IT WAS just after 1am on March 22 1944 that RAF Halifax Bomber, JP137 took off from Hurn Aerodrome on a clear, starry night.

Within a few minutes something had gone dangerously wrong; after two minutes’ climbing, the aircraft stalled and went into a steep dive, according to the MoD, which released part of a report into the matter.

The craft flew over East Howe, towards Wallisdown and then Talbot Woods and Winton as it began to lose height and started clipping buildings, including a Victorian chapel and the former tram depot.

Russ Barnes and his family lived at 1012 Wimborne Road at that time, on the junction with Comber Road.

In a report given in 2007 he said: “At the time of the air crash I was sleeping on the ground floor, inside a steel ‘Morrison’ table shelter. The noises of the approaching aircraft aroused me. It was obviously in trouble because the screeching engine roar fading to a splutter and returning to a roar indicated a serious problem; clearly the pilot was wrestling with the controls.”

The appalling sound of cracking and metal grating told Mr Barnes it was near and the sudden silence after the impact was broken by the sound of a man screaming.

“A sound I will never forget,” he said.

Within seconds of the impact the petrol tanks of the Halifax exploded ‘showering the nearby houses with fragments of metal’.

His father Herbert Barnes, just home from Air Raid Precaution duty, knew what to do; he grabbed a spade and ran to the properties opposite at numbers 1025 to 1031 Wimborne Road, a pair of semi-detached Victorian cottages.

As the flames leaped to 50 foot, the fire services, which appeared to have anticipated the crash, rushed to the scene.

What confronted them must have looked like a mini-Lockerbie; houses destroyed, civilians dead on the ground and the plane spewing out bullets as ammunition caught fire.

“At cottage 1027,” said Mr Barnes, “Mrs Chislett and her 14-year-old son John, dressed only in their nightclothes, escaped by jumping from a front upstairs window but the fall onto gravel caused injuries. They lost everything.”

Herbert Barnes forced his way into the home of Percy Chislett to find him dead in his bed.

“He also found the badly mutilated body of an aircrew member lying close to the main Wimborne Road,” said Mr Barnes. In all, nine people died, two civilians, and seven people who were on the plane.

The blaze raged for an hour but the ammunition continued to explode for much longer.

However, the incident didn’t end there. At least one of the people on the Halifax was never identified, and the RAF guard posted at the scene led to speculation that ‘someone very important’ had been on board.

Certainly, in 1993, when the brother-in-law of the plane’s flight engineer demanded a copy of the report into the crash, an MoD official told him: “Unfortunately I am unable to send you a copy of the crash report.”

There were repercussions too, for the landlord of the nearby Hollies Hotel which was used as a makeshift mortuary. Winton resident John Peck told the Daily Echo in 1996 that the unfortunate gentleman had become so affected by this, and by the sounds of the men trying to escape from the burning plane that he ‘ended up in a mental hospital’.

Sixty-six years have passed and now Cllr Sue Anderson is spearheading fund-raising to provide a fitting memorial to those who suffered on that terrible night.

“We feel this is a really worthwhile cause, to remember those who died, and we hope lots of people will support the Question Time on Friday,” she said.

The evening, held at Moordown Conservative Club in Balfour Road, will be chaired by former Bournemouth MP David Atkinson. Tickets are £5. For details call Bournemouth 397047.