Remote, but not forgotten.

As I walked a 20k stretch of the South Downs Way today, I spotted this memorial set into the verge on the eastern side of the path. When I returned home, I looked it up...

This memorial is for a pilot shot down in the Battle of Britain and reads:

In Memoriam Hauptmann Joseph Oestermann Pilot 1915-1940.

Oestermann's Junkers JU-88 was shot down by a pilot from RAF Tangmere on the very first day of the Battle of Britain - 13th August 1940. Oestermann's two fellow crewmen bailed out, survived and were captured.

The short operation life expectancy and incredible risks run by the brave airmen of the Battle of Britain is illustrated by the fact that Pilot Officer Mayers, the RAF pilot who is believed to have shot down the JU-88, was himself blasted out of the sky later the very same day and had to ditch in the English Channel. Mercifully P/O Mayers survived.