Was it really a B17?, again the guard could have been wrong. If it was a B17 hitting trees would not give the visual described so that leaves the mid-airs (which could also account for 11 dead AND survivors as 2 aircraft would be involved).

Thanks, Scrooge.
The ongoing rumours at the time were that the aircraft had experienced some sort of mechanical problem while gaining altitude in order to join up with its group en-route to a raid on Germany. There was zero talk about a collision. Apparently the fire caught on and the crew lost control and it crashed. Time-wise, it could have been just before dawn for all I know and the plane was part of a daylight bombing raid to which the Americans had committed. You know, I can still remember a pair of fur-lined flight boots standing in the field near to the guard. Shivers!!

Thanks so much for the fabulous video. I thought it was photos at first, but then someone walked across the screen. I did notice in addition that the damage to the props on the port wing is more consistent with a low-wing crash-landing rather than a straight down crash. The plane I saw as a kid was absolutely blown apart, just the engines laying around, everything else was demolished.

USAF/USAAF AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS & INCIDENT REPORTS FOR UNITED KINGDOM AUGUST 1944
Grafton Underwood
440801 B-17G 42-97072
or
440815 B-17G 44-8011
or
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675034678_B-17-aircraft_propeller-of-devastated-plane_engine
440424 B-17 42-37789

…but not a mention of the number of the crew involved…

Martin