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Trinity Pupils Lay Wreath For 'Great Escape' Airman

Image Credit: Tony Pike

Students from Trinity School have laid a wreath in memory of a French pilot whose Spitfire crash-landed in the parish during the Second World War.

Second Lieutenant Bernard Scheidhauer's aircraft came down in a field near Diélament Manor on the 18th November 1942.

He was on the way back to his base in West Sussex after a bombing raid in Normandy and mistook occupied Jersey for the Isle of Wight.

Scheidhauer, who fought as part of the Free French Air Force, was arrested by Nazi troops less than an hour after crashing and was sent to a prisoner of war camp - Stalag Luft III.

The camp and its inmates went on to become famous for 'the Great Escape' in March 1944, where 76 men - including Scheidhauer - tunnelled out before being re-captured and executed later that year.

75 years later, islanders gathered to remember his actions - including the Lieutenant-Governor, the Constable of Trinity and students from the parish primary school.

This was the first time students from Trinity School were invited to lay a wreath on behalf of the children of the parish.

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