On the 30th of March 1941 this aircraft flying in over the North-East coast with the aim of carrying out an
armed photo-reconnaissance sortie to Manchester. Two Spitfires of 41 Sqdn of RAF Catterick were scrambled just
before three in the afternoon on patrol duties but as the Ju88 approached they were there to intercept it.
Piloting the two Spitfire were F/Lt Tony Lovell DFC and P/O Archie Winskill. Without wishing to quote or copy
Mr Bill Normans book on Luftwaffe Losses over Yorkshire, the Ju88 was shot down by the Spitfires at 15.50 hrs.
Just before it crashed into the Eston Hills on Barnaby Moor the ventral gunner baled out of the aircraft,
sadly his parachute failed to deploy correctly and he Roman-candled into trees on Flatts Lane nearby killing
him instantly. The three other airmen did not have time to escape their stricken aircraft and the went down with it.
The bodies of these three other crew were never found and strictly speaking the area of the crash should be a War grave.
At the time of the crash the area was
moorland although now it would appear to have been reclaimed and is now farmland.
The four Airmen were:
Pilot - Lt Wolfgang Schlott - killed, body never found.
Observer - Lt Otto Meingold - killed, body never found.
Wireless Operator - Fw Willi Schmigale - killed, body never found.
Ventral Gunner - Uffz Hans Steigerwald - killed, aged 27, buried Thornaby on Tees Cemetery.
I visited site with Howard Newbould in October 2006, we searched the edge of the field and an area of moorland and found a
handful of peices of the aircraft.
A small peice of the aircraft picked up at the site many years ago by a local.
Mr Ken Ward and friends are known to have excavated this crash site in the early 1980's, it is thought that they recovered at
least one of the engines from the site and possibly some of the cockpit items which are now in Mr Ward's collection.
F/Lt Tony Lovell DFC was to be killed later in the War, he became a well decorated pilot.