In the morning of 6th September 1942 two Messerschmitt Me210 aircraft were flying a reconnaissance flight over an area which included the Teesside area. At this stage in the War the Me210 was a relatively new aircraft and the operations they flew on this date were possibly the first over the English mainland in the type after a ban on flying over Britain had just been lifted. Whilst still out to sea two RAF Typhoons of No.1 Squadron based at Acklington had been patrolling an area to the north of the River Tees, they were sent to intercept the two enemy aircraft at just after mid-day. In one Typhoon was P/O Bridges, in the other was P/O Perrin. The fighter pilots spotted the two Me210's near off Redcar, the enemy aircraft turned landwards and crossed the coast near Redcar. By now the Typhoons were closing in on their targets and the ME210 crew must have been aware of this, the Me210's dropped what bombs they were carrying near Lackenby before splitting up and one Typhoon followed each Me210. The fate of one Me210 is also detailed on this website, it was to crash near New Marske (details of which can be found here). The aircraft that P/O Bridges followed headed towards Whitby, Bridges fired a number of short bursts at the Me210 and pieces of the engine were seen to fly off it before it caught fire. The aircraft were by now in the Robin Hoods Bay area and it would have been clear to the two German airmen that they would now not be able to outrun their attacker. The two crew baled out and soon after the Me210 was seen to crash in a small field near Sunnyside Farm, Fylingthorpe and disintergrate. The two airmen survived their landing, the wireless operator landed in a cow field near Middlewood Farm, Fylingthorpe. The pilot drifted out to sea but was picked up by the "Picton Castle" and was taken in to harbour at Scarborough. He was reported to have been slightly injured but was detained in the police cells in the town before being transferred elsewhere. Both airmen became PoW's.
Pilot - Oberlt Walter Maurer (Luftwaffe), Staffelkaptan of 16/KG6. Slightly injured.
Wireless Operator - Fw Rudolf Jansen (Luftwaffe). Uninjured.
Upon questioning the Luftwaffe crew revealed very little; the pilot was very experienced, he had served on the Russian front before going to Richlin where he flew an assortment of types of aircraft, both German and a captured Allied Spitfire, Hurricane and Wellington.
The aircraft crashed in this field just behind Sunnyside Farm, my thanks to Mr Ben Wedgewood for this photograph. Historians Ken Reast, Eric Barton and Albert Pritchard located small fragments at the crash site in 2003 to confirm the crash location. I thank various residents of the Robin Hoods Bay area for contacting me since creating this webpage and information they have been able to provide.