Guest post by local historian Philip Grant
A WW2 German Dornier DO-217-M bomber aircraft. (Image from the internet)
In a guest post last February (“The Curious Incident of a Dornier in the
Night”), I noted that the Wembley
newspaper reports had only mentioned two of the four German airmen who
parachuted out of the plane being captured. I wrote: ‘I don’t know where the
other two landed …. If you have any information on this, please add a comment
below!’
In May, Martin received an email from Sarah, and after I contacted her,
and we exchanged some emails, I am pleased to report that her grandad, Leonard William
Pursey, captured a third member of the Dornier bomber’s crew that night (23
February 1944) on ‘the last road on the Carlyon Road estate in Alperton’.
Leonard Pursey and his wife Lilian on their wedding day in the 1930s.
Leonard would have been in his mid-forties at the time. He had joined
the army in the First World War, lying about his age, and fought for more than
two years before it was found out that he was still only 17 (he enlisted again
as soon as he was 18). By 1944, he was living at 68 Carlyon Road and working
just across the North Circular at the Waterlow & Sons printing works in
Park Royal (built in 1936 to print the “Radio Times”).
Waterlow’s “Radio Times” printing works in Park Royal. (Image from the internet)
Like around 25,000 other adult civilians in Wembley, Leonard would have
to spend around twelve hours a week (usually in three 4-hour shifts at night)
on fire watching duties in his local area. It may well have been while he was
patrolling on the Carlyon Road estate as a Fire Guard, at around 10pm, that he
saw a parachute coming down, and sprang into action (his passion was boxing!).
His family don’t have much detail about his capture of the German airman, but
they do know that he relieved him of an armband, which he kept as a “souvenir”.
Sarah still has that armband, and has sent me a photograph of it.
A Luftwaffe bomber aircrew flying suit, and Leonard’s “souvenir”
armband.
Leonard Pursey may have done his captive a favour by taking the armband,
as it was not part of his Luftwaffe uniform. It was worn by members of the
German National Socialist (Nazi) Party, and the airman might have got much rougher
treatment, from the police or armed forces he was handed over to, if he was
still wearing it!
According to the “Wembley News” report in my February article, the
‘docile’ young German airman captured in Douglas Avenue, Alperton, wearing a
‘blue battledress’, was treated quite sympathetically. He probably looked
similar to our own RAF airmen – but if he had been displaying the hated
swastika emblem on his arm, it could well have been different.
Street map of Wembley Central and Alperton, with locations showing
roughly where the three German airmen who parachuted from the Dornier bomber were captured.
You can see from the map above that the damaged Dornier aircraft was
already flying in a north north-easterly direction when the airmen bailed out. I
have managed to find a bit more information about this German bombing raid from
the Operation Steinbock website. The website states: ‘Amongst the losses this night was Do 217M-1, code
U5+DK, Werknummer 56051. At 10,000 ft over London the aircraft was hit
by predictive fire from the ground. Pilot Oberfeldwebel Hermann Stemann
ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft over Wembley and they were promptly
captured.’
The plane had flown from an airfield near Brussels, in Belgium, part of 185
German aircraft, mainly from Luftwaffe bases in France, which took part in the
23 February 1944 raid on London. The Isle of Dogs area was the main target, not
Alperton, but what would Leonard Pursey’s reaction have been if he had known
that the German Air Force command in Berlin had an aerial photograph
(discovered after the war) of the building where he worked, as a target for
another attack? They had cut it out from a 1936 British building magazine!
Aerial photograph of the Waterlow & Sons printing works at Park
Royal, found in Berlin.
We still have one more airman from this Dornier bomber to find! If you
have any information on where he was captured, please add a comment below.
Philip Grant.
