USAAF Noorduyn Norseman – forced landing, Handcross, Sussex 30.12.44

Edit…sorry different Halifax AA…Doh 😀

As on another forum I posted a little more information concerning the crash of DT492, I have posted a link to that on the relevant post, mentioned above, on this forum. As to the crash of MZ765, mentioned in my initial post, there’s a little more concerning this to be found at http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=5210.0.

Just as a gentle thread drift – I went to the High Beeches gardens a few times (spookily) almost exactly 5 years ago :D…
They have/had a small piece of the Halifax up on one of the restaurant walls.
Here is a link to my post/pics at that time – if you scroll down there are some slightly better pics…

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.keypublishing.com%2Fshowthread.php%3F82426-Halifax-crash-nr-Handcross-(1942-)&ei=HkcHUr6TJ8KN0wXk0oDADw&usg=AFQjCNHfkoRo5-3PcsUiwI7TsbR1kP6-Mw&sig2=6GKUI6E32QtG_sLTZacVDQ

Edit…sorry different Halifax AA…Doh 😀

Thats great news and that is the photograph . Note the various fabric patches a possible result from the forced landing ? As an aside the museum also has Airborne Cigar ABC equipment as fitted to 101 Squadron Lancasters and 100Group aircraft .

…..and whilst they can’t tell me whether it was 44-70287 that landed out at Handcross on 30 December 1944, they have confirmed to me that this was then the 448th BG hack at Seething and they have kindly supplied me with the attached photograph. What kind people!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]219713[/ATTACH]

My father’s cousin knew Bob Noorduyn personally. She always pronounced it ‘Nor-dine’.

Thanks

Thank you. I’ve now contacted the museum.

The Tower Museum at Seething have loads of information they should be able to give more detail .

…..or take your golf clubs with you, Moggy!

My father’s cousin knew Bob Noorduyn personally. She always pronounced it ‘Nor-dine’.

Can anyone offer advice as to how to pronounce ‘Noorduyn’?

Regards

Noted 😀

Moggy

Moggy: Be careful if ever you need to fly to Normandy!

They may have needed to allow some fog to clear the following day, or awaited the arrival of a fuel bowser.

Moggy

Thank you both. I’ll attribute 44-70287 to the Norseman unless someone tells me otherwise.

Handcross is on the A23, about halfway between London and Brighton. If one draws a line between Seething and Handcross and then continues that line SW, it crosses the French coast around Cherbourg. So your theory could be right, Moggy C. Whatever, it looks as if they left Handcross in time to get back to Seething for the new year’s eve celebrations. However the time of their departure suggests that they might also have been able to get in nine holes before this. I wonder on which fairway of this golf course – which no longer exists – they landed and whether they departed from the same one.

Curiously I came across this incident whilst looking into the crash of Halifax III MZ765 which came down on the sixteenth fairway at the nearby Mannings Heath Golf Course. Without being disrespectful to the two crew members who lost their lives in this crash, I suspect that the members of West Park Golf Club were less inconvenienced by the arrival of the Norseman than were the members of Mannings Heath Golf Club by that of the Halifax.

Easy enough in those days to get caught out by fog, and it looks like they managed a creditable precautionary landing as it is now called.

The most interesting part for me is the date. I wonder were they headed elsewhere to celebrate New Year’s Eve, or trying to get back to base in time to sing Auld Lang Syne?

If it is the aircraft pictured at Seething then its history is as follows

Delivered to the USAAF as aircraft No. 44-70287 on July 5, 1944 and flown to Newark, New Jersey the same day. Shipped to the 8th Air Force in Europe on July 14. Later with the 9th Air Force. May have been involved in an accident on May 29, 1946. Consigned to salvage on June 24, 1946

http://www.norsemanhistory.ca/Aircraft.htm

[Speculation] If you locate Slaugham, it is certainly on-route between Seething and Normandy / North West France. Could have been going out to collect a downed crew?

Moggy

As luck would have it I happened to visit the Tower Museum at Seething last weekend . In there photo gallery is a picture of the 448thBG Norseman UC-64 44-70287.

Thank you, Laurence. Your suspicion is indeed correct. I will act on your suggestion if necessary, but I considered it more likely that the information would be forthcoming from those who frequent this forum and have that sort of specialist interest, rather than those with a more general interest in local history.

The only reference I can find is:
http://www.slaughamarchives.org/picture/number533.asp
but I suspect that is where you got your police report.
Maybe contacting the Slaugham archivist might help.