Luftwaffe pilot flies in to say sorry to city he once bombed... and crashes in a field

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Willi Schludecker, 88 - a survivor of nine wartime air crashes - was a passenger in a four-man Mooney M20T when the engine failed soon after take-off at Marshfield in Wiltshire.

Experienced pilot Richard Flohr-Swann was forced to make an emergency landing.

Luftwaffe pilot Willi Schludecker in uniform, left, and as he is today

Mr Schludecker, who carried out three raids on Bath in his Dornier 217E-4 in 1942, returned to the city in April to publicly apologise for his actions.

He was a decorated Luftwaffe pilot who carried out 120 bombing raids over Britain.

The average survival time for a German bomber was just seven missions.

The aircraft after the crash

In his apology, Mr Schludecker said sorry for the 'dreadful harm' he had done.

During his visit he had struck up a friendship with Chris Kilminster, who organised the reconciliation speech, and arrived in England again last week.

'The flight was a thank you to me for organising the event,' said Mr Kilminster, 61.

It was his maiden flight, he said, adding: 'It was a potentially life-threatening incident, but Willi was absolutely relaxed. He just hugged me afterwards.

'We went from 120mph to nothing in a few seconds. The pilot saved our lives, because he guided us past the trees.'

The fourth person in the plane was Adam Koronda, a film-maker who is making a documentary about Mr Schludecker, who twice received the Iron Cross.