At about midday, formations of bomber planes appeared in the blue sky at a very high altitude, making their way north.  Flying towards them were formations of Spitfires. 

A big air battle began, and we had to hurriedly make our way to an Anderson Shelter in the garden of a house close to the Gallops.  There was a lot of gunfire and spent ammunition rained down on the countryside below. 

We then saw the planes being shot down and numerous parachutes appeared in the sky, two of which did not open. One of the planes came down in a field at the top of West Hill. Later, we made our way to that field to look at the bomber which had been shot down and to collect some shrapnel and souvenirs of this exciting ‘day out’!

On our way home, while waiting for the bus back to Worthing, we saw a number of people gathering along the Findon Road to watch the Home Guard, who had rounded up the remnants of the crews which had bailed out, and were marching them down the road.

23rd August 2005

Hi

High Salvington Heinkel

I was interested to read your website regarding the Heinkel He111 which crashed in High Salvington on the 16th August 1940. A piece of the Heinkel was recently passed to me from my father who had been given it by my grandmother who received it from my great aunt who lived in Worthing during the war.

I thought that you might be interested in this as you have other pieces of information on the Heinkel on your website so I asked my father for some information as to how the piece came to be in the family.

My great aunt's name was Florence Smith, formerly Schreiner nee Leonard, and she lived in Worthing during the war. Florence was married to a naturalised German-born man named Edwin H C Schreiner (known, for some unknown reason, as Knez). Being ex-German, although naturalised, he had to report to the police each day during the war rather than being interned as non-naturalised Germans were. He worked as a bus driver in the Worthing area. Edwin Schreiner died aged 52 in April 1948.

I understand that one or both of the Schreiners were in the crowd that descended on the wreck of the Heinkel in search of souvenirs.

I have attached a photo of the piece of the Heinkel. As you can see, the date and source of the piece have been etched on it at some point in the past.

Hope that you find this of interest

Regards,

Iain Soars

20th November 2003.

Hello Valerie,

Wartime

WW2 experiences reminded me of seeing the 2-engine German plane that crash-landed on High Salvington in 1940.

I went to see it, I think it was just west of the teashop.  Living on Hayling Rise, although I was in the house I heard the machine guns firing.

All I recall of the plane was that it had a large perspex window area in the nose, some of which was spattered with blood.

My memory says that I saw one of the crew lying in the back of a lorry nearby, but your correspondent says two crewmen had bailed out earlier. I wonder if it had a crew of three ?

Later on, one night there was a string of bombs dropped on the east side of Hayling Rise, north of Woodland Avenue, in what was then an open field.

We lived in the "White House" opposite Woodland Ave.....

Peter Trounce,
 

20th November 2003

There may still be somebody out there who can resolve a mystery that is puzzling Graham Lelliott, of Sompting.

Graham's grandfather, Eric Kennard, was at Offington Corner, Worthing on that Friday in 1940 and watched the German plane

".......gliding down in a north-westerly direction, then dramatically lose height and disappear over the brow of High Salvington".

Until a few moments earlier, he had been watching an air battle in which a RAF Spitfire had riddled the Heinkel with bullets.

As the German plane vanished over the hill, young Eric and a friend, John Jeffs, leapt on to their bikes and, after scouring the nearby narrow roads and leafy lanes, eventually found the German plane crashed in a field just off Cote Street, High Salvington.

By this time, a policeman and members of the Home Guard were already at the scene and one told Eric there were four men in the crew of the German plane; that two had escaped unhurt, one had been wounded and the other found dead.

A few minutes later, Eric and John watched as the two unhurt Germans were marched off by the Home Guard.   There was no sign of the other two crew members, who presumably had already been removed from the scene.

"My grandfather, his friend and others could not resist taking something from the plane as a souvenir"

 — recalls Graham Lelliott adding that his grandfather ripped off a piece of the aluminium fuselage while his friend John went home with a piece of leather from one of the aircraft's seats.

Grandfather wondered what John would use the leather for, but all became apparent when he turned up one day with a strong hand-made leather satchel.

All these years later, both souvenirs still exist with the original owners and along with them this fascinating story.

As a young lad, I, too, got on my bike and rode across Worthing and to the top of Salvington Hill to see the first German bomber to be shot down over Worthing.

But this was the day after the Heinkel had crashed and I felt myself lucky to still get a small souvenir of the German bomber because most of what was removable had by this time disappeared.

While my mother and I were returning home in the early evening walking south along Honeysuckle Lane, an enormous plane with machine guns blazing flew across the lane about 20 ft. away, knocking the top off a young oak tree in a shower of leaves and twigs.  We hurried to a clearing in the gorse bushes and there, on the ground was the huge plane.  

It was a Heinkel bomber and it seemed odd to see the swastika on the fuselage in the English countryside.   It really brought the war home to me.  

As we walked away from the scene, we saw a man who had been collecting a trail of pennies towards a Spitfire Fund.  Quick as a flash he told passers-by,

"On my right the Spitfire, on my left, the Heinkel"

Later, we were told there had been four in the crew.  One had been killed, one wounded, and two had got out unhurt.

We saw the Heinkel again some days later and someone had cut the swastika out of the tail as a souvenir.