War Throphies

[Flying10uk]

During an air raid over Clacton-On-Sea Essex England, late 1943 or early 1944 one of the attacking bombers was picked up by a searchlight beam and the anti-aircraft gunners started firing, hitting the aircraft, and causing it to crash on Clacton Recreation Ground. The fate of the crew is not known and I do not know if the crew survived. A sentry was quickly placed on what was left of the machine and the following day, on hearing of the bomber having been shot down during the night, my late father cycled over to the recreation ground as fast as possible.

My father's solution for the presence of the sentry was to go and ask him "Can I have a few bits of the German bomber, please?" and the sentry replied "Let's see what we can find." The sentry wouldn't allow anything to be taken from inside the aircraft in case there was any new equipment that needed to be inspected etc but would allow some of the debris to be picked up from outside of the bomber.

My late father's small haul is in the display case which I have only recently rediscovered and this is the first time that it has been shown on the "net". I removed the exploded shell cases that were in the case because they appear to be .303 ammunition which unless the Luftwaffe were using captured British MG's can't of come from the bomber. According to my late father on V.E. Day there was a "Victory Bonfire" and my father said "We had to move away, a bit, from the bonfire because soldiers kept throwing live ammunition on it." It is possible that the exploded .303 rounds came from this incident and then got mixed up with the German bomber fragments post war.

Look how beautifully the parachute chord has been made.

To anyone who thinks that these items shouldn't be shown please remember that the German bomber had been bombing or trying to bomb my family members as well as the people of Clacton; we didn't invite it over here.