New memorial unveiled at Tangmere Military Aviation Museum

On the night of the 16 th -17 th December 1943 two Lysander aircraft crashed as they returned to RAF Tangmere having successfully completed their Mission to collect agents from France. One, piloted by Stephen Hankey, was diverted to Ford aerodrome due to the fog at Tangmere. The other, flown by James McBride, crashed after having very nearly landed safely at Tangmere. Hankey’s passengers, two highly-decorated members of De Gaulle’s CRA, Albert Kohan and Jacques Tayar, died with him. Miraculously McBride’s passengers survived but were unable to save him. On October 18 th 2025 we held a very special day commemorating the courage and sacrifice of these pilots and agents. Ian Titman-Reade a recognised authority on Lysander special operations in WW2, gave a wonderful talk illustrated with photographs, film clips and music. In the morning this was available to members of the public then in the afternoon after a lunch hosting relatives of some of the Special Duties pilots he repeated it for their benefit. It was highly emotive for everyone who saw it. His presentation included excerpts from the diary of a French Resistant (Pierre Hentic) detailing his experiences organising reception committees for incoming agents as well as parachute drops, read by his daughter Anne Alexandre.

Some of us then went on to Chichester Cemetery to lay a wreath on James McBride’s grave.

During the course of the day we were delighted to be visited by a BBC reporter, Steve, who filmed the memorial and interviewed Peter Hankey and myself. His report that evening on ‘South today’ was brilliant. He clearly knew his stuff and had incorporated wartime footage of the Lysander at work. Hopefully this will fire the public’s imagination and encourage a lot of visitors to visit the museum to learn about the Secret War at Tangmere.

As a wonderfully poignant post script to this day, on the anniversary of that dreadful night Peter Hankey returned to the Memorial Garden with his wife Lesley to lay a wreath. It means a lot them to have a site they can visit on their doorstep, as Stephen Hankey was buried some distance away in Crowhurst, Sussex. I was delighted to welcome them back and shall ensure that this anniversary is marked each year.

I subsequently paid my respects at McBride’s grave in Chichester and also visited St. Andrew’s Church in West Dean to see the plaques there dedicated to Stephen Hankey as described to me by Lesley.