De berging van de Boulton Paul Defiant L6958 (2)

Fighter command combat report

Het relaas dat Samuel Thomas doet van deze missie luidt als volgt:

NB Klik hier voor de Nederlandse vertaling

I was pilot of a Defiant aircraft in the formation led by Flight Lieutenant Skelton. At 0545 hours we encountered seven Ju 87s south of Rotterdam. They were not carrying bombs, which might have indicated that they had already bombed their objective. I noticed that Rotterdam was blazing fiercely in several places. The aircraft were immediately formed in line astern and kept turning. I got into position on one Ju 87 and my air gunner shot it down. I saw this aircraft go down apparently out of control. Then, afterwards, another Ju 87, which was coming up behind us, was also shot down apparently out of control. Then about 27 Me 109s joined in the combat and I heard my air gunner, LAC Bromley, give a cheer and I think that this meant that he had got an Me 109 which had been trying to get on my tail. I could not be certain of this as immediately afterwards the air gunner was killed. I think.

My starboard tank caught fire and a stream of bullets came from the rear and shot away the dashboard and part of the control column. I lost control for some time but eventually managed to turn the aircraft on its back, as had been pre-arranged with the air gunner in order to facilitate bailing out. I could get no reply from the air gunner. I bailed out when the flames were coming up right to the cockpit. I landed on an island south-east of Dordrecht among some tall reeds. While lying on my back after landing I saw one Defiant explode in the air. About one hour later the enemy fighters had disappeared completely.

I explored the island which appeared to be uninhabited and then went towards a house two miles away in a south-easterly direction. In order to reach this house, I had to swim two channels approximately 100 yards wide. I then saw a houseboat moored and climbed into it. After resting I walked west keeping the sun behind me until I came to a house with a barge outside it but the house was empty. I then found a small boat and rowed for about 200 yards until I came to a very high dyke. I climbed this and saw another house from which a farm labourer and his wife came to meet me. The time was then approximately 0800 hours. I managed to make him understand that I was an English as I was carrying my tunic over my arm.

By this time the Germans were bombing Dordrecht. This attack lasted all morning. Dordrecht was about 15 miles away from the farmhouse. This information I got from the farmer. As far as I could see, the aircraft carrying out the bombing were He 111s and Ju 87s. At about 1200 hours the farmer locked up the house and rowed me and his family to another island. On the way across I saw 20 Me 110s which were circling and proceeding further north-east with each circle, which would rather indicate that they were searching the ground for suitable target to ground strafe.

We eventually reached another farmhouse from which the military were communicated with. And then the labourer offered to take me to the military on the back of his bicycle. After cycling about three miles we came to a dam and were met by Dutch soldiers. It was here that I met Pilot Officer Hatfield [van Blue 1. Redactie]. We were taken in a car to get his arm dressed and after about an hour we were taken to a place called Sleewyk [Sleeuwijk. Redactie] where we were interrogated by Dutch Intelligence officers who seemed to think I was German. One of the Dutch officials questioned me and asked where I came from (by this time I had lost most of my uniform). When I said Swansea, I was asked to draw maps of the main streets.

We were taken to a hospital and than (sic) a card was tied around my neck on which was written my name, description and number. My tunic was taken from me here. After being detained for some time in a room with some civilians we were marched to a boat and taken across to Gorinchem which had apparently been bombed just before we arrived. We were escorted by two guards, and were interrogated at police headquarters by a police officer who could speak good English. We explained that we were British airmen and were asked if we could speak Dutch, and were not believed when we said that we could not. I asked the police official to send a cable to the British Air Ministry and wrote a message out. I do not know whether this message was sent.

We were taken then to the military barracks and questioned by an intelligence officer whose name was 2nd Lieutenant Bouvy, who took all particulars and promised to send a cable to the Air Ministry as well. Two hours later this officer took us by car to The Hague. On the way we ran into a large motorised column of Dutch soldiers. The soldiers searched the party in the car and then they discovered that 2nd Lieutenant Bouvy, our escort, was a Fascist. At this point we thought that were going to be shot out of hand. However eventually we were taken on to The Hague. By that time it was about two in the morning.

After a very long time we arrived at The Hague between 5.30 and 6 am. We were taken straight to the Dutch Military Barracks and saw the Commanding Officer who spoke perfect English. After we had explained the situation to him we were driven to the British Legation but found everybody had left so we went to the American Legation where a Major Colbourne was very helpful indeed, and we finally went in a Buick car escorted by one soldier and the driver to The Hook [Hoek van Holland. Redactie] where there was a British destroyer. At The Hague there were British troops and Irish and Welsh Guards. During the journey German bombers came over and five Blenheims were also seen. Eventually a British naval officer allowed us on board the destroyer and we landed at Dover at 7.30 pm. the 14th May, 1940.

Sgt. S.R.Thomas P/O

Section Blue 2 Sqdn.  264

Bron: Public Record Office Londen, Combat Report J.E.Hatfield, d.d. 15 mei 1940

“The man who accompanied us was a Fascist”

Deze opmerking in het verslag van Thomas, als zouden zij ondervraagd en weggebracht zijn door een "fascist", lijkt enigszins vreemd. Het dagrapport van 13 mei 1940 van de politie te Gorinchem vermeldt dat om (4.30 uur n.m) 16.30 u twee Engelse militairen door Sleeuwijkse politie zijn binnengebracht.

Het betreft Samuel Thomas en Jacques Hatfield. Zij zijn aan de garnizoenscommandant van Gorinchem overgedragen. Mogelijk zijn zij in de Willemskazerne ondervraagd en vandaar naar de tegenovergelegen Citadelkazerne gebracht. De aanhouding van de vliegers en hun begeleider 2e Luitenant Bouvy heeft plaats gevonden op de weg naar Den Haag:

Mogelijk heeft Thomas zich in dit voorval vergist. Omdat er in die dagen in ons land nogal hectische toestanden heersen, is het niet onmogelijk dat 2e Luitenant Bouvy bij de aanhouding ophef daarover heeft gemaakt. Hij zou zo snel mogelijk met zijn Engelsen naar veiliger oorden hebben willen doorreizen. Een veronderstelling die wordt gesteund door het feit dat Hatfield juist niets over een dergelijk voorval vermeldt. Een bijkomstigheid is dat Thomas, hoewel hij niet noemenswaardig verwond was, in de meimaand niet meer heeft gevlogen.

Thomas' verdere levensloop

Tijdens het vervolg van de oorlog blijkt Thomas een zeer succesrijk vlieger te zijn en onderscheidt hij zich in vele gevechten. Maar op 5 september 1943 wordt zijn Hawker Typhoon geraakt en hij maakt een noodlanding bij Zijpe (Zeeland), waarna hij in krijgsgevangenschap belandde in Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Silezië. Daar zit hij de oorlog uit. In 1955 overlijdt Samuel Richard Thomas.

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