Tonight, 28th June 2010, we had Roger Day talk about "The East Woodhay Heinkel." Roger noted that his interest started when a find, 7 or 8 foot tall came into his possession. The find, which was part of a Heinkel aircraft, sparked his interest to find out how it came to be found in Fullers Lane, just west of Woolton Hill and the only one within a 25-mile radius. The aircraft that the part was from was a bomber and would have been targeting Avon mouth Docks, although it could have been another target.
The crew of the aircraft were ordered to bail out on the return journey and all landed around the Highclere Castle area although the aircraft itself came down in Fullers Lane. Immediately the East Woodhay Home Guard were dispatched to the scene in order to guard the site and stop members of the public taking parts as souvenirs. As brave as these men were, they were jumpy with this being one of the first instances they would have dealt with.
One instance saw one of the guard shoot at a light in a tree, which turned out to be a star! Despite the guard, items were taken from the crash site as was the case at many sites early on in the war.
The crew took longer to capture. The first two-captured fast, three took several days and the last member too 9 days to capture, which was the longest any member of the Luftwaffe had avoided capture for the entire war. Roger is the author of several books on this topic including:
- Ramsbury at War
- Savernake at War
- Tonight We Die As Men
See Roger's website for more information at www.ramsburyatwar.com.