Imperial War Museum
Text Only | Site Map | About Us  
Imperial War Museum
IWM London | IWM Duxford | IWM North | HMS Belfast | Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms | IWM Collections
 You  are  here: 
IWM Home Page >> Your History >> Facts + Information
 Search       
Menu
Back to: Your History
The North at War
First World War
Second World War
Post-1945 Conflicts
People
Research
Exhibits
The Imperial War Museum
Freckleton Air Disaster

B-24 Liberator (Neg EA 70529)
B-24 Liberator (Neg EA 70529)
Tragedy struck at Freckleton, Lancashire, on August 23, 1944, when an American B-24 bomber on a test flight overshot the runway while trying to land at the American air base at Warton during a violent storm. It crashed into the centre of the village. An eye witness reported that the plane had been struck by lightning.

The human tragedy on the ground was catastrophic. The plane crashed into the Holy Trinity Church of England School, killing 38 children and six adults. It also partly demolished three houses before ploughing into the Sad Sack Snack Bar that had been opened to cater for American personnel from the nearby air base. Three British civilians and seven Americans were killed in the snack bar. Three American crew members aboard the B-24 and four RAF personnel in the café were also killed in the crash.

When the formal inquest into the tragedy opened on September 8, 1944, the total death toll was 61. A memorial garden and children's playground was opened in August 1945, with a stone tablet bearing the inscription: “This playground presented to the children of Freckleton by their neighbours of Base Air Depot No. 2 USAAF in recognition and remembrance of their common loss in the disaster of August 23rd 1944”.

If you are interested in reading more about the US Eighth Air Force, click here for details of how to visit the Department of Printed Books.

Sources:

The Blitz Then and Now (3 vols.), edited by Winston G. Ramsey (pub. Battle of Britain Prints International, London, 1987-1990) ISBN 0-900913-45-2; 0-900913-54-1; 0-900913-58-4

The Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team website: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/lait/
Related Links
Manchester Blitz
The Manchester Blitz is the name given to the most destructive raids on the city during the Second World War. The German Luftwaffe mounted consecutive attacks on the Manchester area on the nights of December 22/23 and 23/24, 1940. Large areas of Manchester, Salford and Stretford were devastated, leaving an estimated 684 people dead and 2,364 wounded.
Conscientious objectors
A conscientious objector is a person who, for reasons of conscience such as religious or philosophical principles, refuses to get involved in acts which may result in killing or harming other human beings.
German Prisoners of War in the North West of England, Second World War
A list of the camps holding German POWs in the North-west during the Second World War.
At the going down of the sun
This line comes from the middle stanza of the poem “For the Fallen”, by Laurence Binyon (1869-1943). The poem was first published in The Times on September 21, 1914, a few weeks after the start of the First World War. The whole of this middle verse is traditionally recited as part of Remembrance Day services throughout the United Kingdom.
Bantam Battalions
Alfred Bigland, MP for Birkenhead, pressed the War Office in 1914 for permission to form a “bantam” battalion of men who failed to reach the British Army's normal height requirement (5ft 3in) but who were otherwise perfectly capable of serving.
Glossary
BAR
British Army of the Rhine (post First World War)