JEM60
20th Jun 2011, 19:17
Reading a friend's EAA Magazine [Experimental Aircraft Association], I encountered a remarkable tale that I hadn't heard before.
It seems that Mr. Hoover [for whom I have the greatest admiration] and another POW escaped and stumbled across a German Airfield with only a handful of guards to look after two dozen FW.190s. Using a small pistol they'd acquired from a French forced labourer, Jerry Ennis eventually 'persuaded' a mechanic to prepare one of the fighters for flight. Hoover taxied and took off, having spent more than a year as a POW. He was just 23.
Apparently, another prisoner at Stalag Luft 1 had flown FW190s in England before being shot down [I thought it was only Farnborough that flew these, and that was post VE day?] so news to me that an American had already flown them. Apparently, he drew pictures in the sand of the controls and cockpit checks in the prison compound. Bob took off, flew along the Dutch coastline, and put it down in a field in Allied territory, intentionally ground-looping the aircraft to avoid a ditch, and wiped out the undercarriage.
I find this account rather strange, as I have never heard it before at all, despite reading a lot about the man. Has anybody come across this account before, or are the facts somewhat mixed up after all this time?
It seems that Mr. Hoover [for whom I have the greatest admiration] and another POW escaped and stumbled across a German Airfield with only a handful of guards to look after two dozen FW.190s. Using a small pistol they'd acquired from a French forced labourer, Jerry Ennis eventually 'persuaded' a mechanic to prepare one of the fighters for flight. Hoover taxied and took off, having spent more than a year as a POW. He was just 23.
Apparently, another prisoner at Stalag Luft 1 had flown FW190s in England before being shot down [I thought it was only Farnborough that flew these, and that was post VE day?] so news to me that an American had already flown them. Apparently, he drew pictures in the sand of the controls and cockpit checks in the prison compound. Bob took off, flew along the Dutch coastline, and put it down in a field in Allied territory, intentionally ground-looping the aircraft to avoid a ditch, and wiped out the undercarriage.
I find this account rather strange, as I have never heard it before at all, despite reading a lot about the man. Has anybody come across this account before, or are the facts somewhat mixed up after all this time?