Remembering crew of bomber

Netherfield will remember the Polish crew of a bomber that crashed at Netherfield Hill in 1941 when an annual service takes place on Sunday May 27 at 3pm.
Polish War Memorial, Darwell Hill, Netherfield.
22.05.11.
Picture by: TONY COOMBES PHOTOGRAPHY
Jozefiak Stanislaw SUS-140522-114611001Polish War Memorial, Darwell Hill, Netherfield.
22.05.11.
Picture by: TONY COOMBES PHOTOGRAPHY
Jozefiak Stanislaw SUS-140522-114611001
Polish War Memorial, Darwell Hill, Netherfield. 22.05.11. Picture by: TONY COOMBES PHOTOGRAPHY Jozefiak Stanislaw SUS-140522-114611001

The service will be held at the Polish War Memorial, Darwell Hill, place on Sunday.

It is likely there will be a speaker from the Polish Embassy and a fly-past.

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Father Wilson will be officiating at the service and there will be a strong

representation from the Royal British Legion with a bugler present.

RAF Wellington bombers from 304 Squadron – mainly Polish crews –were tasked with bombing the French channel port of Boulogne to disrupt the Germans’ invasion barges being assembled there. One was hit by flak and an engine set on fire. The aircraft limped back to England on one engine, but shortly after crossing the Sussex coast, the remaining engine began misfiring and the crew started to bale out. Two made it out but the Wellington crashed into the rising ground near Netherfield, at Darwell Hole.

One crew member, Stanislaw Jozefiak, returned to the site regularly and in 2001 constructed a brick memorial to his comrades.

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Stanislaw (pictured here) passed away in December 2015, aged 96.

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