I'll take you back near 60 years,
Into the spring of '44,
Invasion plans were drawing near,
To turn the tide, in Hitler's war.
A sound was wafted on the breeze,
An aircraft, flying low and straight
Towards the anchored LCTs [Landing Craft (Tanks)]
It was a Junkers 188.
If that machine returned to base,
Revealing all our preparation,
Calamity we'd surely face,
When came that D-day operation.
So mighty came the crash and roar
And many shells did find their mark,
The plane came crashing to the shore,
In Exbury's ornamental park.
A squad of men went forth to check,
Drawn from the local army corps,
Pulled seven bodies from that wreck,
All from a plane designed for four.
They all wore German uniform,
But mystery surrounds their roles,
That flight was surely not the norm,
Were they escaping Czechs or Poles?
If so, then cruel was their fate,
When searching for a place to land.
That inauspicious place and date,
Ensured destruction out of hand.
What little I have gleaned is from web site:
http://www.exbury.co.uk/history.htm
and from Nevil Shute's novel, "Requiem For A Wren."
Exbury House had been taken over by the navy and re-named HMS Mastodon and was used as headquarters for equipping the d-Day landing craft.
Sun, 8 Oct 2000.
From: "John Stanley"
Thank you for allowing me to feature your poem in my book.
I have been investigating the circumstances behind this wartime incident (in
my spare time) for some six years now. I have traced many eyewitnesses,
researched official records (British and German), and have traced the
families of four of the seven men who were killed in the Junkers crash.
Despite the speculation about the nationalities, and motives, of these seven
men, they were all, in fact, regular members of the Luftwaffe, and there was
a perfectly rational explanation for all seven to have been on board at the
time. But, as to why the plane flew across to England alone and in broad
daylight, the mystery remains. What is certain is that this aircraft was
from a pathfinder unit, and that the crew should have been flying from their
base in France up to an advanced airfield in Holland that morning.
My book is provisionally entitled, 'Flight of Seven: Mystery of the Lone
German Bomber'. I will be looking for a publisher fairly soon.
Friday, March 29, 2002