Group, 494th Bomb Squadron, USAAF, 9th Airforce based at Stansted, Essex, collided in mid-air over the village of Theydon Mount, with the tragic loss of all on-board the two aircraft. The incident was actually the first time any lives had been lost by the 344th and it was only their 3rd mission since arriving in Britain.
According to the 344th Bomb Group History;
"Our third mission was pressed against an airfield in Holland on the 8th March 1944 fifty four planes took off for Soesterberg.
Weather that day over north eastern England was cloudy, the ceiling being quite low. Join-up procedure was difficult because of poor visibility.
During this procedure our Group suffered its first major accident, when two of our Marauders collided in mid-air as one of them emerged from the clouds. Both of these planes plummeted to earth carrying all of the personnel to their deaths.
The others proceeded to the target as briefed, dropping 571 x 100lb. bombs and 49x500lb. bombs, photographic interpretation showing very good results. The Soesterberg mission brought intense flak from enemy ground defences and fourteen aircraft were hit, causing minor damage but no losses to crews or planes."
The Men who Died
Crew of the 1st B26
1st Lt. John K. Eckert; Pilot.
2nd Lt. Thomas W. Worrell; Co-Pilot.
1st Lt. George E. Bair; Bombardier.
S/sgt. Alfred R Border; Engineer/Gunner.
S/sgt. Lewis O.Thompson; Radio/Gunner.
S/sgt. Edward J. Powell; Armourer/Gunner.
Crew of the 2nd B26
Captain. Jack W. Miller; Pilot.
2nd Lt. Linwood G. Brooks; Co-Pilot.
1st Lt. James A. Hudson; Bombardier.
S/sgt. Abraham B. Butler jnr; Engineer/Gunner.
S/sgt. George D. McMannamy Radio/Gunner.
S/sgt. W.J. Summers; Armourer/Gunner.
A local resident, Joby Bowles, recalled the incident, and recorded the time the accident happened – 3.20pm in his diary. He had just repaired his windows, when they were blown out again by the explosion when the aircraft crashed. Dora Fathers, who lived at Mount End also recalled the incident and that a number of cottages in the vicinity of the crash had their windows damaged.
Jo Galloway who lived on Tawney Common recalled the incident in an article for the High Country magazine in 1975:
The war seems a long way off in these modern times and yet memories return so vividly it might have been yesterday. One such memory is that of a mid-air collision over Tawney Common.
It was a most terrible accident, involving two American Marauder bombers which had taken off from Fyfield (Chipping Ongar) aerodrome and were about 2000 feet up. Each I think had a crew of six men. We were told that the first bomber took off and was circling round to gain height when the second took off and collided with it.
My brother was on his way to see one of our men, Mr. Lock, in the fields, when it happened, and he actually saw the collision in mid-air. My sister Betty, was upstairs in her bedroom and saw one of the planes, obviously about to crash and she immediately telephoned the police and ambulance. They told her later that it was the fastest arrival at any accident that they’d ever made.
The first plane exploded in mid-air and parts of the plane fell to the ground about 200 yards from the farm. The second plane made a wide sweeping circle over Toot Hill, then over High Warren and on over the common until, at about 200 feet it suddenly tilted up and then dived into the ground about 70 yards from the first one. Some of the bombs went off about 15 minutes later. The bodies were unrecoverable.
Being war-time I suppose one’s mind got blunted against so many dreadful shocks; tragedy seemed an every-day occurrence.
On the 22nd and 23rd February 1975 the Essex Historical Aircraft Society visited Mount Farm to gather further information for their museum. On their second visit they dug down and recovered one of the Marauders engines and a Browning machine gun.
Footnote:
On March 8th 1944, the same day as the collision over Theydon Mount, two B26 Marauder aircraft took off from RAF Chipping Ongar on a bombing raid to Soesterberg Airfield, (situated north of Utrecht, Holland). They were part of the 556th Bombardment Squadron. The two aircraft were called ‘Itsy Bitsy’ and ‘Double Trouble’ took off but they collided in the clouds during formation assembly.
Double Trouble's crew perished when their aircraft plunged to earth and crashed. The crew was able to salvo its bombs in the countryside prior to the crash, which limited the damage at the crash site. Bombs were said to be “salvoed” when they were dropped with safety wires intact and the detonators were not armed.
The aircraft crashed 100 yards north of Rock Hill Farm, Willingale.
The following crew members of Double Trouble were killed:
1st Lt. Edward D. Sargent; Pilot
2nd Lt. Donald L. Ogden; Co-pilot
1st Lt. Alexander Levi; Bombardier
S/Sgt. Joseph E. Somoski; Engineer/Gunner
T/Sgt. Robert A. Nordlohne; Radio/Gunner
S/Sgt. Harry Bear; Armourer/Gunner.
The other aircraft, Itsy Bitsy, which was piloted by 2nd Lt. Sam Ayer, managed to return to base and land safely, but the aircraft was a loss. It was later salvaged for parts.