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On 11 April 1944, a MkVb Spitfire was airborne from Coltishall on a night flight when it ran into trouble in the airfield circuit at 00.30 hours.  F/Sgt Maunders was descending to land with the navigation lights of his 64 sqn fighter on, when the aircraft suddenly shook violently, hit by a burst of fire from an intruding ME410 of II/KG.51. Opening the throttle, Maunders climbed to 4,000 feet, his engine temperature soaring, then, with flames and sparks pouring from beneath the cowlings, rolled the Spitfire over onto its back to jump clear.  BL581 was by this time in a tight left-hand spin, but the pilot managed to force his way out of the opposite side of the cockpit and parachute to safety.  The Spitfire plunged into the ground 2 miles from RAF Coltishall and was totally destroyed.

Arriving at the farm to make some enquiries about the Spitfire, we were taken to see mother, Mrs. Randall, when told of the purpose of our visit she said 'you've come to find my engine'. She explained that when the RAF recovery crew had cleared up at the time of the crash, they had been unable to remove the engine. They had apparently told her late husband that it was too deep to remove and that it wouldn't  be in anyones' way down there. She recalled it crashed close to a since felled holly tree, the only problem was finding which of the tree stumps on the ditch edge was the right one. Eventually the impact point was ascertained and at a depth of about eight feet the rear of the Merlin 45 was revealed. Another witness related that the RAF team had had a small crane with which they had tried to haul out the engine, but by putting a cable around the supercharger, all they had managed to do was to wrench it off the engine. The Merlin was in excellent condition apart from this, even having the spark plug leads in position. Cleaning revealed a cannon hole in the side of the crankcase and a bullet hole in one of the magnetos.

Mrs. Randall also recalled one of the two 1945 B24 collisions which took place over head. Apparently one of the few survivors parachuted down onto the farm, her husband and the cowman rushed outside to give assistance. The shocked airman, seeing the old fashioned white smocks worn for milking, was convinced that he was dead and that they were angels!