大象传媒

I was living in Leek ,North Staffordshire during the war and it must have been about 1943 perhaps ,on a wonderful day with sunshine and a blue sky.
I could hear the sound of an approaching aircraft and it was normal for safety reasons to identify planes in the interest of self preservation.
Onlooking I saw a B 17 Fortress at a very low altitude of around 250 feet.
The aircraft was flyig on only two of its four engines and I could see very heavy Flak damage around the rear fuselage and tail plane. It was in fact shot to bits with many holes which I could clearly see.
It passed overhead in the direction of
Cheshire and went out of sight.
The following day I was looking in the Daily Herald newspaper and column width was a map of britain with a dotted line across it.The map related to the aircraft which I had seen and told the story of how it had been on a bombing mission wih the 8th. Airforce and had sufferes severe Flak damage.
Losing height as it made its way back to England the pilot ordered the crew to bale out near to the English coast and expected the aircraft to go down into the sea.
The crew Baled out but the plane ,losing height continued to fly.
When I saw it it was crewless and it continued on over Staffordshire , Cheshire and Lancs.,only to crash into the Irish sea.
I have often wondered where the plane was based and if someone were to go to the Newspaper Library they could find the date the story appeared in the paper and then from U.S. Airfoce records
of losses, trace the plane.
The crew were saved and I have always wanted to know more about them but I am too far away from London.

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