People in Maldon and Heybridge have good cause to remember the Battle of Britain as it raged over the skies of north and mid-Essex.

Former Royal Marine Fred Yuill reveals the quite extraordinary events of one fateful day in August 1940 are about to come full circle.

Fred saved a young German, the sole survivor of a Heinkel bomber.

And now after 58 years, Fred is about to meet him again.

This time it will be as friends.

A Heinkel bomber heading for a raid on North Weald airfield is hit from a volley of fire from an RAF Hurricane above Heybridge and plummets earthwards.

It explodes as it hits the ground near Maypole Road and disintegrates killing everyone on board.

Amazingly a young Luftwaffe airman manages to bale out before the impact claims the lives of his four comrades and slowly drifts into a field near Scraley Road, beneath a bullet-ridden parachute.

Watching the lone parachutist in the garden of their parents home in Oak Road, Heybridge, that afternoon were 15-year-old schoolboy Harry Yuill, and his elder brother Fred, 23, home on his first spell of leave from the Royal Marines.

Harry ran across the fields and was shocked to see "bits of bodies hanging up trees" and ammunition and smouldering wreckage strewn everywhere.

Fred, meanwhile, set off on his bike along Scraley Road to look for the lone parachutist, 22-year-old Hans Zaunigk.

Remembering his training he frisks the airman and releases his parachute harness, cutting open his shirt to reveal a gaping wound in the young airman's arm.

He offers him a Woodbine, gives him a handkerchief to wrap the wound before handing him over to an ARP warden.

Fred, of Volwycke Avenue, Maldon, recalls: "He had a great big cut across his bottom lip, I think his teeth must have gone through it when he landed, he was bleeding quite badly,"

The next day Fred ended his leave and returned to Portsmouth convinced the young German would die from his injuries.

But the German did survive and was traced by Stephen Nunn and Alen Wyatt, who painstakingly researched the events of August 24 1940, and published them in their book Heinkels over Heybridge 12 years ago.

At the time Hans said he wanted to go back to Maldon and retrace the events of that day which almost cost him his life.

However, the authors lost touch with him and hope faded of an emotional reunion between the two adversaries.

But then three weeks ago Fred, now 81, received a visit from relatives of Mr Zaunigk who were keen to meet the man whose swift actions almost certainly saved their grandad's life and the possibility of completing the historical jigsaw after 58 years became a real possibility.

Fred says he could not believe it when they introduced themselves.

"I nearly fell through the floor," he admitted.

After a cuppa and a chat and a look at Fred's personal archive of the event, he took them to the spot where he discovered the young German airman.

They visited the field where the plane came down and St Peter's Hospital in Spital Road, where he was treated before interrogation and a spell in a Canadian POW camp until the war ended.

Hans's family stayed at Stephen Nunn's mother's house and returned home.

A week later came the call which sparked this weekend's reunion and completes the story of the Heinkel over Heybridge.

Fred said: "I answered the phone and a voice said: "This is Hans" and he asked me if I was going to be around because he was coming over. He seemed overwhelmed when I said yes."

He admits all he could picture in his mind's eye when he heard the voice after all these years was a young airman on his very first mission, lying on the ground bleeding and in shock mumbling in German.

"The last time I saw him was in 1940. I never knew what happened to him and I never thought I'd see him again. He was in quite poor state."

"I'm pleased he called and I'm over the moon he is coming over. I am not sure what to say to him but I wonder if he still has my handkerchief? "

For two men who were once enemies and prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, history has come full circle after 58 years as they prepare to meet as friends.

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