James William Vinall was born and lived his entire life in Henfield in the early 20th century. His paternal grandfather was believed to be of South Asian descent and he was known for having a distinctly Asian appearance, not something common in Henfield at the time and an early example of diversity in the village. He was very much part of the Henfield community, but his life was tragically cut short in 1945 due to extraordinary and harrowing events that took place while he served with the RAF in World War II.
James (whom more commonly went by the name Jim) was born on 30 June 1904. His parents, James Sr. and Fanny Vinall nee Browning, were also from Henfield. His South Asian ancestry is said to have come via his paternal grandmother, Jane Vinall, also originally from Henfield, who conceived his father while unmarried and working as a seamstress in France.
Jim’s extended family owned the successful Henfield Vinall Builders business and he and his father worked as builders for the company. He was very much involved with the Henfield community throughout his life. He played for the Henfield Cricket club from 1921 to 1939 and was also club secretary before the war. He played for the Henfield Football club in the 1936/37 season and is also pictured with the Henfield Boy Scouts Troop c. 1914. At the Henfield Museum you can spot him in the large mural of the high street (c. 1911) as he rides his bike as a child. He married Laurie Evelyn Vinall (nee Lunnon) of Rottingdean.
During World War II he was part of the RAF Volunteer reserve. On 14 March 1945 he and a crew of airmen were part of a squadron which was supporting a bombing attack on the German city of Lutzkendorf. Their plane was hit by German shelling and the engine caught fire. It seemed that the plane was going to crash so the pilot ordered his crew to parachute out. The pilot went to follow them but was caught up in oxygen tubing so was delayed. By the time he disentangled himself the fire had extinguished itself and remarkably he was able to fly back to England safely, albeit without the others in the crew, including James, who had already bailed out.
Jim and the crew landed safely near the French border but were captured soon after by the Germans. Two members of the crew were separated and moved to a POW camp, but James and the remaining airmen were taken to a prison in Pforzheim. On their way there, they were held at a village called Huchenfeld where they were incarcerated for the night in the boiler room of a school.
As the region had recently been bombed and suffered heavy casualties and destruction, the population were no doubt very angry. An SA officer at a nearby village, Dillstein, heard the airmen were close and rallied the Hitler Youth of the region to confront them. Jim and the crew were forced out of the boiler room and confronted by an angry crowd. Fearing for their lives some of the crewmen tried to escape causing a commotion. In the chaos James and several others were able to escape, each in different directions. Sadly though, four of the men were quickly rounded up and shot in the nearby cemetery. Jim was captured the next day and was briefly held in a police station in Dillstein before being taken outside where he was beaten with a heavy stick until he collapsed. At this point a 15-year-old Hitler Youth member who had lost his family in the bombing shot him dead.
The other escaped men were also eventually recaptured but were held as POWs before being released at the end of the war. The case was tried by a war crimes tribunal after the war. The youths who shot the crewmen were given 15-year or 12-year jail sentences. But it was determined the Nazi officers and local officials who had instigated the killing and provided weapons were guilty to a more severe degree and three were hanged for their crimes.
47 years later in 1992, the priest and several congregation members of the church in Huchenfeld were so stirred by the terrible events that had happened that they organised for a plaque to be mounted in the village church, memorialising the murdered crewmen. The widow of one of the crewmen who had been shot was present for a special church service. She had come in reconciliation and wanted to offer her forgiveness. During the service it is said that an older gentleman, full of sorrow, discreetly confessed to one of the clergy that he had been one of the young men who had shot at the men. He then quietly slipped away from the service.
The pilot of the ill-fated flight who had survived by being able to fly back to Britain was still alive and well at the time. However he had not heard about the fate of his crewmen until he came across the story of the memorial. He was so moved that he commissioned a local artist from where he lived in Wales to create a rocking horse which he gave to the children of the German village’s Kindergarten.
The bond between the airmen’s families and the village community continued to flourish. In 2008 the pilot’s home village in Wales was twinned with the German village, another moving act of forgiveness, proving that reconciliation and hope are possible, even in the face of such terrible events such as those that happened to Jim.
The events that took place in March of 1945 led to a harrowing and tragic end for a remarkable man who held a central part of the Henfield community in the early 20th century. Nevertheless forgiveness and hope did eventually prevail. When you next visit the Henfield museum have a look on the mural for the little boy on the bike and you will know his story.
Allison Dinnis
Many thanks to Adrian Vieler for sharing his research with me and to Alan Barwick of the Henfield Museum for bringing James Vinall’s story to my attention and helping me to find further information available at the Museum.
This article was written for the museum’s Henfieldians Past project. For more info: www.henfieldmuseum.org/henfieldianspast or visit the Museum in person at The Henfield Hall, Coopers Way, Henfield, West Sussex, BN5 9EQ between 10.00 and 12.00 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and between 14.30 and 16.30 Wednesday and 14.30 and 16.00 Saturday.