The Stain on the Glass

Jeff Gray

In the early hours of January 4th 1944 a Wellington bomber of the RAF crashed in Brockhurst wood near the village of Farnham Common. Of the crew of six only one survived. After the war the people of the village clubbed together for a memorial and installed a stained glass window in the Anglican Church of St. John’s nearby. Forty years later Mrs. Florence Payne, mother of the dead rear-gunner, Sergeant Victor Payne, returned on a pilgrimage, revisiting the site and the church. The local newspaper covered the visit in a moving story and raised questions in the mind of local resident, ex RAF Bomber Command pilot, Jeff Gray. The newspaper indicated that the bomber was crippled and the young airmen died trying to avoid the village. What dreadful combination of circumstance had conspired against them? Captain Gray investigates...