The Esso Station

All of the events for this special weekend seemed to start at the Esso Station, in the centre of town, a source of fuel, food, and other supplies for both boats and cars, a place to park and socialize, and a meeting point for residents and visitors alike.

From the Esso station, we headed south-east, on a new road, to Haugland and the crash-site. A slight right turn off the highway, around to the left, over the bridge and up the hill to the right, and slightly down into the valley to the parking places below the last landing place of NB811.

For the 75th Anniversary, Gaute Dyrdal and Mats Hjelle of Os Sodelag (Os Historical Society) had prepared a presentation covering a brief history of 407 squadron, the "Last Mission of NB811", its path to a crash landing in Haugland, and the routes taken by the crew and the helpers on their way to safety, first at Strøno, then at Botnahytta, and finally out to the islands, and over the sea to the Shetlands.

Some of this was presented by Gaute at the crash site on Friday morning; the full presentation was given at the dinner at Oseana on Saturday night. That complete presentation can be found here. The page you are now on contains only Gaute's reconstruction of the likely flight path of the plane prior to the crash landing. Following this initial presentation, we took a short walk to the top of the hill to the "Askvik" house, on the land known as Baggane in Haugland, where Gaute's presentation continued.

On the way to the the crash site, some of us were asked by the local media for our thoughts on the events that we were remembering.

At the crash site, Gaute continued his explanation of the plane's approach and then explained the route that the crew had taken following the crash. One factor that may have influenced the route taken by the plane was the dead starboard engine, which would have made it more difficult to turn the plane to the left. The possible routes, and the final seconds of the crash landing, as shown on Gaute's maps. Click on the "Last Mission" image to see the maps.

Gaute Dyrdal explained the route of the aircraft from its approach to the Norwegian coast to it location on the ground in front of us. He told of rough landing, the contact with the trees, the planting of the left wing into the ground in an attempt to slow the aircraft, and the final slide of the aircraft, almost sideways and up-hill, to its final resting site.

He told of the scramble from the aircraft and the meeting with the local school-master, Magnus Askvik, who lived near the house that was almost the final resting place of the aircraft, but could not really relate the feelings that Mr. Askvik might have had if he had actually seen, and not just heard, the Wellington bouncing past his window that Tuesday morning.

Gaute told how the crew were directed by Magnus Askvik, perhaps only by subtle hand signals, to head towards the sea, away from the German posts to the west, toward Bjørnen where Magnus knew they might find some English speakers, and perhaps get some help from the Milorg.

Following Gaute’s talk, and before our own walk to the sea, we gathered on the landing field for a group photo.