Mystery B-17 accident at Grafton Underwood

B17 Crash with 11 Crew

The B17 that crashed in my back garden, the “Eager Eagle” had a crew of 11 on board, flying at night. There were 10 American airmen and a British pilot teaching them how to fly at night. Sadly the British pilot was not very good, hitting a Beaufighter over Norwich. The two Beaufighter crew were killed straight away, two side gunners bailed out of the B17 and parachuted to safety, but the other 9, 8 American and 1 British, all died in my back garden. All I find now are brass 50 calibre casings, and lead bullets, and a bit of Perspex. All the rest has corroded.

Maybe there were 11 on board this one, and they were trying to teach 10 Americans how to fly at night.

I would like to put up a commemoration plaque on my wall in memory of the 9 who died. Anyone know any American USAF to contact at Mildenhall or Lakenheath who might be interested in providing the plaque?

Great news, It’s amazing how much info is available if only we ASK. Good for you. Keeo it up, and keep us posted as to what you find. Thanks for this

Great news, It’s amazing how much info is available if only we ASK. Good for you. Keeo it up, and keep us posted as to what you find. Thanks for this

Thanks professoreugene
i have been delving in to my family’s history and have been cob-smacked at what does come out. Apparently my Fathers Mothers brother (grans brother) joined the air force sometime around 1920’s and served in Afghanistan flying Harts i think, finally ending up serving alongside Churchill in Whitehall i have a copy of the London Gazette stating that he was promoted to Flg Offs Administrative and Special Duties Branch 17th December 1942 something to do with air reconasence dad says he still has a camera he used that anything under 3/4 mile would be blurred as it was to close.

Then Mum tells me that my Uncle Derek served on Arctic Convoys and his brother was a dispatch rider attached to NO 11 Group fighter command, she’s now digging through old photos to see if they have anything. Should be an interesting few weeks ?

Thanks OP, just had a quick scan as im off out but this thread looks really fascinating and im going to return to it later and have a maul!

I need to find out from my parents what happened to them with regard to the evacuee situation. I know my father’s family took in an evacuee from London in Norwich, but my mother was evacuated to Cambridshire from Norwich. Go figure. Dad remembers being strafed by an FW190 while playing in the street in Norwich. so it wasn’t that safe.

My father’s family stayed in Wellingarden City at the end of the war as my grandfather worked in electronics (possibly Marconi?) and dad remembers the Vampire being tested at Hatfield – he referred to it as the Squirt.

Interesting thread Prof 🙂

Great idea, Alohha. I have one uncle, aged 87, at last count, a veteran of the R.E.M.E. from 1943 onward, and am slowly extracting from him everything he has to tell. Interestingly, I found out from him a while ago that his own dad, my mother’s father, was kicked out of the British Army in 1907, because he had gone stone deaf. Get that info out of your still-living relatives, and share it with the guys here!! In 1996, herself and I were visiting with my mother, who had moved to Australia with my dad in 1964, showed us an official document from the South African Constabulary advising my other grandfather that he was being discharged from the SAC in order for him to be able to join the British Army for the Second Boer War, which he did survive. Document was not in my mother’s papers after she died in 2005.

After reading the posts in this thread i wonder how many other members have memorabilia from there parents/grandparents from this time in history.

My dad was evacuated from London in 1940 (Enfeild) to Suffolk Framlingham to be precise returning home 1944 I think this was the home of the 390 Bomb group but don’t know which individual units where there. For a while, while people would listen he used to recount having a ride in what he says was a B17. I haven’t found out if it was just around an airfield or flying sadly now he wont talk about it. However i still have his evacuation tag, gas mask in its cardboard box and some form of ID or ration book

Professoreugene, I took this photo of the memorial at Grafton Underwood this morning just for you:

I was also born and bred in Kett’rin, my mother recalls operations from Grafton Underwood in the early hours of the morning. One accident involving 46923 recorded a take off at 0455 on 6 April 1945.

Last year, I ran into a man and his family at Detroit’s Wayne County Aiport (DTW), [which is our local airport,] and quickly noticed an English accent that seemed more than familiar. Asked him if he was a person of the “ent, kent, wunt, and shent” heritage. He laughed out loud and said, “Yes, I’m from Irthlingborough.” Interestingly he recognized the common way Northants folks have of saying “aren’t,” “can’t,” “won’t” and “shan’t.” “Shan’t” is an expresion that is never heard over here in the colonies

A few years ago In Kettering, my older brother was approached by a man he had known in school some fifty-five years earlier.

They exchanged pleasantries and the man explained that his father had recently died, and that he and his brother were clearing out their father’s house in prep for putting it on the housing market. My brother remarked to him that our fathers had been friends during WWII and that he might think about doing something around the house before selling it.

The man listened with a puzzled look, as my brother recommended that he take a look up in the attic for something hard, wrapped in an oily rag. “Let me know what you find,” he said.

A while later the two met up again, and the man said, Yes, he had found an oily rag on one of the attic beams in the house, opened it and found a .45 Colt M1911A1 automatic pistol. My brother laughed and said, “Your dad got that gun from our dad. He used to buy them from the Yanks at the Air Force bases and sell them to all his friends. You’re the second person I’ve run across that had one of Dad’s guns!” No mention, BTW, of what happened to the ‘piece.’

I can see the headlines already, “His Dad was a W.W.II Gunrunner.” At least it won’t be in the ‘News of the World.’

On the topic of evacuees, T.O., about thirty-five years after the war, the older sister of herself went to Devon to make a surprise visit on the family with whom she had been evac during the war. Forty years later, the old gal opened the door, laid eyes on her, and said, “Nellie.” I want to know what happened to my memory.

Nellie married a man a little older than she was, a man who later worked for British Rail at Waterloo Station. During the Blitz, he would take the train up to London from Kent where he was serving as part of an anti-aircraft gun crew. People would ask him why on earth he was in London which was under attack by the L|uftwaffe virtually every night. He said it was because he needed a bit of peace and quiet. Eh?

Great collection of antiquities you have there, T.O. Thanks, too, fo the link.

For a kick-off, Twin Otter, your dad being evacuated out of Sheffield, was a new one for me. I didn’t know that Sheffield was one of the cities involved. Logically, though, with all the steel works there, the bad guys would likely have turned up the heat on the place anyway.

Yes professoreugene – from Pyebank School, Sheffield and they arrived in Balderton on Friday 1st September 1939. I have dad’s evacuation tag; a class photograph; three large (A3 size) evacuation sheets that list where all of the children and the accompanying adults were allocated; and two pocket diaries.

Dad stayed with the family he was evacuated to and I grew up knowing them as my grandparents. 🙂

Ironically where he moved to was approximately 400 yards from the Worthington Simpson factory, which assembled armaments and also approximately a mile and a half from the Ransom and Marles ball bearing factory!

There’re some nice Canadian connections being commemorated in the local area tomorrow as covered on this thread http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=119516 Long Bennington is about 5 miles from where dad lived in Balderton!

Yes, some guys had a really hard war.

I always think of this when I am down in Brittany on the Atlantic coast.

Some of the Wehrmacht were slugging it out in the bitter cold of the Eastern Front. Others were battling with the 8th Army, the heat and the flies in the Western Deseret.

Meanwhile, others were in Brittany, drinking the local wine, eating the local cheese and awaiting an onslaught that never came.

Lucky ******s

Moggy

Moggy, thanks for your comment. I know my little raving was somewhat lengthy. Reason is that it’s taken from my blog, where people from all over the world come in to read stuff and have no idea about things pertaining to the war. I guess the same goes for this forum. We have no idea who those “guests” might be or where from. My old boss at British Aiways always told me the letters I wrote for him were a way too wordy. Little did the old guy know that one day that would come in handy. My wife (in future I shall always refer to her as “herself,”) is a native Londoner, indeed a Cockney, and she was an evacuee (taken at a young age to Yorkshire, where, unfortunately, she wasn’t treated too well. Happily, her older brother was sent to the same place which did give her some comfort. Thank you, too, for the positive comments.

Your request for added reminiscences of the war reminds me that herself’s dad was, like my own dad, unable to meet the medical requirements to be able to serve in the armed forces and was assigned to the Home Guard. Remember, he’s a London, like herself, he too is a Cockney, given the responsibility of being on “firewatch” on tall buildings in the city of London. Their job, reasonably, was to watch out for incendiary bombs falling on buildings in that area, to run over and douse them with sand.

His day job was at Truman’s Brewery. Need I say more!! When he tuned up for firewatch duties, he was inevitably hammered out of his head, as he was every night. His contribution to the defence of London probably could be counted as minimal. LoL

Never worry about ‘cutting a long story short’ here.

You have a ready and eager audience for any reminiscence of those days.

We are, of course, well versed in the lore of the Home Guard (Not all of it from the still entertaining ‘Dad’s Army’ TV series.) and also of the story of evacuees.

Actually, I say that, but then I’m from a generation close to the end of WW2 and we were often told of the kids who were evacuated, and indeed threatened with the same if we misbehaved – this despite the war being several years in the past.

I’m guessing there isn’t a reader here who wouldn’t have loved to swop places with you for one day on that honey wagon.

Moggy

Moggy, thanks for your comment. I know my little raving was somewhat lengthy. Reason is that it’s taken from my blog, where people from all over the world come in to read stuff and have no idea about things pertaining to the war. I guess the same goes for this forum. We have no idea who those “guests” might be or where from. My old boss at British Aiways always told me the letters I wrote for him were a way too wordy. Little did the old guy know that one day that would come in handy. My wife (in future I shall always refer to her as “herself,”) is a native Londoner, indeed a Cockney, and she was an evacuee (taken at a young age to Yorkshire, where, unfortunately, she wasn’t treated too well. Happily, her older brother was sent to the same place which did give her some comfort. Thank you, too, for the positive comments.

Excellent recollection prof! 🙂

My late father was evacuated from Sheffield to Balderton, Notts in September 1939; and I grew up with his childhood stories of the comings and goings at RAF Balderton. This included the various bomber squadrons (including a Canadian Sqaudron); the dispersed Whittle Jet (or as he once described it – “a little aeroplane that made a funny screaming noise and didn’t have any propellers”); and the American Airborne Forces and their Carrier Groups.

In part these stories were what encouraged my early interest in aviation. Those evacuee stories now live on through the World War II education activities I sometimes deliver to school groups that visit Newark Air Museum.

Do you have any more stories prof?

For a kick-off, Twin Otter, your dad being evacuated out of Sheffield, was a new one for me. I didn’t know that Sheffield was one of the cities involved. Logically, though, with all the steel works there, the bad guys would likely have turned up the heat on the place anyway.

Excellent recollection prof! 🙂

My late father was evacuated from Sheffield to Balderton, Notts in September 1939; and I grew up with his childhood stories of the comings and goings at RAF Balderton. This included the various bomber squadrons (including a Canadian Squadron); the dispersed Whittle Jet (or as he once described it – “a little aeroplane that made a funny screaming noise and didn’t have any propellers”); and the American Airborne Forces and their Carrier Groups.

In part these stories were what encouraged my early interest in aviation. Those evacuee stories now live on through the World War II education activities I sometimes deliver to school groups that visit Newark Air Museum.

Do you have any more stories prof?

Thanks, Prof, wonderful stuff!

Never worry about ‘cutting a long story short’ here.

You have a ready and eager audience for any reminiscence of those days.

We are, of course, well versed in the lore of the Home Guard (Not all of it from the still entertaining ‘Dad’s Army’ TV series.) and also of the story of evacuees.

Actually, I say that, but then I’m from a generation close to the end of WW2 and we were often told of the kids who were evacuated, and indeed threatened with the same if we misbehaved – this despite the war being several years in the past.

I’m guessing there isn’t a reader here who wouldn’t have loved to swop places with you for one day on that honey wagon.

Moggy