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Liberator Plane Crash 1944

I was with a friend Richard in the bombed area between Brown Street and Portway Place off Old Palace Rd when we saw a plane flying very low, coming from the direction of Halfords on the inner link road (it was then the City railway station).

As it passed over our heads towards Heigham Road it banked round and a wing hit one of the pinnacles on the tower of St Phillips Church.

Half of the wing and one engine finished up in the trees in the churchyard.

The plane then came back over our heads just missing Dereham Road Baptist Church. It flew one wing up, one down and crashed into the corporation yard at the end of Barker Street off Heigham Street sending up a cloud of black smoke.

All the crew were killed and the people of Barker Street put up a memorial in memory of the crew who gave their lives as the plane could have easily hit the houses.

This memorial can be seen on the flats opposite Barker Street on Heigham Street as the original houses have been pulled down. The date on the memorial is November 24th 1944.

(I was 9 years old when this happened and it is still clear in my memory.)

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