A night fighter and his prey. Uffz Heinz Vinke (left) of 5./NJG 2 with his radio operator Uffz Karl Schödel sits proudly on a wing of Whitley Z9280 of 77 Squadron. They shot the aircraft down at 22:58 on 27 February 1942, just north of Driesum (north-east of Leeuwarden). Pilot S/Ldr Leslie H.W. Parkin, co-pilot Sgt Douglas J. Sandin, radio operator st Sgt Wilfred Whittam and tail gunner Sgt Edmund S. Ayton were killed in the crash. Navigator Sgt R.C.S. Hancock managed to save himself with his parachute and ended up in captivity. It was Vinke's first victory. When, on 26 February 1944, during a search for a missing German aircraft off Dunkirk, Vinke was shot down by two 198 Sqn Typhoons and killed, he had scored a total of 52 night victories. Schödel had already been killed on the night of 17-18 August 1943, when Vinke's Bf 110 was shot down by a Serrate-equipped Beaufighter during an RAF attack on the V-weapons site at Peenemünde. Vinke spent twenty hours adrift in his dinghy. He was the only survivor from his crew.
