Table of Contents for: Skating on Little Fen, Earith and a plane crash
January 1985 skating on Little Fen, Earith.
The skaters are out on the flooded area known as Little Fen, Earith which lies close to the Bury Fen famous for claiming to be where Ice Hockey originated from.
Jack Wales seen here, used to skate on this fen.
(Then a memory of 17th January 1942 at the same place came into his mind…)
Plane crash in 1942
At this very spot way back in 1942 as a Stirling bomber and a Hurricane were manoeuvring above their heads.
Suddenly there was a loud bang and looking upwards they saw some of the crew bale out and both planes fell to the ground.
Unfortunately there was not sufficient height for the parachutes to open.
John, a member of the Home-guard, quickly pulled off his skates, put on some wellies and headed off to the crash site which was about a mile or so away.
The Memorial to the crew can be found next to Earith Sluice near to the side of the road.
See the next article: [30] War years 1941 – June 1943
Or see the first article in this series: [1] Earith early years
Born in 1925, at 16 (1941) he joined the local Earith Home Guard
and then joined the Black Watch in 1943.