Please help me to piece together my father's final hours

HELL rained from the skies that fateful summer afternoon during the Second World War.

A daylight stealth attack by German bombers killed 52 men and women at an aircraft factory in Southampton. There had been no warning.

The tragedy, at about 3.50pm on September 11, 1940, still haunts the sons and daughters of the dead.

One of those children, Helen Corben, today calls on older Heritage readers to finally help her piece together the events that claimed the life of her father, 31-year-old rivetter Fred Burnet, and his fellow workers.

The Cunliffe-Owen aircraft works, at Swaythling, was a strategic target that had to be hit by Hitler's feared Luftwaffe.

It was there where British planes, such as the Spitfire and Hurricanes were repaired so they could be swiftly put back into service against the enemy.

Yet this bombing raid caught everyone by surprise, for there was no air raid alert, which would have given employees vital time to take cover, and a question mark remains over whether the Germans had hijacked British planes to drop 16 bombs.

Survivors, of which there were thankfully plenty, told how factory staff stood at the hangar doors and watched the approaching aircraft in the mistaken belief that they were RAF planes arriving for repairs.

A second Roll of Honour, listing 52 names, was placed in the Chapel of Remembrance at the South Stoneham Cemetery, in 1991, within sight of the place where so many good people lost their lives. The original one is at the Ford Transit factory, which stands on the Cunliffe-Owen site.

Mother-of-one Helen, 70, from Sherborne Way at Hedge End, near Southampton, takes up the poignant story.

A policeman knocking at the family house in Swift Road, Woolston, Southampton, had brought the news they dreaded after Fred had not come home from the day before.

Helen said: "Conflict in that year had been fairly low key. It therefore came as a terrible shock to everyone, but most of all the families of the 52 men killed on that Wednesday afternoon.

"My father was sadly one of those killed, all because, I'm told, he went back from the tea break while his mate, Stan Henderson was a little behind my dad and hadn't got back as far as the hangar and therefore survived the terrible ordeal.

"As to what did happen that fateful day has to some extent been partly a mystery.

"I've always been given to understand, because there was no siren or warning of any kind, the planes that did the bombing were indeed captured English planes, which would explain how these planes managed to cross the Channel, and fly up along the south coast without causing alarm.

"I'm writing in, having read a letter in Heritage from a Mr Jim Greening from Burseldon.

"From his letter, and one I missed from Mr D Hollay, it would seem they were both there, and my sister and I would be most grateful for any more information they can shed on this awful tragedy.

"There is another story relating to the Roll of Honour for the people killed in the hangar. We would be pleased to speak to any relatives regarding this.

"We were deprived of a father at a very young age - it has been with me all my life.

"My mother, before her marriage to my father, was Nell Beven. She had four brothers, Jack, Bill, Bob, and the only surviving brother Fred lives in Australia.

"They were a well-known family in the Woolston area. My father had three children. My sister Audrey was 18 months old when our father was killed, my brother Fred, who we sadly lost three years ago, was five, and I the eldest was just seven.

"Our mother died four years ago at the age of 90. She did remarry a wonderful man who was a super stepfather to us. He was Fred Coleman.

If you can help Helen in her quest for the truth from nearly 64 years ago, please write to Ron Wain, using the email link above, where your letters can be published. Letters will also be forwarded on.