Mid air collision

On January 6, 1940, 1st Ltn.Vl. O. Thate takes off in a Fokker D.XXI on the 234th in the afternoon from Soesterberg in a westerly direction.

Shortly after 12.00 hrs Fokker G.1 306 takes off from Bergen, flown by 2nd Ltn.Vl. Antonie Van Ulsen and tail gunner Sgt.Wnr. Pieter Lok. At around 12.00 hrs at an altitude of 4,000 metres both are flying near Vianen in very bad weather and are looking for a strange (read: German) aircraft.



Pilot Van Ulsen heads towards Weesp.

He descends to 2,500 meters and approaches within 400 meters, continuing to track the strange craft.

Only when we get closer does the intruder appear to have disappeared and Thate's D.XXI is hot on his heels.....

The G.1 fighter cruiser and the D.XXI fighter plane actually make solid contact with each other.

The rudder of the right tailplane is completely gone and the right tail boom is damaged.

Van Ulsen climbs again to 3,000 meters and lowers his wheels.

In this way he tries out what the G.1 can still do.

At 1300 metres Sgt Lok receives the signal to open the tail turret and make a parachute landing.

He reaches the ground unharmed.

The top cover of the cockpit, in which Van Ulsen is still seated, appears to be blocked and initially cannot be opened.

He then chooses to turn off the engines and initiates a dive.

After much effort, he manages to get out of the cockpit and uses his parachute, reaching the ground alive.

The G.1 crashes 500 meters west of De Rijp in North Holland and can be considered lost.

Thate flies his D.XXI back to Soesterberg and makes an emergency landing due to a twisted wheel leg, which he survives.

It is now half past one.

Both pilots will play two quite different roles in May 1940.