B17 ACCIDENTS FROM ABOVE

[Gil Boyd]

Bob,
Thanks for that. Always wondered where I had acquired it from. I was the village copper at Molesworth in the UK a big B17 base during WW2 now a U.S.Intelligence Centre. I remember being shown many sites around Molesworth, Chelveston, and Glatton on my beat, of the other U.S B17 bases where they met as they circled to go off to Germany, and crashed together and made enormous craters in farm land that even today they are so evident. Around all three stations.
What a tragic loss of young life over here, without firing a shot.

Just up the road as well, near the old RAF Brampton even today two buildings still remain which were SPLASHER beacon transmitters so that aircraft could form up without colliding.
Brampton Grange | American Air Museum in Britain

They were manned by 8th Air Force guys, and not many enthusiasts know what I am talking about when I say SPLASHERS and BUNCHERS.............very interesting use of beacons to stop these types of accidents on take off from so many close Bomber stations.
And that was just the U.S as the whole area around where I live was RAF Bomber and PATHFINDER airfields, and of course U.S.AF Alconbury where up until 1999 the TR2 was based...............a real recipe for disaster during WW2 being so close together like that, but it is the flattest land in the UK, and the reason why airfields were amassed here
LEST WE FORGET.

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