Pat Skilton
The day after the crash I and my friends ran over to see the crash site after school. Amongst the ferns nearby we picked up bits of map; but these were taken away by an official. Lots of people came out to have a look. As boys we found this very exciting, and used to rush over to the site of any crash or bomb site to pick up souvenirs and useful items. All materials were scarce then so even a bit of broken perspex could be useful.
Pat was 12 years old and living in Holmwood in 1944.
Eric Mansfield
Sherlocks collected the bodies in bags. The bags were brought to the upstairs room at Sherlocks where they stayed for a few days. Then they were transferred to Dorking cemetery.
On the days following the crash the site was under police guard so that the military could study the plane for information about developments in its armaments without people taking away vital information. The Germans were always modifying the planes and their armaments so the military would study any that came to down to see what improvements had been made.
In March 1944 Eric was working at Sherlocks, the undertakers
Mrs Landsdowne of Blackbrook
At that time I lived at Blackbrook, and the aircraft was shot down right opposite my house which brought tiles off the roof. It landed in the trees and was in ruins, pieces of the craft were found a long way from where it landed. All the airmen were killed, but at the time, police etc. were not sure, and a great search went on, in case a German had escaped.
Normally Blackbrook was quite a quiet place, but on the day following the crash, crowds of people came out to see where and what had happened.
It was an almighty crash when it was shot down and I can assure you I was very worried at the time, it was evening and dark, and couldn’t see if it was “one of ours” or “theirs”. I cannot tell you much more, we were too frightened to go out.
Brian Buss
I was awoken by a tremendous explosion followed by silence. I do not recall any other noise so I went back to sleep only to be disturbed late by the all-clear.
Next morning even Father’ s informant did not know what caused the explosion. I went to work and had to wait until the evening when I knew someone at the ATC Thursday evening meeting would have the answer and they did. A Ju 88 (said to be an A-4) fighter-bomber had been shot down. It was said to have crashed with its crew of 3 and its full bomb load which exploded on impact, to the south of Blackbrook, on Holmwood Common. By Sunday’s ATC meeting a group of use decided to visit the site, so we set off before lunch on our bicycles. Evidently, the authorities decided there was little to salvage so they threw all the surrounding debris in to the large crater and filled in with earth. You can image what happened, the young souvenir hunters pounced as soon as the authorities left, and removed every item they could carry away.
By the time we arrived the scene was in a dreadful mess. First of all it stank terribly; the cordite from the exploded bombs and engine oil. The scavengers had enlarged the crash site enormously and there was little to see, so we left feeling quite sick.
Brian Buss (in ATC uniform in 1945)
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