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Ian Herbert was another remarkable World War Two pilot from Taranaki. Born in Inglewood in 1923, he was orphaned at the age of six, and was raised by relatives in Uruti.
He attended Mount Messenger School, worked on family farms, became a herd tester, volunteered for the Air force in 1941, then worked in the Kakaramea Dairy factory awaiting call up.
Ian gained his wings at Woodbourne air force base in Marlborough, and went on to become a Lancaster bomber pilot, who flew his crew of 7 on night raids between England and Germany.
F/L Herbert initially flew for 630 Squadron, then moved to 227 Sq., where he commanded Lancaster U “Uncle”.
On the night of December 4, 1944 Ian Herbert lifted his fully laden Lancaster bomber, the stalwart of British Bomber Command, off from RAF Balderton in Nottinghamshire. It was a Mark 1 Lancaster, serial number LM259 of 227 Squadron, on a night bombing mission deep into Germany.
Near the target – Heilbronn – the big bomber was attacked by a German Me110 nightfighter, and raked by canonfire which killed one crew member.
Despite two engines on fire, Herbert kept the crippled bomber steady enough for his crew to safely bail out into a dark enemy sky. He then exited the Lancaster himself.
After hiding in barns, fighting frostbite in the freezing cold, he evaded capture for three weeks, before being found by Polish farm workers. Soon after, he was captured by the Germans and became a prisoner of war.
Herbert was liberated from Stalag Luft 1 POW Camp, and returned to England in May 1945.
Some years after the war, a remarkable encounter: Ian Herbert met Peter Spoden, the German fighter pilot who shot him down, and the two became friends. Furthermore, their respective grandaughters met in Frankfurt 57 years after the two airmen encountered each other as enemies over Germany.
One of the great ironies of war was romance amidst the brutality of combat. Ian Herbert, the dashing young airman from New Zealand, met Ruth Bowman, the beautiful English nurse from Carlisle, Cumbria. “I knew he was the one in an instant” she recalls. They were married in March 1946.
In 1947, after a stint in India as a transport pilot on DC3s, the debonair Taranaki boy brought his bride back to New Zealand.
They raised their family at Tarurutangi, inland from Bell Block where the family farms to this day.
Ian Herbert died in July 2006. He and Ruth were together for 60 years. Ruth still lives on the farm, not far from here.
Airspresso is grateful to the Herbert family for the use of Ian’s dress uniform, flying helmet and flying history, and are privileged to display the personal items of a great local airman. Standish Ian Douglas Herbert, Flight Lieutenant RNZAF, WW2.
14 February 1923 - 24 July 2006
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