Imber
 

Imber Friendly Fire Killing

A little known friendly fire incident took place on the 13 April 1942 at Imber during World War II. A RAF Hawker Hurricane taking part in a firepower demonstration in training for one to be attended by Winston Churchill accidentally opened fire on a crowd of spectators, killing 25 and wounding 71. Pilot error and bad weather were blamed for the incident, the pilot himself was shot down over France just a few months later.

Anybody have any more details?

Search 'After the Battle' magazine back issues; they did a comprehensive article entitled 'Incident at Imber' about 25 years ago.

Imber Survivor
 

One of our local 'Postmasters'* in Croydon had been at Imber on the incident day. He said it was very hazy and indeed was surprised the event took place.
He first realised that something was amiss when one of the aircraft actually appeared to come directly toward the assembled observers and the wings started 'twinkling'; his words. All around him army officers started falling but he was lucky.
The aircraft was a Hurricane 11B which had 12 .303 browning guns that would have had a devastating effect on an assembly. After the Battle magazine covered the incident in great detail, and visibility, poor ground control, and lack of detailed pilot briefing were held to be responsible.
He* lived near my gliding base at Kenley, and only related the incident to me when I happened to visit his house, and realised I had an interest in flying.

Used to use Imber for IOT leadership Camps in the 80s. Wish I had known about this, would have been a pause for thought and memory. Would hve brought the studes up a bit short too, no doubt.

It wasn't actually in the village but they called it 'Imber' as this was the closest geographical reference point.
The AtB article had one or two maps showing the location and the layout of the demonstration area.

Thanks to all that have replied.