The Lone Raider

 

I have had this tale recounted to me from a number of first and second hand accounts. Details vary a little and so this is an amalgam of those accounts. Amongst the witnesses were school children having a perfect view from their windows at St Nicholas School.

Probably in 1940 or 1941, and in daytime, a lone bomber aircraft approached Kenilworth at high speed from the direction of Coventry. The most memorable aspect of the flight was its altitude, low enough to cause concern that it could have hit the chimneys of the Cherry Orchard or Whitemoor brickworks with witnesses saying the pilot could easily be seen. It roared across the brickworks and banked to head out of town in the vicinity of St Johns, and was followed soon after by a fighter aircraft, either a Spitfire or Hurricane, flying at a similar altitude. There are no memories of it dropping any bombs.

There were rumours that it was eventually shot down, but the website Military aircraft crashes in the West Midlands does not appear to confirm this, although of course it may have eventually been caught outside the area.