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

HAWKER TYPHOON CRASH ON THE FINDON DOWNS

Copyright Valerie Martin 2004

In 1943 a number of incidents have been recorded for posterity.   One of these included the fact that the Worthing Civil Defence Committee went into action and launched an investigation when thoughtless thieves stole all of the electric lamps used to illuminate the interiors of the air raid shelters in the Steyne Gardens and Liverpool Gardens.   It seems that nothing was safe, even during the war years.

There was to be stern wartime punishment for some local lads in 1943 when the Worthing magistrates came to the decision that birching was to be the order of the day.    Eight boys were ordered to be birched after they had stolen two hand grenades and 24 rounds of ammunition.    Not only were they considered to be thieves..... but they had caused danger by attempting to detonate their booty by placing the bullets on a fire.

Also in 1943, a local man, Captain G.H.E. Russell of Findon Valley, took over Britain's mightiest battleship, the 35,000 ton DUKE OF YORK, led an exciting chase of the SCHARNHORST,  which was sunk off Norway.    When a young midshipman in the Great War, Russell had taken part in the Gallipoli landings and served aboard HMS ROYAL OAK during the Battle of Jutland.

On the 17TH JUNE 1943 at 11.29 am a Hawker Typhoon, serial No. DN484  from 182 Squadron was limping back to Tangmere and did not quite make it to base.

The aircraft descended on Findon and fortunately was force landed undamaged due to engine failure. This was half a mile to the east of the village and a little way to the south of where the photo-reconnaissance Spitfire had crashed earlier in the war. In contrast to the sleek Spitfire that had landed, the Typhoon had a somewhat brutish appearance but nevertheless was a most effective weapon of war.

On this occasion, the pilot, Warrant Officer, D. K. Lovell 754976 made the forced landing with the wheels up in a field on the Downs. The trouble was logged as "big end failure" and no fault was attributed to Warrant Officer Lovell who had been on a mission over France.

The Hawker Typhoon DN484 was dismantled where it had landed on the Downs and was initially transported to a Royal Air Force RS/MU (Repair and Salvage).  Within two months the Typhoon was flying missions with another squadron. 

On 29th January 2001, I was delighted to hear from Anita Petruzzelli.  It turned out that her father was Donald Kenneth Lovell, the pilot of the Typhoon from 182 Squadron which crashed on the Findon downland.

Donald Lovell had never related the event of how he came out of the skies to land in Findon to either his wife, or to Anita.   This was either because there was so much going on during the war.....or could it have been that he was on a hush-hush mission?  Perhaps I shall never know as Donald Lovell died in January 1997.

By the close of 1943, the local householders were warned that there would be a shortage of Christmas turkeys because the Ministry of Food decreed that priority should be given to more major cities.... such as London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow !

Continue if you wish to read Typhoon Pilot and/or Artist?

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