangeist - dedicated to the Queen) , who took part in almost any
fight, asked permission to visit his family in ..... Rotterdam. My friend
returned after a couple of hours. His home was a ruin of rubbled brickstones,
his father, mother and eight brothers and sisters were killed.
This was the
only moment in our 4-days-war that tears came in my eyes, not only for
sympathy, but also for anger."
Translated by Dick van Faassen
from the book:
“Oorlogsvlieger
van Oranje”
by
Bob van der Stok.
Bob
escaped after the May-war to England, became a Spitfire pilot. He was shot
down over France, Prisoner of war in Stalag-Luft, from where he escaped
and again went to England. There he was Flight Commander and eventually
Squadron Commander of the Dutch 322 Spitfire Squadron. Movie has been made: "The Great Escape".
More stories: Bodaan; Kiel; Roeloffsen; Roos; Swagerman;. Linzel.
Other Books:
Vliegers in het vuur, K.Norel De Oorlog in Mei 1940, ltkol. Brongers. De Meivliegers, Peter Gerritse. Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in WO2, dl.3, L. de Jong. Luchtoorlog boven Nederland, Joh.P.Nater. Neerlands vliegers in het vuur, C. Küpfer. Vliegveld Bergen, Joh.Schuurman.
Links:
Air
Battle
Luchtslag
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