A Near Miss: Strafed by a Heinkel in Watton, Norfolk

Date

February 1941 about 8 o’clock in the morning whilst going to work through the small Market town of Watton in Norfolk I was in the front of a lorry when we were machined gunned in the high street by a German plane apparently strafing a Airfield nearby and then continued over the town at about 100ft. At the time we saw people looking up but we didn’t realise what was happening even though we saw flashes on the road in front of us and when we stopped we then saw the plane circling round and A/A fire exploding and then it started to lose height and we started to follow in the direction it was going.We eventually saw it crash-land and when we finally arrived at the crash site it had landed across a ditch and the Crew were out and standing there.It was a Heinkel III camouflaged underneath with Lamp Black .A farmer and a Farmhand were on the scene and it appeared that the crew of 5 had already surrender although one of them was carrying a M/Gun from the rear of the plane.
This plane was actually shot down by P.A.C. System Anti-Aircraft fire.The system was that shells would explode and throw out Coils of Wire to try and entangle the Aircraft which it did by cutting through the main Spar and a aileron control.According to records this was the only time a Aircraft had been shot down by this method.

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