My mother and grandfather watched this happen. She said she’d never seen him move as fast as he did, jumped the garden fence and run up to the crash site (out the back of Herne School), but couldn’t get near, as the wreckage was burning, and the ammunition was exploding everywhere. The pilot bailed out, but the wing cut through the top of the parachute and he was killed on impact. Grandad was a special constable, and was the one who rang Manston to tell them where to collect the aircraft remains, apparently the Boy Scouts were the ones who guarded the wreckage, and when the RAF turned up to take it away (with a Queen Mary trailer) they were somewhat annoyed to find they couldn’t get the trailer anywhere near it, and would have carry everything back to the road, so they said to grandad that if he wanted anything, to take it, as they wouldn’t have to bother with it then.
There was a 3’ x 4’ chunk of fuselage in his shed for years - I think my uncle gave it to a Museum where the pilot came from in the end.
Lance
