THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

TWO SPITFIRES DOWNED IN FINDON —

at Tolmare Farm
and Mill House

Copyright Valerie Martin 2002.

On 23rd January 1941 Sexton Charles Woolgar led the burial cortege of five German airmen whose plane had crashed in flames at Wyckham Farm, close to the nearby Streatham railway bridge in Steyning on 19th January 1941. The coffin and caskets were borne by British military men and more soldiers stood to attention with guns as the procession passed. The Germans were given a proper military burial despite debate in the national press as to whether they should receive a Christian burial, and their remains were returned to their families after hostilities ceased.

It was not always the enemy daring to descend out of the skies in combat over Findon.  A damaged Supermarine Spitfire also made a crash landing 1941. 

The Belgian pilot, Sabourin, baled out of his Westhampnett based 145 Squadron Spitfire before it landed on Tolmare Farm agricultural land in full view of the Long Furlong Road.

A Findon village boy, the late Tony Hammond, recalled rushing to the scene.  The  Spitfire had crashed approximately a hundred yards south of the lime kiln in the field on the right of the A280 heading west. 

He arrived at the incident just in time to see the remains of the mangled Spitfire with its eight Browning machine-guns mounted in the wings, being loaded on to a special lorry by the Royal Air Force.

The idea of a lone high-speed high flying reconnaissance aircraft sneaking through German defences to photograph selected targets, and then high tailing back home, was a radical departure from their normal duties.  Photo-reconnaissance Spitfires were resplendent in low visibility blue livery and had their armament removed for lightness.   There was a camera positioned in each wing and they could reach a top speed touching 400 mph. 

On 4th June 1941, one such aircraft, with its pilot obviously in trouble, roared out of the clouds over Findon, its familiar whistle making anyone out of doors glance up.  Its dark shadow flashed across the downland like a dart.  The pilot, made for open country to the north east of the village and crashed on the track near The Mill House, to the north of Cissbury Ring.  Tony Hammond, who was a boy at the time, remembers the aircraft painted a beautiful shade of blue.  There was great excitement among the village children who raced to the scene to see this dream machine and actually touch one of the famous Spitfires.

Continue if you would like to read Findon in the Daily Sketch — 1941

This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.