WW2 crash – Thatcham, Berks – FW190 or ME109

There is still a fair bit of marshy land around Lower Way…enough to hide a small crashed
WW2 fighter at least!

Hi there

Some time ago I was told that during WW2, either a FW190 or Me109 crashed into marshland near Lower Way, Thatcham, BERKS and that the bulk of the aircraft was still down there as it was almost impossible to remove at the time (and probably now too).

This story came up again recently on FB and I wondered if anyone on here had the resources to check if there is any truth in the story?

Many thanks
Nick

Lower way is less than a mile north as the crow flies & 3 miles by road from Greenham Common
A lot of the land near the road has had gravel extracted over the years, so wouldn’t be marsh land ?

I haven’t time to Google combat range of either type right now

Moggy

The FW190D had a maximum range of about 500 statute miles (430 nm), so in loiter mode could have made it there easily. However, who would want to loiter when were RAF and USAAF fighters around looking for easy meat.

Tangmere knows best, so whilst ‘possibly’ a Luftwaffe single-seater, probably not.

Moggy

Could it have been a stray V1?

Hmmm… that is interesting. Plenty of airfields in this area – mostly C-47 bases, but the person that told me was sure it was German single seat fighter.
Of course stories develop and change over the years, so it could just be hearsay.

Thanks for looking.

If an incident of this nature occurred, I think it must have been an Allied aircraft.

No record I can see/find of anything remotely Germanic that might fit at first glance.

Direct route is 110-120 nm, whether the aircraft departs from Cherbourg Maupertus or Calais Marck.

I haven’t time to Google combat range of either type right now

Moggy

I doubt it had the range there and back but maybe of got lost?

Did either of those aircraft have the range to get from France to Thatcham and back again? Quite a distance with not much in the way of strategic targets there for them?

FB