Wartime plane unearthed - 62 years on

9:02pm Saturday 20th September 2008

ONE YEAR AGO

September 19, 2007

Historians, archaeologists and other experts gathered to unearth fragments of a Second World War fighter plane, buried for 62 years in a farmer’s field near Rayne.

The P-51 Mustang 111 crashed in Gould’s Farm, Duckend Green, during a dive-bombing exercise on August 2, 1945. Its pilot, Polish squadron leader Aleksander Pietrzac, reported problems after taking off from nearby Andrewsfield Airfield, Stebbing, but continued after checking his plane.

Mr Pietrzac, a respected doodlebug-destroyer, later lost control of the aircraft at about 50ft, and was ejected as it started to climb. He died instantly, and his plane crashed.

TEN YEARS AGO

September 27, 1998

Nature lovers have banded together to form an association to stop the neglect and destruction of woodlands.

Carers of Woodland have formed at the Westwood nature reserve, Thaxted.

The group, which has already restored wildlife at Westwood, now plans to buy, lease or donate other areas of woodland to manage. A fundraising campaign has been launched to support the work of the group, which works on a volunteer basis.

40 YEARS AGO

September 20, 1968

Sixteen engineering draughtsmen at Crittall Manufacturing Company, Braintree, walked out for an hour in an unofficial protest aimed at gaining equal status and pay to window design draughtsmen.

A spokesman for the workers said if they had gone through the union, the Draughtsmen and Allied Technicians’ Association, it would have taken months of negotiation, “by which time everybody would have forgotten what the grouse was about in the first place”.

* A woman is sending a toy pig, hen and hedgehog to the United States next month – along with a toy dog, puffin and penguin – as British “ambassadors”.

The assorted cuddly toys, designed and made under the Brendatoys label by Brenda Cheese, of Stisted, are her contribution to a special two-week British toy fair promotion.

50 YEARS AGO

September 18, 1958

The first motorists caught by a new radar speed trap in Witham, Halstead and Colchester have been prosecuted and fined at Witham Magistrates’ Court.