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Sunday 10 March 2019

Thunderbolt P-47C 41-6627, 551st FTS RAF Atcham 7th May 1944 Benthall Bank near Broseley,Telford

A cold trip out but managed to get a view of the field on Benthall Bank near Broseley,Telford , Shropshire where on the 7th May 1944 Thunderbolt P-47C 41-6627, 551st FTS crashed during a instrument training flight from RAF Atcham the Pilot flying with one other P-47 piloted by Lt Jack F Flaitz began climbing turns but the fighter snap rolled into a spin, recovering from this the plane was seen to enter a flat spin from which it never escaped the pilot exited the plane but tragically could not get clear before impact
This is about the best pictures i could get of the site due to access and weather
Crew =
2Lt David Finney

Stirling LJ628, 1654 HCU RAF Wigsley Upper Commons, Bradfield on July 21st 1944

 My final site of the peaks trip was to the crash site of Stirling LJ628, 1654 HCU RAF Wigsley which impacted the flat slope of Upper Commons, Bradfield on July 21st 1944 .
The bomber was on a training flight during which the trainee pilot was practicing flying on one or more dead engines , not knowing they were 45 miles off course he put the plane into a shallow dive breaking cloud the pilot had only enough time to pull the nose up pancaking onto the slope but the bomber remaining relativity intact and with no fire the crew luckily survived with some injuries



 Today a scatter of small remains litter the shallow gullies for some distance sad i couldn't have seen the site as it was some years back when much more remained on the moor
After a look around i found a few interesting small parts and a complete .303 running out of time i could only give this site 10 minutes but still worth the walk

Crew=
Flying Officer J O’Leary
Flying Officer L Gardiner
Sergeant J Gittings
Sergeant Ludlow
Sergeant T Burroughs
Sergeant L van Nierkirk
Sergeant Austin
Squadron Leader Hadland
Sergeant McDonald
Sergeant J Coulson