Sark
Note: This map only gives the location of the island of Sark within the Channel Islands.
SARK: Crash landing sites
NOTES: The only two mentions of fixed wing aircraft landing on SARK, both involved forced landings. The latest was in Oct 2004 when the Europa G-BWGH developed engine problems after departing from JERSEY. The previous incident occurred in 1942!
The 1942 incident for which I had no details, might well have been the Avro Lancaster that crash-landed there. In July 2016 Adrian Le Pelley very kindly sent me an account told to him by a friend who is familiar with the Channel Islands. It appears it was badly shot up by flak over Germany, all the charts were sucked out when some of the crew bailed out, but the pilot discovered he could still fly the 'Lanc'.
Quite how they managed to get completely disorientated is not clear, except that the compass which they seemed to believe was still servicable may well have been damaged. If so, this would certainly explain how they ended up over the Channel Islands.
It might also be wondered as to why the pilot chose to land on Sark when Guernsey and Jersey are so close and with aerodromes. It could of course be for any number of reasons, especially if fog or bad weather, low cloud etc, were obscuring the larger islands - a common enough situation in those parts. The 'Lanc' touched down in a small field reported to have had just 110 feet available, and broke up. These remains were left in situ for many years it seems.
Incredibly the remaining three crew members escaped without serious injury and were quickly arrested by German soldiers who held them overnight before they were shipped over by launch to Guernsey.
The story goes that the crew, seeing familiar shops such as Boots and Woolworths, together with German soldiers and masses of barbed wire around, had come to the conclusion that they were on the Isle of Wight which, remarkably, had been invaded whilst they were away over Germany. They obviously believed the myth, still going the rounds today, that Germans are an amazingly efficient race of people.
Having often worked in Germany and alongside Germans for around forty years, I have the greatest respect for their diligence, attention to detail, respect for quality, reliability and so on. But, have seen little evidence that they are much more efficient than the rest of industrialised Europe.
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