‘Forgotten’ heroes remembered again

IN this Remembrance week we have gathered as communities to hear the names of those who have died in war read out loud from the roll of honour.

We stop, in the silence, to remember them. And we resolve to continue to do so, that their sacrifice, on which our peace and freedom are founded, should be a spur to our own contribution in making a better world in the time that has been given to us.

But what if a name, or names, are lost to us? What if the history that we have is not the complete picture but only fragments of a truth more complicated?

Research undertaken both locally and nationally, especially around the centenary of the First World War, has helped to fill in the gaps in the roll.

But even with this recent noble effort, we should not think that the truth of the past is ever complete.

The fields between Checkendon and Ipsden have recently reminded us that there are loved ones, remembered and honoured elsewhere, who we in South Oxfordshire have forgotten. These are memories that should never have been lost.

A Stirling Mk III four engine heavy bomber came down very fast in Hockett’s field on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 20, 1943.

Unspent fuel caught fire, bullets from the turrets popped off in the heat.

Agricultural workers from local farms rushed to help the stricken crew but they could not get close.

Only the rear gunner was found alive but, sadly, he too would die later that day of his multiple wounds.

In all, seven men were killed in our fields that afternoon.

The Air Ministry came, cordoned off the site and removed the bodies and the wreckage.

The official air accident report blamed the pilot (but we now know it was unlikely to have been that simple). Some of the crew were returned to their families for burial in Wales, Bristol and Lincolnshire.

The remainder were laid to rest at Botley cemetery. The field returned to agricultural use and, over time, everyone forgot.

Until last year. The nephew of the flight engineer had been researching about his uncle, whom he knew had died in the war.

He found the air accident report and started from there. He got in touch with the farmer, the granddaughter of the farmer at the time. But neither she, nor her mother, who was a child during the war, had heard of the crash on their land.

It was complete news to them. Luckily the grandfather had kept a diary and they still had it. And there it was. He had written of the crash.

This old tragedy and wartime loss was coming gradually back into the light.

More research and contact-making led, after a year, to a recent reunion — almost 80 years to the day — of six of the seven families who had lost a loved one in “L for Lulu” on October 20, 1943.

A service of remembrance and dedication was held on the farm and a memorial to the crewmen was unveiled overlooking the final resting place of the forgotten plane.

Do visit — the memorial is by the footpath where it leaves Wick’s Wood to the south of Woodhouse Farm, Ipsden.

There you will find the seven men who are not on any local roll of honour but will now no longer remain forgotten. We will remember them.