B-17 Wreck in Kent

Don’t tell TIGGER! :highly_amused:

This appeared on my Faceache newsfeed yesterday (post shared by Hornby Railways).
(Thanks for the ID, Ross.)

This wreck has been known of for some years.

Bob T.

It’s been doing the rounds on all sorts of other forms of media this time round for quite some days now too………unfortunately repeatedly so, as do many other stories.
This one seems to originate from BBC South East not WW2AERO. Plagiarism at its finest.

Some of the wreck was salvaged in the 90’s and donated to the Brenzett Aeronautical Museum I believe.

Listed as a monument, is this becoming a trend, given it is protected under PMRA, what is the point ?, If you are trying to protect it, then best not draw it to everyone’s attention over the news, standing on it won’t help it either

This wreck has been known of for some years.

Bob T.

Looked into the detail for this one a few years ago when fleshing out the RNLI record.

The USAAF records contained some glaring errors on aircraft and pilot compared to the 303rd histories.

The reported location of Pealie Bay threw me until local fishermen told me they knew the place for crab fishing – the USAAF scribe was a commercial snow crab fisherman (Opillo Crab).

Delivered Cheyenne, Wyoming 08/10/43.
Transferred Grand Island 27/10/43.
Assigned 94BG but transferred to 427BS/303BG Molesworth 18/11/43.
MIA, ran out of fuel, ditched into the Channel, Pegwell Bay, Kent.
10 RTD
Source: Freeman

Mission: Leverkusen

Bomber Command Mission 145.

“No trace of aircraft number in Air Force History Support Office.
Eighth Air Force Roll of Honor shows aircraft and pilot Eckhart supposedly listed on MACR 303.
MACR 303 shows a different aircraft and pilot.

Only one loss over Channel 01/12/43 has MACR raised, MACR 1550″
(Source: Letter to R McNeill, Air Force History Support Office, 28/09/98)

“Walmer, Kent.
At two o’clock in the afternoon of the 1st of December 1943, the coastguard reported an American Flying Fortress aeroplane down in the sea a mile north of the Guildford Hotel in Pegwell Bay. A moderate north-west wind was blowing. The sea was smooth. The lifeboat was not needed, and four of her crew put out in the motor boat ‘Terrier’. She was overtaken by two air sea rescue launches and the coastguard signalled the ‘Terrier’ to return.
Rewards £1 to two men. The other two men had been rewarded by the Bevan Trustees.”
(Source: Supplement to Annual Reports of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution 1939-46)

“Pilot and Copilot Names.
Mission: Solingen.
Ditched in Pealie Bay.
10 RTD by AS/R.”
(Source: Http://www.303rdbga.com/goldfish.html)

“Crew Names and Serial Numbers.
Pilot Eckhart,
Copilot Jenkins,
Bomb Meagher,
Nav Peacock,
Engr Neuner,
Radio Kuehl,
Ball Gunner Tambe,
Waist Gunner Musasche,
Waist Gunner A N Other,
Tail Gunner Smith.”
(Source: Http://www.303rdbga.com/p-rost-defg.html)

“303rd BG(H) B-17G #42-31243 (no name) (GN-Z) was assigned to our 427th Bomb Squadron on 18th November 1943. She ditched in the English Channel at Pealie Bay on 1 December 1943 when the B-17 ran out of gas. The ten man crew was picked up by air-sea rescue and taken to Manston, England. The B-17 was piloted by 2ndLt Alan Eckhart and was returning from a combat mission to Solingen, Germany.”
(Source E-Mail to R McNeill, from Harry D Gobrecht, [email], 25/10/98)

Ross

Indeed.

It already has PMRA 1986 protection.

Thanks Andy,
Very interesting.
Declaring it a monument to protect it? Now that really carries weight.
Isn’t it alrady protected under the pma-act?
Cees