This is, indeed, a gruesome story.   It was freezing cold with rain mingled with snow and everywhere was strangely deadly quiet.  It could be called a filthy night.  Then the dreaded drone of a Heinkel bomber was heard across the silent chill air in the distance.    Had it just crossed the coastline under cover of the extensive cloud?  Which way was it going with its bombs?

The date was Sunday 19th January 1941 and the Heinkel bomber He 111H-3 V4+FH 1./KG 1 from 1 Staffel, Kampfgeschwader 1 (KG1) based at Amiens-Glisy in France was indeed on a bombing mission. 

The Luftwaffe were intent on carrying out a dual night time assault on London and Southampton that Sunday.   A massive number of bombers were despatched.... the total number being 183.   The pilot of the Heinkel bomber heading our way was 29 year-old Hauptmann Graf Gustav zu Castell-Castell from Austria and during the war he was a Squadron Leader in the Kampfgeschwader "Hindenburg".   His crew comprised...

Oberfeldwebel Gunter Jansom, age 27
Oberfeldwebel Heinz Schubert, age 27
Feldwebel F.K.Zaver Kroiss, age 28 – 30
Gefreiter Gunter Lenning, age 24

Their target was to be Southampton.    They were intercepted by our anti-aircraft fire flying over Shoreham but managed to fly inland with one engine on fire, gradually losing altitude.  I can only guess that they limped up the Adur Valley following the river looking for somewhere to come down.   The wending river would have made a good landmark for them even at night in poor weather conditions.

The crew did everything in their power to get the doomed Heinkel down safely without hitting any buildings as this would increase their chance of survival.   From researching local enemy crashes, it has become apparent that the majority of crews tried to make it to flat agricultural land.  This Henkel pilot was no exception and quickly  summed up the situation and just had time to radio a final ominous message to his Ground Control Station serving I Gruppe of KG1 in France.  The recorded time was approximately 20.00 — 

"Starboard engine on fire, landing in England".  

The aircraft is reported to have appeared from the direction of Devil's Dyke and there are some unconfirmed accounts that say it circled a few times and the crew were firing flares.   If this report is correct these would most likely have been magnesium parachute flares to illuminate the area while searching for a place to land.   Seconds later at precisely 20.09 the Heinkel came down on open land known as The Brooks to the north of the village of Steyning (just over the downland from Findon, some 9 miles away by car, and a lot closer as the crow flies). 

By this time the Heinkel was completely enveloped in flames as it ploughed into a field quite close to Wyckham Farm House not far from the Stretham railway bridge over the River Adur.     The Steyning Fire Brigade raced to the scene but there was no hope for the survival of the crew of five.   The inferno lit up the surrounding wintry landscape for the next four hours and could be seen for miles.   It smouldered for ages.

click to enlarge photograph
Photograph from Bombers Over Sussex by Burgess & Saunders

The blistered tail section was all that remained to identify the above wreck as a Heinkel.

Tony Adfield of nearby Henfield says....

Julie Gregory wrote to me at the beginning of October 2010 to say the crash site was near her house... 

I am including the following from Doug Attrell in Goring because I find it is so very interesting... depicting the ghostly image of the Heinkel perhance?

"I had another look at the 1946 aerial photo. It's probably my imagination but I can see the outline of an aircraft in the field near where Julia Gregory described it.

These things can be seen from the air for many years after they've disappeared from ground level. The only problem is that it seems much too big for a Heinkel 111 compared with the farm buildings.   The fire could explain the size of that outline on the photo. It apparently burned fiercely for several hours so there wouldn't have been much left of it but this could have affected the ground for many years afterwards. All eyewitnesses agreed that it approached over Stretham Bridge from the direction of Devil's Dyke so it's pointing the right way".
 

A second enemy Heinkel bomber He 111H-3 from KG1 on the same raid was not to return to France that night.    It reached as far as 1½ miles off Selsey Bill and was also shot down by our anti-aircraft fire.    The time was at 09.00, an hour later than "our" Wyckham Farm Heinkel.   All crew on the second Heinkel were reported missing or killed.   The remaining enemy aircraft continued to their targets and bombing was widely scattered over Sussex and also Kent.  

On 23rd January 1941 Sexton Charles Woolgar led the burial cortege of five German airmen and the inhabitants of Steyning gave the crew a proper funeral.  A gun carriage carrying the plain unpolished coffins and caskets (each bearing a metal number) rumbled through the village.   It was escorted by British military men from an un-named "North Country" Regiment.  (Perhaps secrecy was the name of the game during wartime).    The Germans were given a military burial despite debate and feeling at the time in the national press as to whether they should receive a Christian burial.

The following appeared in the press just a week after the funeral dated Monday 3rd February 1941.   Looking back at it from over half a century, the adverse comments appear a little over the top to me... but they were the reported opinion of a member of the British Legion at the time.    Statements often seem extreme in retrospect...

In September 2010, Chris Tod, the Curator of Steyning Museum told me....

The above hand written notes by Charles Woolgar read: 

Key:   H.E.s = high explosives.

The following are further comments were made after the war by Lt. Col. Jack Castle......

Note:   You will see that the Colonel used the alternative spelling for Wyckham...."Wickham".

When hostilities ceased more thought was given to the subject of the German bodies buried in the churchyard of St. Andrew's Church and in 1962 the remains were transferred to their homeland. Those of the pilot went via Germany to his Austrian fatherland of Hochburg and I am told that his family ...

"....still have the German "Reichskriegsflagge"  which covered the coffin during the funeral.   On the flag is a stamp which reads "Ensign German...London 1940"

— which is an indication, that it was manufactured in London.

The last word comes from Albert Polly in Findon who emailed me in July 2011......"As an amateur pilot .....a pilot in a damaged aircraft is looking for somewhere to land - he does not want to land on a row of houses or a row of cars on the A27 as he would then have no chance of survival. Despite the Daily Mail etc reporting on heroic pilots avoiding houses and hospitals I am afraid pilots look for open spaces to try and land on for their own interests !

I nearly fell off my sofa with laughter a few months ago when you reported how the honest burghers of Steyning considered a german bomber pilot a hero when he swerved away from the village to try and land in a hay field. What do they think he was going to do with the ton of high explosives and incendiary devices he was carrying - crop spray ?

Keep up the good work.   Bert"

Well done, Bert.     I have always thought this the case.    You are the first person to have been brave enough to come out and say it.    I didn't think anyone ever would.

Everyone except me seemed to believe that a German pilot was trying to save the citizens of Steyning when he crashed...... I did not want to be the one to disillusion them!    Self preservation comes first and an open space to land is logically softer than a brick and tile village to land on.

Continue if you would like to read about The Mystery of the Wiston Spitfire

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