Letter: I Also Witnessed 1945 Air Crash

Published on: 17 Mar, 2019
Updated on: 17 Mar, 2019

A Vickers Warwick

From Dennis R Hall

resident in Switzerland

I join your other readers to congratulate your newspaper and Mr Frank Phillipson for his excellent article: New Evidence Comes To Light On Wartime Aircraft Crash on the Vickers Warwick VPN778 aircraft that crashed on the railway line by Haines Bridge on January 6 1945.

I too witnessed the very low flight some minutes before being with friends in Woodland Grove, near Oatlands Avenue, when it flew low over our heads seemingly, to our young minds, dangerously out of control.

We ran up to the point where we guessed it must have crashed which was in fact just as described in Mr Phillipson’s report; in front of the Bridge on the downside of the railway track facing the Bridge looking towards Weybridge Station the aircraft fuselage being in line with the tracks.

I was eleven-years-old at the time and as far as I can remember the few people there looking on the wrecked aircraft did so in stunned silence no doubt shocked and saddened by the event. Indeed, some twenty years ago I raised the subject with the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon and the Brooklands Museum at Weybridge to ascertain details of the crash since those of us who together had been there could not agree on the type of aircraft or even the date!

We each had impressions but we were all wrong, such are the mysteries of human memory and recollection but with the help and patience of the two aforementioned Museum Trusts we became correctly informed in the end. I don’t think many of us realised at the time how many aircraft crashes there were in the area on test flights. Thankfully not all were fatal.

The Guildford Dragon NEWS is very fortunate to be have been able to publish Frank Phillipson’s articles which are based on meticulous, time-consuming research. Ed