Relatives of two airmen killed in a wartime plane crash have visited the scene of the accident for the first time.

Emotions ran high as two RAF Dakotas took off for a short hop across the Channel on February 6 1945.

Their passengers were British aircrew heading for newly-liberated Europe during the last months of the Second World War.

But only one of the planes, which took off from Thorney Island, near Chichester Harbour, arrived.

The other crashed into the South Downs at Folkington, a mile from the famous Long Man of Wilmington, shortly after 10am in thick mist. It exploded, killing all 23 passengers and crew.

Farm workers reported hearing terrible cries from the blazing wreck as it tumbled down the hillside and into a copse.

PC Edward Page of East Sussex Constabulary was the first to reach the awful scene.

His report graphically brings alive the events of that tragic day: "With my axe, I managed to cut a way through the trees and branches which had been brought down by the plane.

"The machine was still burning and small arms ammunition was occasionally exploding. Rescue work was hampered by lack of water as the wreck burnt continually and it was 18.00 hours when the last body was removed."

On Sunday, the victims were remembered by relatives and local historians, 57 years to the week of the disaster.

One of the passengers that day was hero flyer Colin Rattray. He had survived 50 missions over Nazi-occupied Europe as a navigator in a Mosquito aircraft.

When he said goodbye to his wife Elsie days earlier, neither knew she was pregnant with their only child.

Now 56, their daughter Lyn Livings made the trip from Cheshire for the first time to plant a rowan tree at the crash site.

She was joined by engineer Mick Brooks, 44, from Briar's Wood, Horley. His uncle, Corporal Gerald Lee, an RAF volunteer reservist, also died in the crash.

Mrs Livings admitted Sunday's ceremony was an emotional moment. She said: "You can't change things but we were always very proud and I have always wanted to know where the crash was.

"He said he would always come back as long as he flew with his pilot, Stan Etherington.

"They had been through 50 dangerous raids together but they were split up and Stan went in the first Dakota. He survived."

Mrs Livings, from Appleton, near Warrington, visited the crash site with the blessing of her mother, now 81, who remarried.

She said: "My mother never stopped talking about my dad and we always had lots of photos of him. I always wanted to know more but it didn't feel right when my step-father was alive."

Last year, following the death of her mother's second husband, Mrs Livings was put in touch with local historian Peter Longstaff-Tyrrell.

He had been researching the crash, having written nine books on the wartime history of East Sussex, and always felt it had been badly ignored.

He said: "This crash has never really been commemorated or recorded. It barely made the newspapers at the time.

"I have been trying to revive interest in our wartime history. There were more than 500 crashes in East Sussex and they are all important."

Mr Longstaff-Tyrrell, 58, a retired printer of Albert Road, Polegate, joined Mrs Livings, her husband John and Mr Brooks on Sunday to guide them to the site.

There are no plans for a memorial, except the tree, but the trip to the site may become an annual event for those involved.