At Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey, like everywhere similar there have sadly been many deaths; on one occasion a B-25 Mitchell coming back from a raid had a hung up bomb – the skipper offered the crew the chance to bail out, but they opted to stay with him.
On touchdown it exploded; the aircraft and no doubt other remains had to be dumped into the nearby canal to quickly clear the runway.
A sadly decreasingly small few who were there at the time try to record what they can, but I know of no memorials other than photo’s taken of their surviving comrades with a B-25 in the 1980’s by my boss.
Another 2 complete crews were lost in a wartime collision ( there must have been many such accidents as bomber groups formated & fighters tried to escort, all over the South & East ) over Denne Hill near Horsham, West Sussex; pieces of metal are again still there, but no memorial I as a local know of, probably a brief mention in the local museum.
One should also not forget more recent losses – in my brief 15 years with Bae in mainly the 1980’s, we lost 2 Test Pilots ( Taylor Scott & Jim Hawkins who have small memorials ) and when at the West Freugh test range, 2 bomb disposal & 1 similar range boat skipper were killed…We never learned their names, just a “sorry for the delay” – they were fighting for their country too…
I have been to the mass graves in France for research - awful atmosphere, but I found Braye, Alderney even worse ( same could be said of Jersey's ' hospital tunnels' ) - the nazi's were building up the breakwater, and guess what happened to the slave labour who perished just as the concrete mix needed material ?
I met a surveyor's daughter whose Dad had been involved in finding out why voids were appearing after 50 years...
We don't plan to revisit in a hurry, but please do realise ' young ' idiots like me do appreciate the sacrifices made for our relatively peaceful time.
Last edited by Double Zero; 1st Jul 2010 at 13:17.