大象传媒

This story is submitted by Hitchin Museum on behalf of Mr Pat Thorne and with his permission.

I left school aged 16 in 1942 and worked on Little Offley Farm (near Hitchin, Herts) until 1949.

In early 1943 my father was persuaded to allow me(the youngest member of the Royal Observer Corps) to join the local company, Able 1 Offley Post. Our role was to be trained in both sound and visual identification of aircraft, both "friendly and hostile" to plot and track them, and of course this included V1s and V2s.

On the morning of 18th July 1944 I had been on duty from 22:00hrs to 06:00hrs. Having reported a four-engined Lancaster in difficulty at 06.00 hrs, I had just reached home at 07:00hrs when there was a large explosion and a glow in the sky one mile south of our farm. My father said "Grab a bit of breakfast boy and go and see if you can help"!

The scene was utter devastation. The plane had flown from over Hitchin going West approaching Offley, which stood 600 feet higher than Hitchin, with faulty instruments it was proved, including the altimeter that had been "shot up". It clipped the top out of beech trees at Eagles Nest, plunged lower into a meadow and taking a 500 gallon water tank in the meadow across the lane and into the farm house. The nose demolished the entire house, the wings took the roof off farm buildings, the starboard wing clipping the roof of the cow shed where the two Handley sons and their father were doing the early morning milking. There were no casualties in the cow shed, but the entire crew was killed and the farm house totally demolished. Fuel from the tanks incinerated both plane and the wife, Mrs. Handley and two daughters, one of whom had come home on leave the evening before from serving in the ATS. Fire crews and every available person - we all worked all day to retrieve what was left in this tragic situation.

I shall never forget the smell of burning flesh and the exploding ammunition. Fortunately the plane had dropped its bombs in the call of duty, otherwise it could have been much worse.

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