were you in hornchurch in 1943? 3back

Performed by cut to the chase..., the was written by local writers Dave Ross and Gerry Sweeney, with music and lyrics by Nick Dawson, Dave Ross and Ray Shea.

The Queen’s Theatre asked the community to play their part in the show by sharing their memories of Hornchurch during World War II. A selection of these are posted below.

Memories of Sanders Draper we received:

Denis O’Payne of Rainham:

On the morning of the Spitfire crashing on to our school we were having a mass lesson in our class. I was just getting my book marked by my teacher, Miss Lyons, when we heard this screaming noise which we thought was a bomb coming down. Miss Lyons jumped under her desk and I jumped under with her.

We were expecting an explosion but there was not one. We were then taken to the air raid shelters.

On the morning of the pilot’s funeral, two boys from each class went and I was one of the boys from my class. As the procession came by the school main gate we joined them and followed it to the cemetery where he was buried with full Military Honours.

_______________________________________

Mr Dennis P Turner of Hornchurch:

On that fateful day I was at the front of the school using the drinking fountain, about 40-50 metres from the point of impact.

At that time, the school only had a wide sand/ballast drive with a narrow garden running the length of the drive, with shrubs and roses. The garden was being attended by the gardening class headed by Mr Mead.

The air was full of noise as spitfires were taking off in waves, with engines at full boost. I was suddenly aware that Mr Mead was screaming “run run run”.

This next part all happened in only a couple of seconds. I turned and saw the whole class running like mad. I then saw the spitfire at almost zero feet, between the Junior School and the Senior School, the prop hit the field and it was down. It looked like it was coming straight at me. As I turned to run round the corner I heard a terrific bang as it hit the school and a great shower of stones flew all round me. When I looked round the corner I saw the tragic sight of a brave pilot who gave his life to save the school children and the smashed spitfire.

Then the children poured out from the school and kept us away from the corner in case of fire and exploding ammunition. I saw the rescue team in a Jeep driving across the only field between the school and the air field and smash straight through the wooden fence and up to the spitfire.

The last thing I saw was the rescue team lift out the pilot wrapped in his parachute.

Very, very sad.

_______________________________________

Mr Ken Finding:

The 24 March was a very bright spring day, and the sun was shining so we had the windows partially open. The windows were, of course, covered by protective netting so that we would not be hurt by flying lass during air raids. Not that there were many faids after 1941, we had experienced “tip and run” raids by Focke-Wulf 190 fighter bombers in 1942 but that was all, and we thought that any danger was now over.

Just before 10.40 am we heard the sound of a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. We were used to this sound as Spitfires were always taking off and landing, but this time there was something different about the sound, and instinctively we all went down under our desks.

I didn’t actually see anything but there was a loud “woomph” as the Spitfire went down into the playing field. Had the pilot attempted to fly over the school or tried to bank to the left where there was open ground, with the reduced power due to engine problems, he would without doubt gone straight into the Boys’ School. The Spitfire ricocheted up onto the drive (then a gravel drive and not tarmac as it is now), slewed round with the nose pointing towards the airfield, and the tail went right up into the air and came down again.

There was a gardening class outside near the playing field and one of the boys, Henry Short (the tallest boy in the school) was in the gardening class said that the pilot had opened the cockpit hood of the Spitfire and was waving to the boys to get out of the way. When the Spitfire came to rest upon the gravel drive, henry ran to the Spitfire and climbed up on the wing to try and help the pilot, but Mr Meads the gardening master, threw a clod of earth at him and shouted “Come away boy, it will catch fire at any moment”.

I was in class 3A (Miss Culling’s class) at the time. There were about 48 boys in the class, plus Miss Culling and the Deputy headmaster Mr Ward, who for some reason was also in the class at the time. I recall that he leapt to the door, but the door had a thumb-catch which had to be pressed to open it. In his anxiety to get out, he forgot about the catch and could not open the door. One of the boys shouted out “The thumb-catch sir!”. He opened the door and raced out.

The RAF crash-crew had arrived by then and shortly afterwards Mr Ward came back and said “Unfortunately the pilot is dead”. The RAF crash-crew suggested that we should evacuate the classroom and so we went out through the side entrance of the school and into the shelters.

When it was obvious that the aircraft was not going to explode or catch fire, Mr Ward assembled the whole Boys’ School in the hall and told everyone the sad news that the pilot was dead.

The RAF took the wrecked Spitfire away and after the dinner break school resumed normally. Most of the Hornchurch boys went home for dinner, but the Elm Park and Rainham boys had school dinner. One of my classmates, Alfred Goodhew, who had school dinner, told me when I returned that the RAF had asked the older boys to help them by picking up any pieces of aircraft debris they could find.

Amazingly, only one boy in Class 3A was injured. Richard Barton, aged 13 ½ was badly cut upon his leg – he still bears the scar!

Flying Officer Sanders Draper’s sacrifice saved countless lives and I owe him 60 ½ years of my life. I am now 74 and but for him I would have died at the age of 13 ½.

Flying Officer Sanders Draper had a military funeral and was buried in St Andrew’s Church Cemetery. Of course all the pupils of both the Boys’ and the Girls’ schools wanted to attend. In the end it was agreed to draw lots so that two pupils from each class of both schools could attend.

So much money was collected from the staff and pupils of both schools, for floral tributes that there was a huge amount left and it was agreed that a “Sanders Draper Award” be instigated in memory of the pilot. This annual award would go to the boy or girl showing endeavour in the spirit of Flying Officer Sanders Draper. Unhappily, when the original Headmaster and Headmistress retired, in the early 1950s, the Award was abolished by the then Headteacher as it was deemed “Wrong to glorify war!”

Fortunately when Mr Brian Rogers (recently retired) became Head Master of the now “Sanders Draper School”, he agreed to the proposal from the Suttons-Sanders Draper World War II Schoolboys Association that the shield together with an individual miniature shield for every pupil gaining the annual award.

Thanks to the efforts of the late Frank Hubbard, who was present on the fateful day, and was living in California, the Association arranged to contact Sanders Draper’s Daughter Ann. I kept in touch with her by letter for many years but she never wrote, but telephoned me from the USA at enormous expense. I also contacted his elder brother Paul and we kept up a close correspondence for many years, until he died a few years ago. I am at present trying to renew contact with Ann Draper, as she has moved and has not given me her change of address.

For many hears I wondered how it was that Sanders Draper’s Spitfire did not catch fire with so many gallons of 100 octane aviation spirit on board. It suddenly occurred to me one day that because he had only just taken off, he had hardly used any fuel and there was not enough space for air to mix with the fuel in the tank and catch fire. I had also pondered over how the pilot was found dead when there was apparently no visible injuries. I now assume that having opened the cockpit hood of his Spitfire, in order to wave to the boys in the gardening class to get clear, he would have had to unclip his Sutton-harness. Obviously he did not have time to clip it back on before putting his aircraft down onto the playing field.

Whiplash was unknown in those days, but that is probably what caused his death. Nowadays there are many deaths through whiplash, especially if car drivers are not wearing their seat-belts.

Sanders Draper (he never used his first name Raimund, which he disliked), known within his family as “Smudge”, joined the RAF on 29 January 1941. The son of a wealthy New York family whose father travelled extensively in Europe, Sanders Draper was born in London in 1914. Contrary to many books and publications who persistently state his age upon death as 25, he was of course 29 years of age.

On 17 September 1941 he was commissioned Pilot Officer and posted to No 5 Flying Training School having been selected as a flying instructor. On 18 October 1941 he was posted to the Central Flying School at Upavon which was then the main Flying Instructors School. Completing his course on 22 December, 1941, he was posted to the Group Pool and began instructing at No 26 Elementary Flying Training School. Although undertaking a vital task in training new pilots, Sanders Draper was itching to see some real action, as this was not what he left his wife and baby daughter for. His wishes were granted on 8 September 1942 when he was posted to No 58 Operational Training Unit to gain experience on Spitfires.

30 December 1942 was a “red letter day” for Draper as he was posted to No 64 squadron at Predannack, Cornwall where the squadron was resting after a spell on operations from Hornchurch. On 2 February 1943 No 64 Squadron flew to Fairlop, a satellite airfield of RAF Hornchurch, to resume operations under the command of Squadron Leader WV Crawford-Compton moving to Hornchurch on 15 March.

On 23 March Flight Lieutenant MG Donnet assumed command of the squadron, although he was not promoted Squadron Leader until the 29.

A couple of years ago I had the honour of meeting Lieutenant General (Air) Baron Donnet, Croix de Guerre, CVO, DFC, FRAeS (as he now is). He told me “I remember Sanders Draper (known by us in the RAF as Elmer) who was a fine officer and a very cheerful friend. He was a USA citizen who had joined the RAF early, and who remained with us after the USAAF squadrons arrived in England.

“We felt greatly the loss of our friend amongst the pilots of the squadron. He had an aunt who was a famous actress, she attended the funeral and remained in touch with the pilots. [His aunt was British actress Joyce Grenfell]

“The fatal accident was due to engine trouble shortly after take-off. He remained at the controls of his aircraft trying to avoid the school known to be on the trajectory of the aircraft.

“I later commanded No 350 (Belgian) Squadron and became Wing Leader at Hawkinge”

Sander Draper was promoted to Flying Officer on 17 November 1942, and at the time of his death had 567 flying hours to his credit, 121 of which were on Spitfires.

I assume that Sanders Draper was nicknamed “Elmer” in the RAF because Elmer was a very common Christian name for men in the USA and of course, at that time, “Elmer’s Tune” was a hit record by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra!

There were two particular heroes of the Sanders Draper incident. Henry Short and Denis Payne. One of our two surviving teachers, Mrs Porter, will be present on Monday 10 November. She is now 86 years of age, but is as graceful and elegant today as she was when she first started teaching at Suttons School on 2 September, 1941.