P-47C wreck

P-47C 416234

Thank you for all the information you have provided me through this and other boards. Here is what I have learned about Lt. Ben Brew. Prior to arriving in England in 1944 he was stationed at Harding Field, In Baton Rouge, Louisiana as an Instructor Pilot. Due to war time secrecy his family did not know where he was except that he may be near Birmingham. This unit ended up at Atcham Field, Shropshire, UK. He had only been in the UK for about 6-8 weeks when he crashed.
My Grandmother had a picture of him in uniform on her dresser that had made me very curious as to what happen to him and where he had crashed etc. With the Internet being what it is, I made some searches on his name and started getting various hits. I learned that his name is on the wall of the missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery. The curator filled in the name with sand from Omaha Beach in order to get a better photo, a fitting tribute.

This past summer we stop in to see this and I learned he was with the 495th FTG. From this information I was able to find they were located at the Atcham Airfield. This was very supprising to me as I had lived near Shrewsbury, England in 1997-2000 while working for the Inland Revenue (sorry). I had driven past the airfield and remembered seeing some of the remnants. I never new he had been stationed there.
Anyways one clue led to another and I now have more details than I could ever have hoped for after all these years. I have provided this information to Ben’s surviving brothers and they are amazed with the volume of information that has come out and are very greatful for the assistance.

Here are a couple of the websites that help me and artifacts that where uncovered.

http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/495ftg.php
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/1941_1.html
http://www.creativefatcat.com/lobdell/main.html

[ATTACH]160405[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]160401[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]160402[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]160403[/ATTACH]

P-47C

Interesting information coming up!Sorry for posting the wrong address for the forum its actually www.bsacforum.co.uk

I have the accident report for this one. 2/Lt Benjamin A Brew crashed in the sea while attempting a roll at approx 700 ft in front of the bows of a ship. The aircraft was seen to disintegrate and sink. His body was not recovered and he is recorded on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge. No mention on report of wreckage being raised and a P&W R-2800 was pulled up in nets a few years ago and was almost certainly from the P-47.

Yes this report was also mentioned but was not his uncle who was stationed at Shawbury when it happened and had been on a fighter affiliation exercise when the accident occured.You can read about it on www.bsacforum.com.

The link just brings me to a Domane Page

This aircraft was also damaged in a forced landing near Wymeswold on 09/01/1944. Whilst undertaking formation training, 41-6234 suffered an engine failure at 25000 feet (mechanical failure – oil leak.). 2/Lt. Luther J Abel made a forced-landing in a ploughed field 200yds from the airfield.

2/Lt. Abel was involved in a second accident; on 18/08/44 he experienced sudden loss of power whilst flying P-38J 42-67490 and crashlanded near Wroxeter. Sadly, he died of his injuries on 22/09/1944. He is buried at Cambridge American Cemetery.

P-47C

Yes this report was also mentioned but was not his uncle who was stationed at Shawbury when it happened and had been on a fighter affiliation exercise when the accident occured.You can read about it on www.bsacforum.com.

This is what I have on the plane,

41-6234 P-47C-2-RE

Assigned to the 495th Fighter Group, 552th Fighter Squadron I have it crashing 1 mile off the shore in the Channel and that it was condemned on the 24th due to damage, which means that it was most likely recovered if it crash in the shallows.