Engine Punk

Vickers Wellington (Photo : Wikipedia) Thanks to my cousin, John Turner, who contacted the archivist at Davidstow Airfield museum , I can now confirm that it was not flying boat but a Wellington crash that my mother witnessed. Even better, this crash occurred with no loss of life although the crew were quite shaken up. Well wouldn't you be? From the crash site, one can see the control tower at Davidstow airfield jut below the horizon, far left  My 89 year old mother is writing her memoirs and this was one of the mysteries in her life that we wanted to clear up. This is how she relates the tale of her sighting and also how we resolved this long-standing mystery. "While we were staying in Cornwall during the war, I witnessed an air crash. "This must have happened while we were staying at Otterham Mill, near Boscastle with Mrs Hocking. I suppose it was a sort of private evacuation and we arrived at Otterham station with our bikes on the train. My father ...

My mother, who is 88 and born in 1929, is writing her memoirs and one of her most profound memories is of seeing a flying boat crash into a hill while she had been evacuated to Otterham Mill near Bude in North Cornwall. She thinks she was between 11 or 13 and that this was during a period when she was schooled at home by her mother. I have had a search on the net but can find no record of anything that matches her recollection. Here it is in her own words. "It occurred while my parents and the rest of the family were staying at Otterham Mill, near Boscastle. This was a private sort of evacuation as we had come from Hosrmonden in Kent where we experienced doodle bugs and flying bombs. We were also on the flight path from Germany to London. "We all arrived at Otterham Station with our bikes on the train. I think my father couldn't stay long as he had to get back to his work in a bank in London. "My godmother, May Fountain, was a teaching colleague of my mother...