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B-24 Liberator crash site, Hameldown
Newton Abbot, Devon
Grid ref: SX 7090 7940
Main image: Photo: David Smith (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons. Not the crash site: The boundary wall and Two Barrows on Hamel Down, close to where the aircraft struck.
On 27 December 1943 a US Army Air Force B-24D Liberator flew into the cloud-covered hill at Hameldown, near Two Barrows. All eight crew died. Little is left on the ground.
- Aircraft: Consolidated B-24D Liberator, serial 42-40474
- Unit: USAAF. Accounts differ, see below
- Date: 27 December 1943
- Crew: Eight, all killed
- Grid reference: SX 70900 79400 (the Devon HER's approximate point is SX 70685 79249)
What happened
It is described as a cross-country training flight from RAF Alconbury in Cambridgeshire that was about 20 miles off its route when it flew into the hill in cloud. The American Air Museum record names it as a 36th Bomb Squadron, 482nd Bomb Group aircraft on what it calls a secret mission; the Devon HER, from a published list, says the 2nd American Bomber Group on a training flight. I have not found a fuller account of the cause or the route. Graham Lewis's book and Robert Jones's are the likeliest places.
What you can see
One report found melted aluminium, bolts and nuts, and scarred ground. I found no memorial.
Access
The site is on open moor. It is not in one of the three live-firing ranges as far as the sources say.
All military aircraft crash sites in the UK are protected by the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. It is an offence to dig, move or take anything from one without a licence from the Ministry of Defence, and many are war graves. Look, photograph, leave everything where it is.
Do not confuse
The Hampden crash of March 1941, about 1.4 km away, is a different aircraft and a different year.
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Records and reports
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