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Do.17 recovered in Windsor

Dornier Do17Z-3
Werknummern (serial): 3472
7T+JL of 3/KGr606
Crew: Lt zur See R. Dieskau (POW)
Uffz E. Tietjen (POW)
Lt. G. Hubner (POW)
Gefr W. Arnold (POW)
Date: 17th January 1941
Place: Oakley Court, Bray, near Windsor

Dornier Do17s

The aircraft was shot down at 20.30 hrs on 17th January 1941 by S/Ldr. J. H. Little of 219 Squadron while flying a Beaufighter, and crashed at Oakley Court, Bray, near Windsor. One of the better-known Luftwaffe crash sites in the UK, the location had been visited many times over the past 25 years, but the precise point of impact could not be identified.

The wreckage on the morning after the crash

Small items from the Dornier had been scattered over hundreds of yards by nearly seventy years of continuous cultivation, effectively disguising the impact site. With the land later scheduled for gravel extraction, permission was obtained from the new owners for a final attempt to locate the wreckage.

After many hours of searching with deep-seeking detectors, the crash site was eventually identified. Although the engines had been buried by the force of the impact, they had been salvaged previously, and only small fragments of the Dornier and its engines were recovered.

A maker’s plate showing ‘Do17Z’

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