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THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.
HERBERT DIETERLE'S PARACHUTE — The night of 3rd/4th May 1941
Copyright Valerie Martin 2003
The war in the air intensified as the war progressed. On the night of the 3rd/4th May 1941, a badly crippled enemy twin-engined Heinkel He 111 H-5 bomber Code 1H+AT, W.Nr. 3626, swooped alarmingly low over Findon heading west.
The aircraft was from the Unit 9th Staffel, Kampfgeschwader 26 and its pilot was battling at the controls. Before the crippled aircraft finally ditched and disintregated, some of the crew members made a last hopeless attempt to bail out and save themselves.
The aircraft crashed at Eastergate Corporation Scrap Yard in Arundel at 10.50 p.m. It had been shot down by a Beaufighter, possibly that of Wing Commander T. Pike of 219 Squadron.
| Crew: | Leutnant H. Loos (killed) |
| Feldwebel R. Lekscha (killed) | |
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Obergefreiter H. Dieterle (Killed. It is said his body was recovered and he was buried in the cemetery beside the A24 on the Findon Bypass) |
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| Unteroffizier E. Cerlach (taken prisoner of war) | |
| Unteroffizier A. Heublein (taken prisoner of war) |
A few years later, Arthur Bewers of The Oval in Findon has told me that his father, Claude, who was employed as a carter by Albert Short Junior at Findon Farm, was out working with his team of horses. He was in a field to the north of the Iron Age Fort of Cissbury Ring, near the crossroads on the way to Chanctonbury Ring, when he unearthed an unfamiliar object from a depression in the ground. Puzzled he picked it up, rubbed the earth off and took it home.
This was later identified to be a clasp from Herbert Dieterle's silk parachute.
Continue if you would like to read about The Second World War Years in Findon.
This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.
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E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com |
