Battle Abbey 1066 and all that

[keybasher]

On 2/2/1943 a hit-and-run raid took place on Battle, Sussex - Historically important as the Battle of Senlac/Hastings - when 3 aircraft, reported as Messerchmidts, dropped bombs on the town. One fell on the area now known as the cricket ground, one destroyed a Newsagents' shop with the loss of 2 lives, and the third landed in front of the Abbey, on the Abbey Green. This failed to explode, bounced through the Abbey Gateway, surprising a Canadian soldier 'on guard'. The Gateway contained two tons of explosives at the time, so had the bomb 'gone off' it could have destroyed much of local history. As a schoolboy, passing by on my way to school at the time, I am interested in finding details of the attacking force who so narrowly avoided annihilating me. Can anyone help with details, please.

Gordon