Hundreds of Luftwaffe aircrew either bailed out or survived forced landings during the Battle of Britain, it was a daily occurrence in the summer of 1940; there's a ten (so far) volume [Luftwaffe Crash Archive] (http://www.wingleader.co.uk/shop/luftwaffe-crash-archive-ten-volume-set/) series detailing the aircraft and their crew with [sample pages] (http://www.wingleader.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/lca3samplepages.pdf) that give a flavour of the frequency.

Aircrew, especially parachutists, could expect a hostile reception on the ground as the country was on alert against German invasion, the danger from airborne troops and Fifth Columnists becoming something of a mania from May 1940. Enemy aliens were interned, sympathisers such as Oswald Mosley were imprisoned, even downed RAF pilots were subjected to (at best) suspicion; [James Nicholson] (http://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/artefact-month/exhibition-on-james-brindley-eric-nicolson-vc), Fighter Command's only VC winner, was shot by the Home Guard after parachuting, badly burned, from his Hurricane. One incident with a Junkers 88 has been somewhat mythologised as the ['Battle' of Graveney Marsh] (http://spitfiresite.com/2010/10/battle-of-britain-1940-graveney-marsh.html) (in the account of the German crew they were attempting to destroy classified equipment with gunfire after being forced down, the nearby London Irish regiment investigating the crash believed they were being taken under fire), but in the vast majority of cases German aircrew were taken into custody with little incident.