Y20240315: German Bomber Crash 80th Anniversary Dedication and Memorial Service 15th March 2024
2024
The Dedication and Memorial Service was held on 15th March 2024 at the byway in All Cannings at the approximate 'what 3 words' location: https://w3w.
The schedule of events on the day: 11.00 Welcome from the Chair of All Cannings Parish Council, Amy Gray (All photographs by Sarah-Jane Bullock Photography unless stated otherwise.) Lost
by Amethyst Gray
A life lost in a foreign field.
Our field.
A life lost, but why?
Why did he die?
Why did his mother cry?
He felt compelled
For duties sake
A fatal mistake
For a rogue state
An ideology
A philosophy
We can't condemn
What to them
Felt right
To bomb in the night
To join in the fight
To match might with might
A fearsome sight
Lives lost
In the morning's frost
An awful cost
Humanity's worst
A leaders charisma
Became a miasma
Total war
Total folly
That young man's loss
Found in the frost
Never more
No more war
Peace in our time
This time
|
1944
The crash timeline from "In The Line Of Fire – Wiltshire’s Role During German Air Raids"
Information on survivor Gerhard Grunewald from Indiana Military: "Morristown Side Camp and Canning"
Indiana Miltary: "Camp Atterbury Italian & German Prisoners of War during WW2"
THE WILTSHIRE GAZETTE, THURSDAY, 16 MARCH, 1944. FLAMING NAZI 'PLANE CRASH IN PLOUGHED FIELD. CHURCH AND THATCHED HOUSES ESCAPE DAMAGE On Tuesday night a peaceful old-fashioned village in the South had a narrow escape when a German aeroplane, a Junkers 88, aflame from end to end, passed over its timbered houses, barely missing the thatched roofs, and crashed into a field beyond. This was one of 13 brought down following an air raid on London. It came over from the direction of the ancient parish church and travelled the whole length of the village, scattering burning fragments everywhere, large pieces falling into gardens and the churchyard. By the church, a shepherd saw the whole area illuminated by the flaming machine, the noise and height of which was such that the Rector. who is also head A.R.P. warden for the village, was afraid it could hardly miss the church tower. One of the principal houses over which it next passed is the residence of one of the most prominent farmers in the district and the parish representative on the local Rural District Council. Here the machine made a considerable noise and was so low that the farmer's eight wheat ricks were in danger of catching fire. It was from here that a U.S. soldier later telephoned to the nearest town for assistance with the concise remark, "Aeroplane on fire by canal." "GLOW OF FIRE." The farmer's married daughter lives nearby, and here a piece of the propellor came down on the lawn adjoining her house. Beyond the farmer's house, the machine passed straight between two houses “like a glow of fire" and dashed into a field at the bottom of the village. Within a very short space of time members of the village A.R.P. and N.F.S. services were on the scene, together with the local Home Guard, the police and members of the U.S. Forces. Nearly every villager turned out to view the scene. Bullets were being discharged by the flames, and in the words of one spectator "were popping off everywhere and the Crystal Palace fireworks wasn't in it." No bombs exploded, the machine having apparently already delivered its load. It is not known how it was brought down. Yesterday morning the village was back again at work, proud and excited but none the worse for its nocturnal visitor. Sight-seeing was left to those who came on foot or bicycle from other districts. There in a ploughed field on the right-hand side of the road lay the mangled carcase of the 'plane. almost un-recognisable. It was being carefully guarded by the men of the R.A.F. who had pitched a tent near it, while a solitary Air Force Officer picked his way carefully about the metal-strewn furrows of the field. THREE MEMBERS OF CREW CAPTURED. Of the machine's crew. three members bailed out and are in the hands of the police, and it was thought yesterday that another member might be lying in the still-smouldering wreckage. It takes more than the downfall of a German 'Plane to interfere with village boys’ football on the Green and a haphazard game was in progress yesterday morning when the hero was a lad who had a "girt big piece of fuselage” in his backyard. THE WILTSHIRE GAZETTE, THURSDAY, 23 MARCH, 1944. CRASHED NAZI PLANE Body of Fourth Occupant Found. In our last week's issue, we described how an enemy bomber crashed near a village in the South on the previous Tuesday evening. At that time three members of the crew were reported as being in the hands of the police following their baling out of the burning machine, and a search was in progress for a fourth member who, it was thought, might be beneath the wreckage. We understand that the dead body of this fourth German airman has been found. It is thought that he made an unsuccessful attempt to bale out, his parachute failing to open. (OCR via onlineocr.net) |
Y20230507 - All Cannings Coronation Extravaganza 2023
Memories of our Coronation Party!
Y20220603-04 - All Cannings Jubilee Celebrations 2022
Jubilee Beacon - Clifford's Hill (on way to Rybury) June 2nd at 9.00pm; Jubilee Festival the next day!
Y20200508 - VE Day 75 Celebrations
This page is dedicated to memories of VE days past!
This link is also interesting as an event that happened in WWII in this area http://www.wshc.eu/blog/item/in-the-line-of-fire.html
VE DAY - Jerry Rider Hi Wak! Although I have lived and worked for many years in the Bishops Cannings and Horton area I was born in 1932 and raised in the Liverpool Area, so I am proud to be a Scouse - “with an accent exceeding rare”! Early memories of the NAZI bombing of Liverpool remind me of the destructive power of bombers. I used to collect shrapnel and fins from flying bombs and exchange them for sweets at my local school. My Grandfather had a flying bomb land in his allotment but it sunk into his “double dug” land, the parachute on the bomb hung over his fence, so, fortunately, it didn’t explode. My cousin was a Squadron leader in the RAF, flying around 37 raids over the enemy areas in Europe. He was awarded the DFC and bar. Rarely for these pilots he survived. Two of my aunts were in the Women’s Royal Air Force, stationed near Peterborough. Their task was to plot the enemy planes and report their presence to the RAF. Most of these NAZI planes were heading for Liverpool, where their family lived and worked, but naturally, my aunts could not warn them. My father was a pharmacist in Heswall on the Wirral. H was in the ARP. He would parcel up ‘goods’ for his customers and neighbours to send to their husbands who were Prisoners of War. He converted our garage into an air-raid shelter. We had an evacuee, Rodney who found country life very difficult but eventually learnt to accept our strange ways. The local farms employed Land Girls who soon learnt to adapt to the hard physical work and relished the chance to be independent and contributing to the war effort. Rationing carried on into the 50’s so most people grew up tending vegetable plots and keeping hens and even a pig if they had the room. Sweets were a rare treat so we probably grew up to be a much fitter and more frugal generation than those that followed us. |
Herewith a page of photos from my mother’s album. We lived with my grandparents in Woodstock Road, Chiswick at the time. Sarah Padwick |
Read also Sid Jones Story below. |
Y20181220 - Volunteers Retire
After 23 years of helping customers in Cannings shops, Sue Hunt and Isabel Lane hang up their aprons. When David and Isabel Lane came to the village 23 years ago to run the shop and post office, Sue came with the package! When the shop finally closed and the community shop was started by volunteers in 2005 Sue and Isabel were some of the first volunteers to join the team. Now they are retiring, Sue is moving to be near her daughter in Trowbridge and Isabel 's health is not so good. Their cheerful welcome to customers will be sadly missed. The shop would welcome some of the younger generation to help out as many of the current helpers are also getting older.
More Articles …
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- Website Logo Competition
- VE Day 75
- The Long Barrow at All Cannings
- Opening of Our Lovely New Playground
- Meet the Ancestors with Friends of the Church
- Chip Van Update
- Best of BKV Award Presentation - 1st Time Ever 2018
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- All Cannings In Bloom Entry Form
- A Thank you - Come and Join Our Winning Team
- 2012 Crop Circles
- 2003 Crop Circle
- 2000 Crop Circles
- Some Walks and Other Visits around All Cannings
- Brief History of All Cannings, Wiltshire
- All Cannings Local Links
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