Messerschmitt 109 E-3
Nationality: German
Serial number: 2964
Unit: 3 / LG52
Call sign: N/K
Date of loss: 8/07/1940
Shot down in combat with RAF Spitfires over Dover at 7.30pm, crashing at Buckland Farm, Sandwich, Kent. The pilot, Leutnant Albert Stribney, baled out and was made a POW. The pilot described the engagement as follows;
"In spite of our efforts to try and gain more speed, in no time they were on us and the battle was short. Whilst I was behind a Spitfire, another was behind me. I hear the sound as if one throws peas against a metal sheet and my cabin was full of dark smoke. I felt splashes of fuel on my face so I switched off the electrical system, dived back into the cloud and threw off the cabin roof. The smoke disappeared and I could breathe freely and noticed that from the wings there came white streams of glycol. Whilst diving, I tried several times to start the engine, switching on the electrical system, but in vain. When I came out of cloud, I decided to bale out and undid the clasp of my seat belt and was about to climb onto the seat and jump when I thought of the high speed of the aircraft and I was afraid to be thrown against the tailplane so I pulled back the stick and slowed the aircraft down. This took a matter of seconds; I did a half roll and fell out."
Nationality: German
Serial number: 2964
Unit: 3 / LG52
Call sign: N/K
Date of loss: 8/07/1940
Shot down in combat with RAF Spitfires over Dover at 7.30pm, crashing at Buckland Farm, Sandwich, Kent. The pilot, Leutnant Albert Stribney, baled out and was made a POW. The pilot described the engagement as follows;
"In spite of our efforts to try and gain more speed, in no time they were on us and the battle was short. Whilst I was behind a Spitfire, another was behind me. I hear the sound as if one throws peas against a metal sheet and my cabin was full of dark smoke. I felt splashes of fuel on my face so I switched off the electrical system, dived back into the cloud and threw off the cabin roof. The smoke disappeared and I could breathe freely and noticed that from the wings there came white streams of glycol. Whilst diving, I tried several times to start the engine, switching on the electrical system, but in vain. When I came out of cloud, I decided to bale out and undid the clasp of my seat belt and was about to climb onto the seat and jump when I thought of the high speed of the aircraft and I was afraid to be thrown against the tailplane so I pulled back the stick and slowed the aircraft down. This took a matter of seconds; I did a half roll and fell out."
The items displayed here consist of two small engine components from the Daimler-Benz 601 engine, some twisted fragments of airframe, perspex from the canopy, fabric from one of the control surfaces and a small section of wiring from excavations of the crash site which took place in the 1970's and 1980's.Back