MARGARET JONES was just three years old when her father ALBERT SMALL was shot down in Nazi-occupied France. This month, 52 years on, she and her brother IAN SMALL have been guests of honour at a ceremony in the French village where their father and others on that fateful flight were buried. It was the culmination of years of research by Margaret - who lives in Brindle - and Ian who have been trying to find out just what happened to Blackburn-born Albert on June 7 1944, the day after D-Day. This is their story...

FLIGHT Engineer Small was one of six crew members who set off from RAF Killingholm in Lancaster bomber ME.556 on a mission to take out a railway junction at AchM-Ores.

Low cloud meant the crew could not see their target and they headed back towards base with their bombs still on board.

On the way, they were struck by enemy fire and the plane plunged into the village of Eragny sur l'Oise, scattering debris and the bodies of the crew.

The village church bore the brunt of the crash and was destroyed. Remarkably, all the villagers survived but the day is still ingrained in the memories of those who lived there.

Albert's wife, Mabel, died at their Clayton-le-Moors home four years later - before she had been able to discover exactly what had become of her husband.

But now, thanks to a business contact of Margaret's husband, Allan, in France, the whole picture has become clear.

He put the family in touch with people in the village who were able to produce detailed records of the tragedy.

And last week Margaret, 55, Allan, their daughters Caroline and Louise, Albert's son Ian, 58, and his wife Kath, together with Connie Mills, Albert's sister, went to Eragny to take part in the annual ceremony to commemorate the end of the war in Europe.

Margaret, who laid a wreath at a memorial in honour of the airmen, close to their graves, said: "We were treated like royalty.

"Because the village is so small, nothing like this has ever happened to them before or since.

"Some of the people who live there still remember the tragedy and the records the village has kept are still intact."

Now Margaret is hoping that relatives of the other crew members killed in the tragedy will contact her.

She added: "We really would like to hear from other people and perhaps return to France again next year."

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