My Personal Perspective  — Copyright Terry Walls 2001

I have been in the painful process of writing a family history/autobiography for the past ten years. It has been a long drawn out exercise as the more I research the less I seem to know. Despite this I am a "long way down the track" but now need to devote more time to the actual writing.

Although I keep putting off my monumental final effort, I have made a commitment to write an article for Valerie Martin (of Findon Village fame) because she has helped me secure an elusive book I needed to complete my analysis of the Second World War and its impact on my family. I am also more than happy to make a contribution to her site because it makes me feel so close to the physical places of my own family’s history.

Just to get this into some sort of perspective, I come from a family that on the Walls side is located in Worthing, Patching, Tarring, and I now suspect Findon (my great grandfather was an ostler at the original Black Horse Inn). My mother (Scott) comes from Hove. I was born in Sussex (Portslade-by-Sea) in September 1945 but left with my parents to migrate to Australia in 1951/52. Yes we spent Christmas at sea.

My father served with the Royal Navy from 1936 until 1950 when he then transferred to the Royal Australian Navy. All of my uncles on my father’s side were in the RN during the war and my uncles on my mother’s side in the army. I have a very personal interest in the war that so dominated their lives, their spouses’ and my many cousins’ lives.

Like many war children, my mother used to regale us with stories about what it was like on the "Home Front" with dad continuously away. How she lived from day-to-day and without knowing it participated in history being made. My mother was a fount of information and would describe the hardships, the humour, the major events as well as her part in keeping the "home fires burning". Up until the day she died (31 December 1996) she just saw the war years as being "normal" – nothing special – we all had to do it. She was very English and stoic.

She told me stories about the Battle of Britain being fought out in the skies above Sussex; seeing the vapour trails; of the aircraft that came to grief around Hove (where she was then living); of the raids by German aircraft; of hiding young Robert in the Anderson shelter; of being strafed by a Messerschmitt once when she was on the way to work at Oaklands Dairy where she kept the books; of bombs and incendiaries. Mum told me about her personal perspective on the evacuation from Dunkirk; V1s and V2s; of Monty’s visit to Hove to speak to the troops just before D-Day; rationing and the firm friendships she made among other women who were all in similar circumstances.

When the war broke out in 1939 my father was stationed on the destroyer HMS Birmingham and was in China. The ship returned immediately to the UK and he went on tours of duty in the Atlantic and covering convoys to Russia. His ship operated out of Scapa Flow. My parents married in 1940; my brother was born in August 1942; me in September 1945. My younger brother was born in 1948. In the first 10 years of their marriage my mother and father really only spent just over a year together.

The Big Picture

Given that the Hollywood system always seems to re-write the history of every war that they became involved in, it needs to be repeated that from the time of the fall of France and Belgium in May 1940, Britain stood alone against Germany and Sussex and Kent were indeed the front line.

Certainly the "Dominions" were actively supporting Great Britain – Canada; India; South Africa and of course Australia. In addition many French, Polish, Czech and other servicemen who had managed to escape to England were ready to do their bit. However, I must make the point that there were not very many US pilots who participated in the Battle of Britain despite the Hollywood version that first perpetuated the myth of the "Eagle Squadron". You can check this out on many Battle of Britain web sites – many of the "Yanks" who fought were in fact UK kids who went to the US whilst young with migrating parents and came back to fight for their "home country".

I am not denigrating the contribution that the US made – in fact like the First World War it was crucial in achieving the final success. However, the full commitment of the US to the war in Europe required the attack on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour in December 1941. This is now the subject of a new Hollywood treatment.

After the Battle of France came to such a tragic end, very little action happened initially as Hitler and his henchmen considered how best to subdue Britain. Herman Goring convinced Hitler that their objectives could be achieved by beating Britain into submission from the air.

As a result on 10 July 1940, by all accounts a beautiful summer day, the number of German raiders suddenly picked up by the primitive radar stations (including Poling) increased and it became clear that a different phase of the war had commenced. The Battle of Britain and Churchill’s words about the many owing so much to so few are etched in any history of the war. It lasted until 31 October 1940. I don’t need to describe the Battle – it has been the subject of books, movies and now many web sites.

After the Germans decided that they could not win the air war, they embarked upon trying to bomb the population into submission. The Battle of Britain was followed by what is widely described as the Blitz. This lasted from 1941-1942.

After Hitler made the absolutely stupid mistake of Napoleonic proportions and invaded Russia, the pressure came off Britain for a bit. But a great deal of aerial activity was still taking place out of Sussex – the bombers were taking the war to Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord – the invasion of Europe that finally commenced on 6 June 1944.

The Sources

As part of my research of this period for my book I wanted to ensure that I covered the circumstances of my family not only at sea or on land in Europe, but also what was happening on the "Home Front".

As far as I am concerned, the definitive books on the aerial war over all of Sussex during the Second World War are the series produced by Pat Burgess and Andy Saunders. They have produced three books – Battle Over Sussex 1940; Blitz Over Sussex 1941-42 and Bombers Over Sussex 1943-45.

Burgess and Saunders have obsessively researched the available archives "from a wide range of sources" to "draw up a jigsaw type picture of aerial events in and over Sussex" during the War. They have been able to compile a complete listing of the losses to aircraft in the county, including crew names, serial numbers of aircraft and combat data. Of course some incidents are better described than others but they believe that they have been successful in identifying every aircraft crash in Sussex off airfields.

Their books have been illustrated with many photographs that they have obtained both from official and private sources. It should be noted that all of the pictures with this article are courtesy of Burgess and Saunders and they have the copyright. Their obsession even included arranging to have some aircraft "recovered" during the 1970s and 1980s and they supervised the digging up of wreckage in various parts of the county.

The War Over Sussex

The war over Sussex did not take on the drama of the blitz on London and other major cities but to the residents of all the towns and villages it was just as stressful and the outcome as uncertain as anywhere else in Britain. In fact, given the "frontline" position of Sussex, it can be argued that the threat of invasion had a greater impact on the residents than in other parts.

Between July 1940 and May 1945, 11,486 high explosive bombs were dropped; 89,675 incendiaries were unleashed on the population; some 341 other projectiles/bombs; 77 parachute mines/bombs and one 405 antipersonnel bombs dropped. 907 V1 flying bombs (Doodlebugs) crashed to earth but fortunately only four V2s. This onslaught resulted in 1015 people being killed and 3895 injured.

During the Battle of Britain 310 people were killed. Allied aircraft losses are listed as 180 with 61 crew killed compared with 180 enemy aircraft and 143 killed and 147 taken prisoner.

For the whole war, a total of 152 enemy aircraft were downed resulting in 220 aircrew killed and 152 taken prisoner. To achieve this the allied efforts seem out of all proportion – 715 aircraft downed and 533 aircrew killed with 1055 being safe.

There is a slight discrepancy in the figure, but it is also claimed that a total of 935 aircraft were downed and crashed in Sussex during the war – 666 UK; 102 US and 167 German. I suspect that this includes aircraft that ditched in the sea of the coast, whereas the earlier figures are for "land crashed".

The War Over Findon

I have prepared this summary of what aircraft crashed in the Worthing Rural District – the area that includes Findon and the Findon Valley using the information provided in the Burgess and Saunders books cited earlier.

Battle of Britain – 10 July to 31 October 1940

30 July 1940 Hampden Mill Hill, near Shoreham

18 August 1940 Spitfire Norway Farm, Rustington

4 September 1940 M/Schmitt 110 Mill Hill, near Shoreham

4 September 1940 M/Schmitt 110 Patching

13 October 1940 Blenheim Near Lancing College

23 March 1941 Junkers 88 Rustington

5 May 1941 Spitfire Angmering

4 June 1941 Spitfire Findon

1 September 1941 Hampden Lancing College

31 December 1942 Boston Kingston-on-Sea

17 June 1943 Typhoon Findon

21 November 1943 Mosquito Lyminster

30 November 1943 Whitley Lancing

31 January 1944 Mosquito Poling

6 March 1944 Mosquito Sea Lane, Ferring

7 May 1944 Spitfire Findon Valley

1 August 1944 Mustang Burpham

3 August Spitfire Coombes

25 April 1945 Albacore The Downs, Worthing

There are 19 aircraft recorded as coming down during the whole period of the war. They state that "remarkably, the civilian war dead toll in the Worthing Rural District was only seven, all of them during 1940 and 1941".

On the surface, this seems to indicate that the war was not as furious over Findon as elsewhere. However, this should not be read as such – what is being "recorded" is the aircraft crash site in the statistical district.

If you look at a map of Sussex (as I often do) and have an aviation background (as I also do) it is quite obvious that the Worthing Rural Division is quite a small area – especially by Australian standards. I can imagine standing in Findon and looking up at aircraft dog-fighting at 20 000 feet, watching their vapour trails, hearing the faint delayed "thump" of their cannon as they twist and turn pulling lots of "g". But then not realising that these aircraft were actually defending RAF Ford or RAF Tangmere aerodromes some distance away.

They might be seen to dive to low level and scream across the farmlands of Findon and the Findon Valley at tree top height oblivious to fact that they had left the Chichester Rural District, entered the Worthing District and crashed in Shoreham-by-Sea District. Aircraft shot down or in trouble over Findon might have crashed in Washington, Steyning, Shoreham, Sompting, Durrington, Patching, Arundel, Bignor, or Storrington.

The war was all over Sussex and the people all suffered. In fact there are some real tragedies recorded in Burgess and Saunders – no more imprinted in my mind than the bombing which occurred at Petworth on 29 September 1942. According to Burgess and Saunders "it did not involve the greatest loss of life in a single raid but resulted in the deaths of 28 schoolboys, two teachers and two other civilian(s) when Petworth Boys School was bombed by a low flying Junkers 88".

One should not forget also that a large number of unexploded bombs need to be disarmed and disposed of by the UXB Teams – a truly heroic band of specialists. I must also mention the Home Guard – my grandfather Scott, a veteran of the First World War, served his time willingly and like them all made a valuable contribution to the home defence. They captured a significant number of the surviving enemy aircrew.

I can certainly recommend Burgess and Saunders’ books which contain a great deal of information on many of the individual incidents from all over Sussex complete with pictures.

Terry Walls