Edward Wicky
Name, Edward Wicky
Age, 22
Rank, Pilot Officer
Nationality, Austrailian
Aircraft, Mosquito
Crash Date, 4 Feb 1945
Memorial Site, Five Heads Road, Horndean
Age, 22
Rank, Pilot Officer
Nationality, Austrailian
Aircraft, Mosquito
Crash Date, 4 Feb 1945
Memorial Site, Five Heads Road, Horndean
Oswald Mountford
Name, Oswald Mountford
Age, 21
Rank, Pilot Officer
Nationality, Austrailian
Aircraft, Mosquito
Crash Date, 4 Feb 1945
Memorial Site, Five Heads Road, Horndean
Age, 21
Rank, Pilot Officer
Nationality, Austrailian
Aircraft, Mosquito
Crash Date, 4 Feb 1945
Memorial Site, Five Heads Road, Horndean
RAF Mosquito
On the 4th February 1945 a squadron of seventeen DeHavilland Mosquito Bombers from the Royal Australian Air Force took part in raids behind enemy lines. On their return to Thorney Island in Sussex they were split up and at least one lost its bearings and overshot the aerodrome due to low cloud on the journey back. It was necessary to descend to get a fix on their location, a very risky business. The flight path of PZ452 took them up Merchistoun Road before the wing of the plane clipped a house and crashed through the roof of the Parish Hall at the end of Five Heads road. The momentum of the plane carried the roof across a field and dropped it on the A3. An intense fire started setting off the rounds of 303 ammunition and 20mm canon shells. Pilot officers Edward Wickey and Oswald Mountford were both killed. This was just a week after the pair were awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses.
The crash site on Five Heads Road remained unmarked until 2005, when a group of pensioners, known as the Horndean Children of the 1940s, began campaigning for a garden of remembrance commemorating the flyers. They managed, with help from students at Horndean Technology College, to get an information board about the tragedy erected on the site.
The pensioners then began campaigning for a monument and memorial garden.
After numerous setbacks work started on the site at the junction of Five Heads Road and London Road in 2019.
The crash site on Five Heads Road remained unmarked until 2005, when a group of pensioners, known as the Horndean Children of the 1940s, began campaigning for a garden of remembrance commemorating the flyers. They managed, with help from students at Horndean Technology College, to get an information board about the tragedy erected on the site.
The pensioners then began campaigning for a monument and memorial garden.
After numerous setbacks work started on the site at the junction of Five Heads Road and London Road in 2019.
Memorial at Horndean
