September 8, 1944 in 'Why Not?' A/C #42-107208 on return from a mission to Mainz, Germany, Flak caused one engine's cylinder to blow out. Pressure dropped in another engine and pilot Jorgensen could not make the engine feather. Prop wash from other planes caused rapid drop in altitude. Bombs were dropped 20 miles east of Rheims, France. Now at 1000 feet in altitude, pilot Jorgensen ordered a bail out. All bailed out except the Pilot, Co-pilot and Bombardier. With the load lightened the plane was able to fly to Orly airfield, near Paris. 'Why Not?' was repaired in France and returned to base.

Killed in Action (KIA) in a mid-air collision with 42-3150 and 43-37684 and crashed west of Towcester, England on 11 October 1944. All 7 killed (DNB - Died Non Battle). In 2010, Nicholas Jorgensen's silver ID bracelet was found at the crash-site in England as plane was recovered from a field.

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9 Oct 1944, training accident where Jorgenson's plane "Stingy" was sheared in two, compounded this unbelievable accident by hitting Jack C. Core's plane (43-37684) with its rudder. Core parachuted to earth but his 4 crewmen were killed.

In cloudy conditions on October 11, 1944, three B-17 Flying Fortresses collided over south Northamptonshire during the height of World War Two. Although one of the stricken aeroplanes managed to limp back to its base, the other two crashed, leaving 11 servicemen dead.

While the crash was remembered well by many people in the county, the exact spot where the planes came down was forgotten. In 2010, when a team of archaeologists and aircraft enthusiasts from Sywell Aviation Museum excavated a field in Woodend, just outside Blakesley, it discovered a number of amazingly well preserved pieces of one of the aeroplanes, including parts of its windscreen, one of its wheels and a pedal from the cockpit. But the most important discovery they made was a small, silver bracelet, which had the 24-year-old pilot’s name, Nicholas Jorgensen, etched on the back.

Following the discovery, the local newspaper, the Northampton-based Chronicle & Echo, tracked down the pilot’s remaining relatives in America and his nephew, Philip Jorgensen, flew over to England in September, 2011, to watch a memorial being unveiled.

Mr Jorgensen, who traveled from New Jersey to watch the ceremony, said he believed his uncle would have been tremendously proud of both the memorial and the fact that more than 200 people turned out to see it unveiled. He said: “It was a beautiful service. It actually left me a bit overwhelmed. I was lost for words. It’s lovely to have a memorial to my uncle and his colleagues and it’s incredible that so many people came to see it unveiled.”

As well as residents of Blakesley and Woodend, both American and British servicemen attended the service along with members of the Royal British Legion and a number of civic dignitaries. Members of the Military Vehicle Trust brought wartime vehicles to the event.

Before the memorial was unveiled, a rendition of the Last Post was played and prayers were said for the servicemen who lost their lives. A minute’s silence was also held and poppy wreaths were laid on the new memorial. Mr Jorgensen was then presented with his uncle’s bracelet.

He said: “I can’t believe that bracelet had survived for all these years under the ground. “It will have pride of place back at home now. And I’ll be able to tell all my family what a wonderful reception I got over here and how beautiful the memorial is. “When my mum sees the bracelet she’s definitely going to cry, that’s for sure.”

Before the bracelet was discovered, Mr Jorgensen knew very little about his uncle’s death, other than he had died in an aeroplane crash in England while serving in the war. But the discovery of the bracelet identified exactly where Nicholas Jorgensen had died and the remains of the B-17 which were found with it helped historians work out how the crash happened.

Philip Jorgensen said: “We really didn’t know much about Nicholas’ death. “All we knew before the dig took place was that he died in an accident, but we didn’t know how or when. We couldn’t find any evidence at all back in America, there were no records. So we knew nothing until the people from Blakesley got in touch.”

The plane piloted by Nicholas Jorgensen was on a training mission when disaster struck. It was part of a formation of Flying Fortresses which had taken off from their base at Snetterton Heath in Norfolk to carry out a mock bombing run on Rugby. As the planes hit bad weather above Farthingstone, three of them collided in the air and two crashed leaving debris spread across miles of open countryside.

The memorial which was unveiled at Woodend lists all the airmen who died in the accident and tells the story of their doomed flight. The man behind both the B-17 excavation and the plan to build the memorial was Blakesley resident Romer Adams, who heard the plane crash when he was just five years old. He said: “I think we can be very proud of this memorial. Accidents like this were happening in Northamptonshire practically every day during the war and I think it’s important that these men’s sacrifices should be remembered.”

Nicholas Jorgensen came from Staten Island in New York, was on both the football and basketball teams at school and is remembered as being very popular with his friends and classmates. He joined the services on January 19, 1942, shortly after America entered World War Two.

He wanted to be a fighter pilot, but because he was 6 ft 5 in, the USAAF judged him too tall to fit inside the cramped cockpits of the fighter planes. Instead, he ended up flying B-17s and made several missions across Europe before meeting his untimely death in the Northamptonshire field.

One of the most dangerous points of his flying career came on September 8, 1944, when he was at the center of a mission to Europe which almost ended in tragedy. Flying over Kassel in Germany, his plane (42-107208) was hit by Flak, damaging one of the engines. As the plane lost height, six of the crew bailed out, leaving Jorgensen to pilot the lightened plane back to safety at the Orly airfield just outside Paris.

After his crash in Northamptonshire, he was originally buried at the American Cemetery in Cambridge, but his body was later moved by his family to the Long Island National Cemetery in East Farmingdale, New York. His nephew, Philip, now regularly visits the cemetery to pay his respects to the uncle he never got the chance to meet.

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The crash: October 11, 1944, dawned cloudy with intermittent drizzle and as the morning was progressing the weather deteriorated with patchy cloud up to 15,000 ft. In mid-morning a formation of B-17 Flying Fortresses took off from their base at Snetterton Heath in Norfolk, part of the 338th BS/96th Bombardment group for a training mission with a mock bombing run above Rugby. Over the village of Farthingstone, before their planned turn at Silverstone to return to base, a formation of three aircraft were involved in a mid-air collision at 15,000 ft after encountering severe turbulence and cloud.

The accident was triggered when the pilot of B-17G 42-3510 pulled up and hit the nose of B-17G 43-37684 with its tail section. Just as 510 sheared in half the third B-17 hit 684 with its rudder and also broke in two. Miraculously, Lt Jack Core, who was piloting 510, parachuted to safety, while his B-17 and the other Flying Fortress plummeted to earth at Woodend west of Towcester, in four sections. Core's four crewmen were killed as was pilot Jorgensen and his six man crew.

Although badly damaged 43-37684 was able to limp back to Snetterton Heath.

The clearing up of wreckage was the largest operation of its kind to take place in Northamptonshire during the Second World War, covering 170 fields stretching from Farthingstone to Woodend.

Artifacts from the crash site and a superb model of B-17 Stingy are on display at Sywell Aviation Museum, Sywell Aerodrome, Northamptonshire, which is open weekends, Easter to October. See: http://www.sywellaerodrome.co.uk/museum.php

This information was compiled by kind permission of the authors from the Northampton Chronicle & Echo and the Sywell Aviation Museum.