31st August 1940 We Remember

Truly fragments of history. Thanks Whalebone.
mmitch.

Sorry to be “late on parade” with todays list, we had a power cut this morning.

Attached are some pictures of a little piece of history that fell into the sea 64 years ago today.

I found ‘the plane’ (as it became known in our family) over 30 years ago whilst walking the water line on a very low tide, the spot only becomes uncovered for perhaps 10 minutes either side of the low water mark following the very high “spring” tides. i.e. perhaps only six low tides per year.

What you see is all that was visible above the surface and when discovered was firmly attached to a much bigger lump beneath the surface, ( after much digging and bailing one early morning with my younger brother I could slide my shovel all the way down into the slurry at an angle or 30 degrees still touching metal until my armpit was underwater, perhaps 7 feet ).
A few items were discovered in our riddle, a couple of thick pieces of glass, a short section of pipework, the chromium plated shaft on its bracket but nothing else that could be identified as plane related.
The cartridge cases were just on the surface in the general area and appear to be .5 inch ( one is marked DW 42, I’ll do some close ups if anyone is interested ) and therefore are probably not related to the other wreakage.

Unhappy with our ‘haul’ after several hard occasions of digging spread over 18 months and realising that we were not going to come home with a big prize my brother and I gave up on the idea.

Ten years on in 1982 I went out on another scouring trip and revisited the site. It was obvious that someone had had a good ‘spud’ around the area.
The metalwork was still visible and firmly attached but now sat in a pool of water about eight feet in diameter
Things were very soft underfoot and it was apparent that quite an effort had been put in within perhaps the previous 18 months or so, much more than two teenage lads with shovels and a bucket could achieve in the ‘tide time’ available. Whoever they were they had also given up.

In 1994 I took 9 yr old eldest daughter out on the mud flats ( not stupidty before you cry out, I grew up round these parts ) and all of a sudden she cried out “Daddy, is this your plane ?”
I turned to see her holding up the alu section in the photo, in the interveaning years it had corroded off from the main piece and she just lifted it way. I had a good poke around and the bigger lump is still down there.
Time, tide and a small girl had finally achieved what I (and others) could not, and I took it home on the grounds that it was a hazard to shipping 😉

The indentity of the piece remained a mystery until Christmas that same year when I got a copy of Geoff Rayner’s excellent book “One Hurricane, One Raid” in my stocking.
For those who have not read it I recommend it to you.
The first part of the book describes his discovery and then recovery of Hurricane P3175. Thanks largely to his efforts the aircraft in which P/O Gerard Maffett lost his life this very day 64 years ago now resides in the BOB Hall at Hendon Museum.
The second half is a very detailed account of the action of that one day, one of the most ferocious days of combat during the Battle of Britain.

Chapter 15 revealed the information and I now believe the section to be part of Me110 3U+HS of III/ZG26 crewed by Oberleutnant Eric von Berger and Unteroffizer Hans Becker who were brought down in combat with sections of 257 Sqn’s Hurricanes.
P/O Alan Henderson had to take to the silk during this engagement and his Hurricane which came down about a mile away on the banks of the River Colne was if I remember rightly “investigated” in the early 70’s.

There is some confusion as to who brought down von Bergen and Becker but Henderson was in no doubt as to who had ‘done for him’ as you can read from the following.

“The soldiers watched a motor boat head out from Brightlingsea in the direction of the parachutes that were about to come down into the sea.
Oberleutnant von Bergen. although sour at his bad luck, raised a smile when the occupant of a small boat approaching him pointed a rifle in his direction and called “hands up”.
He was hauled aboard and the tranferred to another boat which had already picked up Unteroffizer Becker. The boat then went in search of the third parachute.

Pilot Officer Henderson had dislocated his shoulder during his escape from his blazing aircraft and, being burned and the hands and face was in some discomfort.
O/B von Berger later recalled that when they found P/O Henderson his wounds prevented him getting into the boat by himself.
As the boat only had a crew of two Berger and Becker tried to help the RAF pilot aboard. He declined the offer and waited until a second boat arrived before he was taken ashore.”

“While P/O Henderson was being brought ashore reports were coming in or another Hurricane which had come down at Walton on the Naze, eleven miles to the east. P/O Gerard Maffett had been found dead beside his aircraft”

(C) Geoff Rayner, p144-145 One Hurricane One Raid. Airlife 1990