Whilst we were living at Lower Hamstead, there were two things regarding aircraft that stick in my mind. One was watching a dogfight overhead and seeing two aircraft come out of that dogfight.
There was apparently a squadron of Hurricanes intercepted two squadrons of German J38s and ME109s and one Hurricane got shot down in flames and landed at the top of Cranmore. That would have been Battle of Britain time I suppose, 1941.The pilot bailed out and landed at Thorness successfully. He was burnt but he was OK. There was a 109 I think also came down, but I think out in the Solent some place.
And the other thing concerning aircraft was when I was “helping” as a six year old, mother and an auntie, harvesting potatoes in one particular field. There was a sudden roar and I remember mother shouting: ‘Lay down! Lay down!’ And it was a German, it was a Henkel 111 I think. I can remember it had a glazed nose, came in at tree top level, came in off the Solent, and I can remember seeing the pilot in the cockpit as he went past. I just stood and watched it and it roared over the trees only a matter of 200’ high at the most, then it went out towards the Channel and hopefully home, I suppose. He’d done his worst and he was off home as soon as he could make it. But that was very loud and I can remember seeing the pilot in the glazed cockpit; it just sticks in my mind. You could see the silhouette of the pilot. Mother thought the end was nigh.
Tag Archives: planes
Jean Maitland, Joy Lawry: WWII 1940s
George Warder was bending down filling his kettle from the pump in Coastguard Cottages pathway at 7 a.m. one morning when a German plane went over and shot him in his backside, much to the amusement of his friends. Luckily he wasn’t badly hurt. It wasn’t so funny when planes went down off the pier. Jean Maitland nee Levey b1928
Most nights were disturbed by bombers on their way to bomb the cities, though we had some stray bombs around here, the Convoys being the attraction. Our local milkman, survived a machine gun bullet from a passing German plane. The night Cowes was heavily bombed, a house at Bouldnor was hit and an elderly lady killed. Joy Lawry