The pilot, F/O Geoffrey Osborn, steered the crippled plane away from the built-up part of the village and prepared to make an emergency landing. As it neared Fawley, the Halifax suffered engine failure and some villagers saw one of its wings on fire. The plane was due to fly as far as the Swiss border on a 1,000-mile round trip. The owners had a copy of a Henley Standard article which told the story of the crash. I got in touch with the owners and they confirmed this, so I was able to get back in touch with the researchers and tell them where the site was.” “I asked the village by email and a few people got in touch saying it was at Last Cottage. I found some researchers online who talked to me about the crash and the squadrons but no one knew where the crash site was. “Some people told me they’d heard about one in Fawley but no one really knew much about it. She said: “I saw that our November service was going to fall on Remembrance Sunday and I wanted something really meaningful to talk about, so I started asking round to see if there’d been any plane crashes or anything like that in the area. Sunday’s service at the crash site was organised by Rev Sue Morton, of the Hambleden Valley group of churches, after she researched the tragedy.
Two of them died as a result of the crash and four survived. The six-man crew from 161 Squadron had taken off from RAF Tempsford, near Sandy, Bedfordshire. Halifax DG283 was carrying 15 crates of carrier pigeons to agents behind enemy lines in France when it crashed at the site of Last Cottage in Fawley on March 14, 1943. THE crew of a secret Second World War flight were remembered at a special service in Fawley.
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