大象传媒

This story was gathered at the Bedfordshire County Show and submitted to the People鈥檚 war site by Gillian Ridley for Three Counties Action on behalf of Mr Keith Frank Coleman and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Six aircraft crashed within two miles of my house, there must have been thousands nationwide.
The first one to crash was one Sunday morning as the congregation were coming out of Dayrell Church, an Airspeed Oxford with engine trouble just missed the Church but ploughed through a hedge row and over a ditch and skidded to a halt in the middle of a fields, luckily the two crewmen were not hurt to much, and were taken to Dayrell House where they were given tea and sandwiches.
My father and another man had to don their Home Guard uniforms and guard the plane until the R.A.F. came.

Another day I was cycling along a nearby lane where I saw another Airspeed Oxford with it鈥檚 tail in the air and it鈥檚 nose in the hedge and it鈥檚 propellers broken, nobody was there so I expect it had only just happened.

A Wellington Bomber crashed at Sootfield Green and was burnt out. The R.A.F. cleaned the crash sites up, but us lads would go and see if we could find any odd bits like bullets etc.

Two Wellington Bombers collided over Wittlebury Park, one crashing in a nearby wood the other in the park. In both cases the aircraft caught alight, I remember seeing the charred parachute in the rear gunners seat and the mud covers machine gun and the belts of ammunition laying around.

The crash I remember most was when a Wellington Bomber was taking off at night from Silverstone airfield and crashed into a wood on our estate, bursting into flames and killing it鈥檚 crew, the noise of the exploding bullets woke me up.

Silverstone aerodrome was built on part of our estate, the part in Buckinghamshire, and my Father who was head Woodsman had to go with the man from the Ministry to value the trees that would have to be felled for it.
I went as well and remember the Morris Ten camouflaged car we rode in. It was quite an occasion to ride in a car in those days.

There was an old railway carriage painted white in a field at Leckhamstead that was used as a target for low-level raids a Mosquito Bomber crashed while attacking it and the Polish Pilot was taken to Buckingham Hospital.

All the school children from the surrounding areas would have the same sort of stories to tell.

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