The German Pilot Who Was Captured by an Old Lady - A True Story

[Music] coming up on a midnight raid over england a german bomber is hit hard by anti-aircraft fire the entire crew is forced to bail out in the pitch black over enemy territory in this video we will dive into the story of one of these german crewmen who after surviving on the run for over a week would finally end up being captured by none other than an unarmed and elderly british lady first a quick shout out to my patreon supporters if you want access to behind the scenes videos and bonus content please check out the patreon link in the description as hitler caught the allies off guard in france he streaked across the countryside and took the nation much faster than any of the allied leaders could have expected he drove them back to the coast creating the nightmare at dunkirk immediately after this hitler set his eyes upon england and the invasion that he had been planning for months as the battle of britain was being fought scores of planes tangled in the skies above every day it was extremely common to come across crashed aircraft outside of the cities throughout the countryside there were wrecks from both the royal air force and the luftwaffe scattered anywhere and everywhere across england it had also essentially become common sight to see downed pilots parachuting back to earth after they had bailed out of their damaged aircraft fortunately for the british their pilots were able to be recovered and put back into action while the german pilots who bailed out were captured and held as prisoners unable to return to the skies this would actually play a huge role in the outcome of the battle of britain since the raf who was desperate for pilots was able to keep their valuable servicemen while the german luffwaffle was constantly seeing their numbers of skilled pilots decrease but hitler and the germans would press on with their attack of britain nonetheless [Music] hitler starts the battle for britain as usual on women and children from many areas it's the same story military objectives missed bombs and destruction on homes and schools drums of bullets that now will never be used against us once again the swastika has been shot through and through but for everyone we destroyed there were others to carry on their deadly work this is the mark of the hun on britain after seeing heavy losses during many of the daylight raids in early 1940 german high command decided to change its strategy to nighttime bombing raids of major british cities this is the strategy that would see london bombed heavily leading to the second grade fire that ravaged much of the city one of the german airmen who took part in these raids was lieutenant joseph markle markle was one of the many crewmen serving on heinkel he-111 bombers this twin-engine plane was one of the most common ones used in the battle of britain on july 29th of 1940 he and his crew took off as part of a midnight raid on the city of bristol england it is likely that their intended target was the bristol aircraft company factory that was located there they took off late in the evening and were soon over the british countryside which was filled with spotlights and flack to fend off the german attackers as markle and his crew carried on everything was normal and they were over their target with the formation but as they got deeper and deeper into their mission the flack became thicker and some of the other aircraft in their flight took direct hits they powered their way through the allied defenses and then released their payloads over the city they dropped the bombs into the night and watched them light up the buildings below but then disaster struck and during the attack their he-111 was hit with anti-aircraft fire there was significant damage to multiple parts of the aircraft and it looked unlikely that they would make it home the entire crew of the bomber would be forced to bail out of the aircraft in the middle of the night as they leapt from their aircraft in the darkness it was incredibly hard to see where the other crewmen landed so they were separated and on their own almost immediately more often than not german pilots that had bailed out would go peacefully when located by british civilians as they expected the imminent invasion of england to happen in the coming days or weeks markle however was not one of those who subscribed to this line of thinking upon landing all of his fellow crew members were captured within 48 hours but markle opted to instead try and hide out on his own he survived in the wooded area for a few days on his own eating nothing but tree bark on one occasion he even climbed into a tree to hide from a hunter and his dog who luckily did not notice him as they passed by however after nearly a week he was hungry and tired and decided that he needed to find a new place to hide he made his way to the nearby town of newbury he found some crops in a field to eat and actually got quite comfortable even taking a stroll down the city streets but after eight days on the run he opted to finally turn himself in for better food and shelter on a rainy day he walked down the road into the town ready to surrender to the first british civilians that he could find along the path he first found a young couple on their bicycles who immediately turned away and darted in the other direction upon realizing that he was a german a little while later he then proceeded to wave down a car who raced away with fear leaving him in a thick cloud of dust he never expected it to be this difficult to surrender then finally the german was able to wave down a vehicle on the road driving towards him this was no normal car however but a bentley limousine in the back seat was an elderly british woman clearly from an upper class family by the way she was dressed her name was lady buckland she rolled down the window and motioned for the young airman to join her in the car upon entering she did not flinch at all but accepted the german's pistol in 16 rounds of ammunition she then directed her chauffeur to drive them to the nearest police station here markle would be documented and handed over to the british authorities showing no fear and even some hospitality this elderly british woman was credited with capturing the german who had been a fugitive for eight days she then continued on with her day like any other this would end up being the longest that any luffaffa pilot would last on the run in england because of this strange set of circumstances lady buckland would be one of the few unarmed civilians in britain to capture an armed soldier during the war and without a doubt she was the oldest lady to do so and the only one to do it from a limousine i hope you enjoyed this historical recreation please make sure to click subscribe and comment if you have any ideas for future videos if you want to support my content and get awesome bonus videos please check out the patreon link in the description of this video thanks for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 45,204

Rating: 4.9075146 out of 5

Keywords: IL-2 Sturmovik, IL2, IL2 Crashes, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, IL-2 Great Battles, IL2 Game, IL-2 Crashes, IL-2 Highlights, IL-2 Flight Sim, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Compilation, Realistic, Gameplay, Dogfighting Game, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, He-111, German Bomber, Pilot Captured by Old Lady, Battle of Britain, Dogfights Show, World War ii, WWII, Air Combat, Mark Felton, History Channel, An Unlikely Captor, Heroes of the Skies

Id: kCBVHD7xCUk

Length: 8min 7sec (487 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021