Messerschmitt BF109E-1 Werke/Nr.5068 flown by Oberleutenant Paul Temme, Gruppe Adjutant of I/JG 2 Richtofen. Aircraft was brought down at 0710am on the 13th August 1940. He belly landed his aircraft on New Salts Farm just to the south of Shoreham Airfield in Sussex.
Records now show that it was claimed by Sgt Jack Percival Mills of 43 Squadron RAF based at Tangmere.
Temme was apparently left behind by the rest of his formation when he went to assist a struggling JU88 and suffered engine problems after being attacked by Spitfires, (a typical case of Spitfire snobbery) as Sergeant Mills was flying a Hurricane. Temme was not injured in the incident and became a POW. Up until that point he had been in operations during the Polish campaign, the Battle of France and Battle of Britain.
My personal connection to this story is that having flown at Shoreham for many years myself, I have been aware of the event and I could see that Temme’s conundrum at that point was either face the English Channel with an engine problem or put it down and becoming a POW.
An ever increasing number of German airmen at that time suffered from what was termed as ‘Kanalkrankheit’ (Channel Sickness) particularly those in single engine operations. Shoreham is less than 500yds from the coast line and he would have had to cross 60 to 70 nautical miles with a rough running engine over the uninviting and unforgiving English Channel to get to the French coast.
After interrogation by the British, Paul Temme was sent to a POW camp in Canada. At the end of hostilities he returned to Germany and studied economics in Bonn. Up until his retirement he worked for the Ford car company.
Temme’s aircraft was removed from the scene and put on display at Hackney in London to raise funds for the war effort.
Paul Temme was born on the 4th June 1916. So far I have not been able to find the date of his death.
Credits go to Melvin Brownless for his research, Pat Burgess and Nigel Parker. All information gathered here should be credited to them.
Also credit to… https://luftwaffelosses.com/
Sgt Jack Percival Mills.
Mills was awarded the DFC (gazetted 7th April 1944) as a Flight Lieutenant with 73 Squadron.
He was released from the RAF on 30th August 1947 as a Squadron Leader.
He worked for Morris Motors and then ran a petrol station at Kennington, Oxford, which he had built himself.
In 1963 he went to live in Australia.
He died on 24th January 2001.
Sgt Mills info and photo from: bbm.org.uk/airmen/MillsJP.htm
ONLYVFR 
Leave a comment