Here's a moving story from that fateful raid. A construction manager at the Aalborg airfield, Karl Bruns, wrote about their first contact with the British POWs after their Bf 109s had shot them down on the 13th. "Are you married?", a German asked one of the RAF airmen...1/5 https://twitter.com/thehistoryguy/status/1294006245658066947

'“No,” he replied, “but I was meant to be getting married tomorrow...it will now be postponed by four weeks.”

"Why four weeks?"

"Because the war will be over by that time and we will have won," was his astonishing answer. We laughed loudly, which astonished him again.' 2/5

'Another was asked where his uniform jacket was. He replied that he was having it cleaned because he had intended to go to a dance with his girl tonight. The boys had become quite uninhibited with their demeanour due to the whiskey.' 3/5

'Some of them [the RAF airmen] stood outside the headquarters next to their victors. They smoked our "Camel" cigarettes and looked at our machines with professional interest, which demonstratively flew over us at a low height in staggered stages.' 4/5

'German and English airmen stood amicably together, like sportsmen after the fight. And one of them expressed his view in a similar way when he said: “Our flying is a sport even in war, only the stakes are much higher than in peaceful combat. Life is the price."' 5/5

This is taken from 'Briten, Bomben, Bunker' ('Brits, Bombs, Bunker'), a section from a wartime account by Bruns who wanted to make his Rechenschaftsbericht ('Statement of Accounts') at the airfield more interesting. It was 'never intended for the eyes of strangers'!

Bruns has often been incorrectly referred to as a 'Gauleiter' instead of a 'Bauleiter' (construction manager). In April 1940, his team of an architect, electrician & administrative clerk headed to Aalborg - which they had never heard of - to expand the Luftwaffe's airfield there.