Annie Hill was a student at St John's School on Hornet Road, near to the Liberator crash site, in 1944. There were several eye witnesses to the event. The rest of the crew were taken to the RAF air base at Merston to await collection. The planes bombardier, Lieutenant Hood, had a badly sprained ankle and was taken to the Royal West Sussex Hospital in Chichester. Lieutenant Duncan came down at North Bersted and was taken to Eastergate Field Hospital with a broken leg. The crew landed in various locations, with 2 receiving minor injuries. It also caused injury to 36 others and damage to hundreds of local houses. The incident claimed the lives of 3 local people - a woman and 14 year old girl that had been working in the laundry and a man that had been working at the allotment. Pieces of the wreckage littered the surrounding area, with one engine crashing through a wall at St John's School. A few seconds later the plane, which was carrying three 1,000lb bombs in its damaged bomb-bay, crashed and exploded. Unfortunately, the plane u-turned, returning inland and heading back towards the city of Chichester. Lieutenant Duncan pointed the plane out to sea, in an attempt to avoid impact on land and causing unnecessary causalities, before bailing out of the plane himself. Despite making the journey back to Southern England, the condition of the plane deteriorated and the crew were ordered to bail out of the burning plane by 22 year old Lieutenant Joseph Duncan, the plane's pilot. When in France the bomber had been severely damaged by anti-aircraft fire on its return journey to base. The plane, from the US airfield at Levenham in Suffolk, had been part of an unsuccessful mission of 164 planes bombing railway marshalling yards at Mulhouse, Central France. On the 11 th May 1944, a B-24 Liberator Bomber belonging to the United States Airforce, with a crew of ten men, crashed in to the allotments beside the Chichester Electric Laundry in The Hornet, largely destroying the laundry building. The Life and Times of Admiral Sir George Murrayīy Amy Roberts, Collections Officer at The Novium Museum.The Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway.Delving into Singleton history and links to the royal family.Chapel of St Wilfrid, Church Norton, has an interesting history.The Parish of Funtington and some of the history of the area.Celebrating the centenary of the Rotary Club of Chichester.
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