16th July 2026 • The HERALD • Page 27 v INDEPENDENT, LOCAL AND PROUD v ABOUT US Our roofers are the best in the business and are ready to give your roof a full and completely FREE inspection WELL ESTABLISHED CAFÉ FOR SALE A fantastic opportunity to take over a well established busy café, with a loyal customer base. Situated in Marchwood. For genuine interested buyers please contact: k-j-l@hotmail.co.uk for more information SP DECORATING Painting & Decorating Specialist Simon Perks Tel: 07889 091420 Email: simonperks@rocketmail.com • Interior & Exteriors • Wallpaper Hanging • Prompt & Reliable Service • Free Quotations & Expert Advice • Fully Insured The Morning A German Bomber Fell From The Skies Over Exbury by Marc Heighway Marc is available as a guest speaker to deliver local history talks. Find out more at: marcheighway.co.uk It was just before half past seven on the morning of 18th April 1944, and breakfast was the last thing on anyone’s mind. A lone German bomber - a Junkers Ju 188 - had appeared over the Isle of Wight. It was ying low and in broad daylight, at a time when the RAF ruled the skies. With the Solent below crammed full of vessels preparing for D-Day, it was an astonishing and unexpected sight. Anti-aircra gunners on the island opened re. So did the ships. Yet the Junkers ew on, weaving across the water towards the Hampshire shore. Its luck ran out over Exbury. RAF Typhoons returning to nearby Needs Oar Point air eld spotted the ak, gave chase, and caught the bomber as it roared just feet above the treetops. Royal Marine John Lambourne, stationed at Exbury, had stepped out for breakfast when machine-gun re rattled overhead. “I thought we were being shot at,” he recalled. Moments later a German bomber passed so low he could see the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit. e aircra came down in a eld around 500 metres south of Exbury House, ploughing into a pond. Its two engines tore free, smashed through a hedge and across a road before stopping in the next eld - leaving a gap that locals could still point to in the 1990s. Children ran towards the smoke. Evacuee Sylvia Savage remembered being ready for a day out in Southampton when the plane “just missed our chimney.” Maldwin Drummond, then a boy at Cadland, drove to the scene with his father; his most vivid memory was a policeman picking up a ying boot, then inging it away in disgust because it still had a foot inside. It might have been just another statistic… just one more enemy aircra downed over Hampshire. But as helpers reached the wreck, something didn’t add up. A Junkers Ju 188 carries a crew of four. is one had seven men aboard. And there were other oddities. Witness a er witness said the bomber had red red ares which are universally understood as a sign of surrender or distress. It dropped no bombs on the packed Solent, nor on HMS Mastodon, the naval base and tone frigate HQ’d at Exbury House. It seems the crew had no wish to ght at all. So, what were they doing there? eories have multiplied ever since. Some believe the Junkers was on a reconnaissance ight, photographing the vast invasion eet gathering for D-Day. Others suspect a simple, fatal navigational error, whereby the crew, ying a reversed compass course, genuinely believed they were over German-held Holland, and were ring friendly ares at what they took to be their own gunners. A more romantic theory holds that the men were defecting. No one has ever proved which is true. e seven airmen were buried with military honours at Fawley. But the story has one last twist. Rumour holds that three Iron Cross medals were taken from the bodies, and that the culprits, losing their nerve, hid them in a cottage somewhere in Exbury, where, it is said, they remain to this day. e incident le such a mark that it found its way into ction. Novelist Nevil Shute, who tested experimental weapons on the Beaulieu River during the war, almost certainly witnessed it. In his 1955 novel Requiem for a Wren he recreated the bomber’s nal dive. However, he handed the kill to a Wren ring an anti-aircra gun, a piece of artistic licence, since the women of HMS Mastodon served on the gun sites but did not re them. As if one tragedy were not enough, a second aircra - a small Auster spotter plane - crashed at Exbury that very Junkers Exbury’s War same a ernoon, killing its pilot. e two events had no connection whatsoever. It was simply an extraordinary, heartbreaking coincidence. More than eighty years on, the Exbury Junkers keeps its secrets still. If you’d like to know more about Exbury during wartime, Marc Heighway’s new book “Exbury’s War” is now available to buy at The Herald office. THE BEAULIEU VILLAGE FETE e Beaulieu Village Fete, organised by the Beaulieu Common Good Foundation, is taking place on Saturday 18th July, starting at 12.30pm, in the beautiful private grounds of Palace House, by kind invitation of Lord and Lady Montagu. e fancy dress theme for 2026, chosen by pupils of Beaulieu Village Primary School, is “Your Favourite Book Character”, celebrating the 2026 National Year of Reading. ere will be a wide range of activities for all the family, including children’s games, ra es, a Vintage and Retro stall, a sizzling barbecue, the Pimm’s and Prosecco stall, and of course the Tea Tent, which has become a highlight in its own right. ere will also be the ever-popular Dog Show, so do bring along your well - or indeed not so well - trained dog. Music will be provided by the Beaulieu Band alongside local musicians and choirs, creating a wonderful atmosphere throughout the a ernoon. Full details and tickets are available at: beaulieufete.org.uk
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