The Flying Fortress Crash

A Memory of West Horndon.

I remember, during the war, two flying fortresses crashed in Hordon. One came down near the Half Way House, the other one in a field in Chiderditch behind the pub. They were returning from a bombing raid on Germany. There was about fifty of them when all of a sudden these two collided - the wing of one chopped the tail section off the one next to it. I think all crew members lost their lives. It was terrible to watch these two big planes spiralling towards the ground, knowing you could do nothing about it. I went straight to the crash scene at Horndon - the police were there, but they let me take a souvenir which I then took to the other crash site - but the police refused to let me go in and see it. They said there was a secret factory there and no one would be allowed in. Does anybody in Childerditch remember the secret factory? It was all hush hush. I remember a bomb dropping at Childerditch killing one person. All the best, Jim Chalkley.

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