´óÏó´«Ã½

One of the first plane crashes I can remember visiting was one of the Marauders. Take off always seemed a challenge for them an we often watched from St Johns Church as they climbed with difficulty over Severalls Hall. One crashed by the edge of the base as a result of engine failure. The name of the plane was ‘Two way ticket’ — not so appropriate in this case! I was able to climb into the crashed airplane that reeked of hydraulic fluid.

Another marauder, loaded with bombs, crashed near Colchester Station (where there is now a large Asda supermarket) prompting a change of take off direction to avoid rising taking out the railway in case of a crash.

I can remember one occasion when a P51D crashed in the area that is now the Ardleigh reservoir. Gleeful at the chance of getting more wreckage for my salvage collection. I didn’t really understand why I was cuffed round the ear by mother — she was thinking more of the pilot than the wreckage.

At various times we visited belly landing sites all the obstructions in the fields had been removed which were designed to stop invasion gliders

At one point an RAF Lancaster crashed and burst into flame just by the radio station. The heat was so intense that it melted the armoured glass in the trucks.

Near the end of the war the 56 FG captured a Heinkel HE111 German bomber — the classic bomber of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. It was dispersed in an area behind Dove House on the edge of Langham and for us boys the challenge was to get on board to see what it was like. As you can probably guess we did! The Heinkel is now at the RAF Museum at Hendon.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.