Heinkel Remains In Somerset Garden

Hi.
You may be interested to learn that my mother, who is now 85, vividly remembers seeing the plane come down.

She was in the habbit of staying at her Grandmothers house, who was ill, at the time who lived at Hill Cottage, Downend Rd, Puriton. If you search for this address in Google Earth you will find the cottage which is still there today.

According to Mum the plane came over the back garden of the cottage belching smoke and flame at no more than 20 feet. So terrifying was this close encounter that the memory has stayed with her and haunted her nightmares.

Two points may be of interest. Firstly, she is absolutely certain that it was pitch dark at the time which is contrary to the crash time given above. And secondly she remembers that the cockpit was on fire.

With regard to the timing of the crash she say’s:
1) Her farther sent her to spend the night at her Grandmothers each day and she would not have been there much before 8pm.
2) The local paper (as reproduced) gave as an eyewitness a “Miss Dutton” who was “sitting in a car”. Now cars were rare in this rural area and petrol rarer. Farmers and Officers being the exeption. Mum knew every one but cannot recall a Miss Dutton and anyway, why was she sitting in a car?. Her explanation is simple enough. Miss Dutton was siting in a car with her boyfried after a night out!! A common practice apparently. And “Miss Dutton” would have given a false name to the paper!
Regards
John Armstrong
Torquay

I’ve got my own copy now Hugh, read your chapter twice in preparation for a Sunday appearance. Some bits should make it to the Valleys, to!

According to the BBC news website this morning you’re all wrong, it was a Heinkel fighter!!!!

7.55a.m.Local TV Points West called it a HECALL, that was corrected by the 8.25 update.

Heinkel remauns in Somerset garden

A detailed account of the action that resulted in the crash of Heinkel He.111P
(1G+OT) of 9/KG27 at Puriton forms a crucial part of Chapter 8 of my recent book ‘Achtung Spitfire,Luftwaffe over England,Eagle Day 14 August 1940’. Based on first hand accounts from Luftwaffe and RAF combatants, and local eye witnesses, it fully describes the action fought over the Welsh Valleys and the Bristol Channel resulting in the abandonment of the Heinkel just after it had crossed the coast. There are photos of most of the German airmen but for some reason the publishers didn’t include them all. It was part of a Kette that was wiped out by flight of fighters led by Stanford Tuck. I should have been on the dig but I was on holiday in Jersey and Gaterh and Ian started without me!

Hugh Trivett
Wales

The Luftwaffe needed something to deal with the potent Hampden interceptor.

According to the BBC news website this morning you’re all wrong, it was a Heinkel fighter!!!!

This must have been a tricky dig. I visited the ste about ten years ago as i worked about1/2 a mile away. As I remember it it spanned several small enclosed gardens behind bungalows. I never pursued it as the house owner said they had only found a few small fragments, I certainly did not know it was a Stanford Tuck kill. Well done.

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Exciting-wreckage-wartime-Heinkel-unearthed/story-13004221-detail/story.html

I think there are ten Heinkels which haven’t been dug, rather than ten Heinkels crashed. The Luftwaffe lost five over here that day. You can always trust a reporter.

Messerschmitts 🙂

Is it going to be televised? If so I want to if “Davina McCall” is going to be there?

If they find the side-arm of the pilot in the wreckage, they should call in Charlie Dimmock to make a Walther feature in the Garden out of it….

Crew

Ltn. Otto Uhland (F) POW

Uffz. Josef Krenn (Bm) POW

Obgefr. Hans Ramsetter (B) POW

Gefr. Gerhard Rother (Bs) POW

Uffz. Edo Flick (Bf) POW injured

Thanks Inkworm, I have been on 12hr night shifts so missed it. Hope details of the dig are made known on here.