'The Defence Of Withensea' & 'The Machinegunners'.

[Robert J. Lane]

Dear Readers ‘Can Any Of You Please Help?’

I very much hope that you may be able to help me with my enquire or point me in the right direction.

Some of you may own the book ‘Children Of The Blizt’ (ISBN 0-14-007404-X Ref: Page 190) a compilation of stories by the well known children's author ‘Robert Westall’.

The story which I am particularly interest in is that on page 190-192 which is titled ‘The Defence’ of Withensea’. From this story ‘Robert Westall’ based his book ‘The Machine Gunners’ (ISBN 0-330-39785-0) which was later turned into a BBC Children series in the early eighties (Ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ils2z...eature=related ).

‘The Defence Of Withernsea’ Starts: We heard at school that a German bomber had been brought down south of Holmpton, after being spotted by searchlights at Skeffling. Following our usual practice, we rode our bicycles five miles to the crash. We approached by walking over the fields and were some little distance away when a large explosion occurred, shrapnel flew over our heads and a large cloud of smoke appeared. We turned tail. (Little unknown to us, the aircraft carried two land mines and one had exploded, killing some of the bomb-disposal team.)

(For more info if you don’t have toe book e-mail me robertlanedesign@aol.com)

I would very much like to know the exact spot where this event took place (German Bomber Crashed) as these stories and the TV series when I was a child have helped shape my life. I would hope to maybe visit Withensea and Holmpton at some pint but i am disabled, so at present it would be difficult.

I have looked on Google Earth and there are the signs of a number of craters in this area of coast line especially, just south of Holmpton.

Any extra help would be much appreciated.

Robert.