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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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A Messerschmitt plane crash on the Dunstable Downs

by threecountiesaction

Contributed by 
threecountiesaction
People in story: 
Tony Horn
Location of story: 
Dunstable
Article ID: 
A4692666
Contributed on: 
03 August 2005

This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Jenna Benson, for Three Counties Action, on behalf of Tony Horn, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

A Messerschmitt plane crash-landed on the lower slopes of the Downs in 1941, and my dad and a friend retrieved bits of it. We still have the propeller. Dad was born in 1933, and this happened when he was aged eight. It happened during the daytime while Dad was at school, but he and his friend rushed up to find the plane.

During the war they covered up the white lion on the downs near the zoo so that it couldn’t help the enemy’s mapping.

My Dad remembered the evacuees arriving at the station. His Dad’s business, where he spent quite a lot of time, was near the station and he remembered the children crying a lot.

(The son was telling this story for his father.)

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Air Raids and Other Bombing Category
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