Plane crashes

[Dasha]

Does anyone remember a Lancaster Bomber crashing near White City during WW2, or a Mosquito crashing near Highbridge Road?  Would be interested in recording any remaining eye witness accounts, getting some copies of photos if anyone can help either e-mail me or call on 01842 824595 please.

thank you

Dave Southwell

[Fenlander]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your post - it prompted me to sort through my 'history file' and get out some old photos of the village (though not of the plane crashes) which I think Tim will be putting on the website.

It was a B52 'Flying Fortress' that crashed near White City on 11th April 1944.  I think it was on the land near Common Load drain roughly behind the MRC Construction Building (the old Seed Innovations Building).  I believe that one crew member survied the crash.

The Mosqiuto crashed on 1st October 1944 into a cow shed on land behind where there is now a house called Ashtree Cottage (or around that area - it's hard to be precise!).  Both pilots (and a cow) were killed.

I don't think there are any pictures of either crash, I have certainly never seen any. 

Do you have any old pictures of the village?  If so could we have copies to put on the website?

[Dasha]

Thanks so much for that, wish I had listened more to my parents and grandparents.  I will have a sort through the photo box and see what I can find.

Its fantastic to see a website about the village, it holds a lot of memories for me.

[Kev]

Hi, I have been looking into the crash near white city for a while now, i can tell you some more info if you'd like?

[Tim]

I'd be very interested in any information you have for our history site.

Tim

[Apple]

Point of information. The 'Flying Fortress' was actually the B-17, (the 'Sally B' based at Duxford is a B17). The B-52 Stratofortress is the Huge 8 engine American bomber that was used in Vietnam and more recently in Afganistan. There is also one of these at Duxford, in the American museum building. I believe that RAF Bexwell was a Mosquito base if that is of any assistance to anyone.

[Dasha]

Have had some more information from a fairly reliable source about the White City plane crash and it doesn't appear to have been an American plane that crashed. They only have 4 US fighter aircraft (2 P-47's, 1 P51 and an AT-6)listed as having crashed in the Downham Market area so back to the searching, does anyone know of any eye witnesses out there that would talk to me?

[Tim]

You mentioned fighter aircraft, a B-17 would be considered a bomber class rather than fighter class.  Does that have a bearing on the information you have?

Tim

[The Vicar]

Has anyone contacted Duxford, Lakenheath or Mildenhall re this. I would have thought they should have or put you in contact with the right persons.

[Fenlander]

Hi all,

First of all apologies for saying it was a B-52 that crashed – I did mean B-17.  I checked with my eye witness this morning who assured me that it was definitely an American plane that crashed, so I have just spent half an hour doing a bit of research on the net and can now tell you that a B-17 called the "Tenny Belle" crashed near White City on 11th April 1944 – it exploded mid-air killing all but one crew member – just as my eye witness had described.

Spookily, while I was searching I did find that a Lancaster flying out of Downham Market had also crashed on the same date – but not in this area. 

Isn’t Google amazing???

[Tim]

I've updated the history site to add some information on the crash.

It's in the Village Tragedies page here - http://history.barrowaydrove.org/index.php/Village_tragedies

As always I might have butchered the story but feel free to edit the article.

[Dasha]

Wow! You guys have been busy, and so have I, my source now tells me that it depends whether the plane was inbound or outbound! If a plane was returning from a mission and had suffered combat damage it was reported as lost in action and the site not logged, if however it was outbound and crashed the crash site was logged.

However, further searching and communications with 'Bill' at the Air Museum in Wisbech (I thought local might be good)again leads back to it being a Lancaster out of Downham.  Now it gets difficult because due to a lot of RAF records being destroyed they have dates and not locations of crashes.

Hi Fenlander, great piece of detective work, can you tell me where you found the site with the details of the 'Tenne Belle' please.  Also would your eye witness be prepared to talk with me about the event?

Dasha

[Dasha]

Well I have had the following from the Accident Report Centre in the US and it seems it almost certainly was the Tenny Belle that crashed at White City.

I have asked for a copy of the crash report and will post it on the tragedies bit if that's okay with everyone.

Dasha


Dave,

Thank you for your request for information from Accident-Report.Com. We were able to find a report related to your request. The details are shown below.


INQUIRY NUMBER: 23-440411-506
DATE: April 11, 1944
AIRCRAFT: B-17G  42-31083
PILOT/CREW MEMBER: John E Daly Jr
LOCATION: 4 miles WSW of Downham Market, Cambridge
REMARKS: Exploded in flight; broke in two (Navigator was only survivor)

[Tim]

By all means add whatever you can to the page.  If you need any assistance do let me know.

Tim

[The Vicar]

I have a (new, unused) metal detector if anyone knows where the plane crashed