The day the war came to my father’s village in daylight (it collected a startling number of bombs by night for a fly dirt on the map in dark countryside).
Debden was bombed, and two of the crew of a Dornier baled out over Great Sampford, to be captured at shotgun point by a distant cousin of my father. Meanwhile in nearby Finchingfield an unfortunate German airman escaped his aircraft, only to break his leg colliding with, of all things, the village war memorial! One bomber crashed at Wimbish and another near Saffron Walden, whilst a Hurricane pilot was killed when his aircraft crashed at nearby Little Bardfield.
Maybe, just maybe, the RAF Museum recovered one of the raiders from the Goodwin Sands….*
We will remember them.
Adrian
*Huge caveats, but until or unless they prove otherwise, I’d like to believe.
By: adrian_gray - 27th August 2015 at 12:34
Agreed, trumper, I’ve never seen it before. I believe that the German casualties of the day, at least those who died locally, are still in Saffron Walden Cemetery rather than at Cannock Chase, while Edwards is buried, I think, at Brookwood.
I was hoping to find the account of the raid in one of Hector Bolitho’s books, but it seems to be in Essex. I guess it’d still be in copyright as well, so perhaps a good thing?
Adrian
By: trumper - 27th August 2015 at 12:28
Thank you for posting that,i used to live in Saffron Walden so that is a fascinating insight.How poignant is seeing that glove,hard to think that it was being worn in combat 75 years ago.
By: adrian_gray - 27th August 2015 at 10:34
Spotted on Facebook overnight – apologies if you can’t read it, it’s a personal post so I cannot link to a site:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207394687768723&set=gm.10152924821832531&type=1&theater
Adrian
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August 26, 2015 at 9:16 am