From BBC Peoples War - Fighter crash & casualty 1940

[Melvin Brownless]

Hi Forum members, I found this account on the BBC Peoples War website a few years ago and just came across it again in my files. I am hoping that someone may be alble to identify the loss and date etc. Any information greatly recieved by us all at the socety.

Kind regards,

Melvin

www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com


People in story:　
Peter Braden
Location of story:　
High Halden
Background to story:　
Civilian
Article ID:　
A9014609
Contributed on:　
31 January 2006
During the summer of 1940 I was farming a small farm at High Halden near Tenterden in Kent.
I think it was towards the end of August 1940 about 4.30 one afternoon when I had just come out of the cow shed and witnessed a tremendous dogfight going on in the sky above me. I suddenly saw a yellow object falling through the sky; at first I though it was a bomb falling but when it got lower I could see it was the body of an airman wearing a yellow "Mae West" jacket and the remains of a parachute training behind him.
I saw where he had crashed to the ground about 200 yards away. I started to run over and had nearly reached a small wood when right behind me there was a tremendous roar of a plane diving and then a blast as it hit the ground about 100 yards behind me.
A wing of the crashed plane sailed over my head and smashed into the wood and then machine gun bullets started going off so I hit the ground very quickly — I really thought my last moments had come.
After a bit things quietened down and I made my way into the wood and found the airman’s body covered over with the parachute which I removed. I could see at once he was dead, his shoe and sock had come off, and I felt his ankle and there was no pulse.
The contents of his pockets had fallen out and were scattered about. I remember seeing his small change lying there. I waited by the body until our local policeman came and he looked for his service card. He was a Sergeant Pilot Osborn of the RAF from Flying Training Depot, Gosport. He must have been shot as he bailed out and was descending.
In a book I have of the Battle of Britain that lists all the pilots killed during the battle, they do not list Sergeant Pilot Osborn. The spot where this happened was close to Cuckhold Corner crossroads at High Halden.

[Andy Saunders]

This incident is a bit of a muddle between two incidents, I believe.

We know that the crash of a Hurricane took place at Cuckolds Corner on 30 August. This has been confirmed by excavation as V6548 of 43 Sqn, Sqn Ldr Badger although he drifted down by parachute to land some distance away at Townlands Farm, Woodchurch.

I believe that the witness confused the crash at Cuckolds Corner with the incident involving Sgt Dickinson who baled out but fell dead on the same date and at the same time as the incident involving Badger. I do not know where the spurious name recalled by the witness came from, but possibly a false memory or he was carrying something named to another individual.

My belief is that the Hurricane wreck exacavated in the 1970s at nearby Tanden Farm was the aircraft flown by Dickinson, although it has previously been incorrectly associated with Plt Off J E Marshall of 85 Squadron shot down earlier that same day.

A witness clearly recalls another crash site at nearby Green Lane (recently pinpointed on the ground and confirmed as a Hurricane crash site) and without prompting recalled that the pilot came to view the wreckage of his aircraft and was concerned because "he had left something in the cockpit". Again, without prompting, he stated that its pilot had been called Marshall.

Thus, I think there has been a bit of confusion about what happened and where on that day in that particular vicinity. I believe that Dickinson fell dead somewhere near Honeyfield Wood, Bethersden.

Hope that helps, but would be interested in Peter Cornwell's comment.