Danish WW2 Pilots

Qm Erling Qvistgaard Hansen

(1923 - 1994)

Erling Qvistgaard Hansen flew anti-submarine patrols in 330 (Norwegian) Squadron during the Second World War.

Erling Qvistgaard Hansen is born on 24 March 1923.

Volunteers for the Royal Norwegian Air Forces

He enlists in the Royal Norwegian Air Forces in Canada in 1941. From July to September, 1941, he in initial training at Flyvevåbenes Treningsleir (F.T.L.) in Little Norway. He is then trained at an Air Gunner School in Canada; at present, I have no information on which.

the end of training, he is attached to “B”-flight of 330 (Norwegian) Squadron as Air Gunner. The squadron is flying PBY 5A Catalinas at this point and is stationed at Akureyri, Iceland. The first operational flight that I have been able to trace at this point is on 7 September 1942 in a Catalina III "Z-330".

He later becomes flight engineer on Sunderlands flying from Sullom Voe on the Shetland Islands. In May 1945, Erling Qvistgaard Hansen participates in the pursuit of German submarines trying to escape through Danish waters. On 6 May 1945, he is onboard Sunderland V (EJ138 ‘Y’) patrolling among other places in the air over Aalborg, Denmark. An operational flight is recorded in the No. 330 Squadron Operational Record Book as late as 17-19 May 1945 from Sullom Voe to Trondheim in Norway and back.

After the liberation

At the end of the war, Erling Qvistgaard Hansen joins the Danish Naval Air Service, 1. Luftflotillie (1st Air Flotilla) (Ancker, 2001; AIR 27/1721; AIR 27/1721).