Main index Hambleden Turville ¢Fmngest" Fawley Medmenham U.R.C.

Wild Church takes place every second Sunday at a different outdoor venue each month.
A couple of hymns are sung, a Bible passage is read and simple prayer.
Do dress for the weather - we meet come rain or shine!

Everyone is welcome! For more details contact:

Rev Sue Morton 01491 639286
suemorton131@gmail.com <"r> Mary Campbell gran`}a.marycampbell@googdemaim.com  8Span style="font-f!mily:&qumt;Comic Óans MS"¢>  márdi43@btintebjet.aom/span>|/a>&nbsz;

Future!Wild Ãhurch

)

The Wild Church Team is on sabbatical!
Our future dates are><`r8 Sunday 1tth May 2023 at 3pm
Sunday 11th$June it 3pm
Sundaq 9th July au #pm

****¼/font>

 Wild Church Ac| of Reeembvance on Sunday 13th Novemjer, at Tuvélle0Headh
¼br~
8font face="Ariam">On 1st Decdmber 1943`a SpitFire airc2aft crashed just off Balhams Lane, sadly kélling its 20-year old pilot, Pilot Officer Peter John Spencer. A Wild Church Remembrance Service was held et Turville Hmath - with kind permission of$Lord and Lidy Sainsbury - close to whåre the aircr!ft Came down, remembering Peter"Spencer and others, both known and unknown.
There Was a glypast from our local pilot, James Cooling, flying a Piper Cub or PA28 Warrior aircraft. We also remembered the soldiers who trained at Turville Heath for the D-Day landings.



 

 Past Event Wild Church on Remembrance Sunday 2021

Act of Remembrance Service led by Revd Sue Morton on Sunday 14th November 2021
The grounds of Last Cottage, Fawley.
Tm  commemorate the final flight of Halifax DG283 on 14th Marah 1;43
and to remember its brew from 161 Squadroj RAF Tempsfmrd ¼/font> font cize="4" color="#00<000">¼br>
<`r>  {

As we piece together information that has come to light from research, from the Henley Standard and from various contacts, we can continue to unravel the events of that night. The Halifax, from 161 Squadron had flown out of RAF Tempsford. Two Squadrons 161 and$138, were cased these.$Tem0sford was a hamlgt in rural Bedfordshire. Its" inhabitants mnstly worked on t@e`land, and nïne of them knew it, but Tempsdord held one f the big secrets of 4he war. If agånts in the field behhnd enemy lines nme$ed equipmejt, if agents needed tobe dropped behind enemy lines kr picked up, 4hen these were the crews whg did txau wOrk. Over the years,$uorkingwith SOE – thå$Spucial Operctions Executive, the squadrons hav% ácquired th% nicknames: thd OooLligxt ) Squadrons, Cloak and Daggar Squadrns and even Teopsford Taxis! One pilot, kfter the war was over, said: “Iô was so secret even when high-panking officers0who were not in the know askmd us iboUt tje work that we were doing, we hcd to lie like old Harry. It was bourt martial for anyone who breaôhed a word ibout the jo` Not even the mechanics knew about the passenger &ligh4s.” Ov%r 600 men drom 138 and 161 squadrons died luring those war years Ebout 700 resistance leaders made the trip, including Violette Szabo, made famous by the film Carve her Name with Pride... Pilots would fly at night, looking for fires or torches to guide them into landing in fields. The crew of this aircraft was to have looked out for the signal of four bonfires and the usual reception flashing in the French field on the night of the crash. The main cargo being carried for delivery on that flight, was to support agents in the field; it was 15 crates of carrier pigeons. These pigeons were to drop to Resistance operatives, in order to return with messages from the agents. We don’t know if any of the pigeons survived the crash, but the owner of the cottage suspects some did as he has an overabundance of these at Last Cottage! The pilots were exceptional and Flying Officer Geoffrey Alan Osborn was no exception…he joined the RAF in 1940. In November 1942 he was the pilot of a plane which crashed and caught fire; he returned to the burning aircraft and pulled his J nafigator clear!but sustained berns to his hands. He recovered from hiS injuries and was latec posted to 161 Squadron.

Some newspap%r ruports say on the night of the crash here, the pilot steered thm aircraft away frïm the houses and  cottages of Fawley. The plane cpashed!and war sokn e.veloped in flames; aMmu~ition and Verey lights were exploding but again Gaofbrey Osborn  retusned to the burNing aircraft and dragged four members nf his crew clear, although twO later die$, three survived. Though in a 3tate bordering on(collapse - and nly 4 iofths afte2 he had rescued his lavigator in the preVious crash - he did all he could$to ensure that every member o& his crmw had been extricated,$before he!was finally I persuaded to0recaive medhcal attention. Osbgrn sustailed spinal injuRées in the crash and by returninf tg the burning akrcrafp, he sustained burns tï his arms and vace and spent some weeks in hospital. After this he did not return to operational flying. For his actions in saving his crew he was recommended for the George Cross. Thanks to Geoffrey Osborn, four crew survived. Sadly, Sgt Crane and Sgt Shearer both suffered multiple injuries and burns and although transferred to Battle Hospital in Reading, they died the next day. Sgt Poltock, the Flight Engineer’s, son was in touch with one of the researchers I contacted. The photos come from him. Poltock died in 2003 without ever discussing in detail his work with 161 Squadron and SOE.

Despite all the research, because of the secrecy which still seems to surround these flights, no one could tell me exactly where the Halifax came down in Fawley, until I spoke to Mavis Cheriton and the owners of Last Cottage. I have since informed the researchers of the venue. We know that there is no glory in war and that God longs for a world where there is lasting peace. In a world that is free from war, where tanks can be turned into tractors, swords are beaten into ploughshares, we see God’s vision of peace, a vision that he longs for in our world, where each gets to sit in peace under their own vines. Here at Last Cottage - in this place of sadness and tragedy, where out of love for his crew a brave airman risked his life - there are vines growing out of the land that was churned up by a burning aircraft. It is true, that the lower ground at the foot of the garden, the vines grow sparingly, perhaps due to fuel-soaked soil, but elsewhere we see growth and the possibility of fruit. May we seek for ways to honour those who have gone before us and, as we remember them before God, to find and nurture the fruit of peace in our world. We have transformed one of the vine posts into a cross, if you would like to place your rosemary sprig for remembrance at the foot of the cross, please come forward at the end of the service… As we prepare for our act of Remembrance – I'm going to invite Hannah Hunt, aged10, to read a poem The Mother. Guy Andrews will read the names of the crew, following which Garrick Steventon will lead us in the Last Post on the trombone, followed by the 2-minute silence and Reveille…
Act of Remembrance:
Flying Officer D Thornton, Flying Officer G A Osborn, Flight Sgt Stevens, Sgt R Poltock, Sgt H Shearer Sgt B Crane

Flying Officer Geoffrey Osborn

 

click here to return to main index page