Late morning on 30 August 1940, No 43 Squadron, based at RAF Tangmere, was airborne and engaging enemy aircraft over East Sussex. At 1150 hours, one of its Hurricanes, flown by twenty year old Sergeant Pilot Dennis Noble, was seen to dive away from the battle. Noble, sadly had been shot and killed in his aircraft and was therefore unable to pull out of the dive. His aircraft crashed vertically into the pavement of Woodhouse Road, Hove, near Brighton.
In August 1940, following his death, Dennis Noble was buried in Retford. However, when Keith Arnold, (the Museum’s Head of Maintenance) led an excavation of the crash site in November 1996 substantial remains of the pilot were found. A second funeral, with full military honours, took place in Retford on 22 January 1997.
SERGEANT PILOT DENNIS NOBLE’S HURRICANE, P3179, IS DISPLAYED IN THE MUSEUM’S BATTLE OF BRITAIN HALL AS A MEMORIAL TO THOSE OF THE ‘THE FEW’ WHO WERE KILLED DURING THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN.
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