At about 5.30 pm on Friday 16 August 1940, the first German aircraft to be brought down within what was then the County Borough of Eastbourne crashed in Meads.
 A Messerschmitt Bf 110 of the Luftwaffe unit known as ZG 2 had left the former French aerodrome at Guyancourt as part of an escort for bombers raiding RAF airfields at Feltham, Heston and Heathrow.
 Over the South Downs, the Messerschmitt was engaged by a British fighter – almost certainly the Hurricane flown by Pilot Officer H N E Salmon of No.
1 Squadron.
The German aircraft broke up in the air, and the pilot, Hauptmann Ernst Hollekamp, was killed when he fell on the roof of Hill Brow School in Gaudick Road, his parachute unopened.
Part of the nose fell onto the Royal Eastbourne golf course, close to the end of Gaudick Road.
 The rear gunner, Feldwebel Richard Schurk, came down in the sea off Holywell and was drowned.
 The bulk of the aircraft crashed in the grounds of Aldro School in Darley Road — the wreckage was incorrectly identified in the local press as being that of a Heinkel He 111.
 At the same time, a lorry was hit in Hampden Park by a bomb which had probably been jettisoned by one of the German bombers returning from the raid on RAF airfields.
 Three Council workmen were killed – two instantly, the other dying the following day from burns.

On 4 May 1942, the first raid on Eastbourne by fighter-bombers took place.
 One of the casualties was the Meads parish church of St John, which was set ablaze and severely damaged.
 Until the church was rebuilt in 1957, services were held at the parish hall in Meads Street.
The tower, which originally had a steeple, survived the raid but was not attached to the nave when the latter was rebuilt.

At lunchtime on Sunday 7 March 1943, a raid by Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft caught Eastbourne unawares.
 In what is now known as ‘Upper Meads’, a bomb destroyed 22 - 28 Meads Street and others fell in the gardens of 3 Staveley Road and 41 St John’s Road.
There were 14 civilian fatalities; 50 persons were injured.
  Houses used as billets by the Canadian army were damaged in Milnthorpe Road.
 The following evening, the German Home Service (not the broadcasts in English by Lord Haw Haw) carried interviews with two pilots who had taken part in the raid.
 The aircrew vividly described the effects of a bomb on a large block of buildings (“it seemed to disintegrate into a cloud of blue-black smoke”) as they were making for the town.
At about 5.30 pm on Friday 16 August 1940, the first German aircraft to be brought down within what was then the County Borough of Eastbourne crashed in Meads.  A Messerschmitt Bf 110 of the Luftwaffe unit known as ZG 2 had left the former French aerodrome at Guyancourt as part of an escort for bombers raiding RAF airfields at Feltham, Heston and Heathrow.  Over the South Downs, the Messerschmitt was engaged by a British fighter – almost certainly the Hurricane flown by Pilot Officer H N E Salmon of No. 1 Squadron. The German aircraft broke up in the air, and the pilot, Hauptmann Ernst Hollekamp, was killed when he fell on the roof of Hill Brow School in Gaudick Road, his parachute unopened. Part of the nose fell onto the Royal Eastbourne golf course, close to the end of Gaudick Road.  The rear gunner, Feldwebel Richard Schurk, came down in the sea off Holywell and was drowned.  The bulk of the aircraft crashed in the grounds of Aldro School in Darley Road — the wreckage was incorrectly identified in the local press as being that of a Heinkel He 111.  At the same time, a lorry was hit in Hampden Park by a bomb which had probably been jettisoned by one of the German bombers returning from the raid on RAF airfields.  Three Council workmen were killed – two instantly, the other dying the following day from burns.
On 4 May 1942, the first raid on Eastbourne by fighter-bombers took place.  One of the casualties was the Meads parish church of St John, which was set ablaze and severely damaged.  Until the church was rebuilt in 1957, services were held at the parish hall in Meads Street. The tower, which originally had a steeple, survived the raid but was not attached to the nave when the latter was rebuilt.
At lunchtime on Sunday 7 March 1943, a raid by Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft caught Eastbourne unawares.  In what is now known as ‘Upper Meads’, a bomb destroyed 22 - 28 Meads Street and others fell in the gardens of 3 Staveley Road and 41 St John’s Road. There were 14 civilian fatalities; 50 persons were injured.   Houses used as billets by the Canadian army were damaged in Milnthorpe Road.  The following evening, the German Home Service (not the broadcasts in English by Lord Haw Haw) carried interviews with two pilots who had taken part in the raid.  The aircrew vividly described the effects of a bomb on a large block of buildings (“it seemed to disintegrate into a cloud of blue-black smoke”) as they were making for the town.
Meads