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Car prank has town fearing an invasion
A WHITBY man, who saw the first German bomber shot down over English soil in 1940, has had his boyhood memories captured on film.
John Pinkney, a former oil tanker captain with BP, celebrated his 80th birthday in November.
As a birthday present, his 13-year-old grandson, Charlie Baker, has made a film of Captain Pinkney's memories including the shooting down of the plane by Group Captain Peter Townsend, and two other RAF fighter pilots.
Gp Cpt Townsend went on to become attached to the Queen's sister Princess Margaret in the 1950s but because he was divorced they could never marry.
One cold night around a year later, fears gripped Whitby that German paratroopers had landed and were about to start murdering the local population.
More than 3,000 troops stationed in the area were turned out to hunt for the person who'd stolen a chemistry teacher's car from outside Whitby Grammar School.
Authorities feared invaders, but no-one was ever found.
At daybreak weary soldiers trudged back to their barracks to grab a few hours sleep.
Charlie Baker reveals the true culprit was his grandfather John Pinkney, who in this birthday video admits he was the car thief having stolen the chemistry master's car and hid it behind an air raid shelter.
There were a lot of scares about Germans stealing vehicles in an attempt to confuse the enemy and troops searched the moors as a result.
It was kept a secret all these years until being revealed on the video filmed in Whitby last November.
Mr Pinkney, who now lives in Whitley Bay, remembers he was in bed with mumps at his West Cliff home when he heard machine gun fire.
He went to his window and saw a German bomber being pursued by three RAF Hurricanes who shot it down and it crash landed just outside town.
John's friend Harry Short, also 80, cycled out to the scene where a large stone tablet stands by the road near Sleights road end roundabout stating: "The first enemy aircraft to be shot down in England during the Second World War fell 80 yards opposite this tablet on 3rd February 1940."
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Saturday 19 May 2012
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