42-7549 The Shark

media-46318.jpeg UPL 46318 P-47D-11-RE #42-75459 "Black Magic" Code C4-X
365th Fighter Group - 388th Fighter Squadron - 9th AF

Personal collection

Object Number - UPL 46318 - P-47D-11-RE #42-75459 "Black Magic" Code C4-X 365th Fighter Group - 388th Fighter Squadron - 9th AF

Charles Landells sent his description of this day, “We lost an engine before the target. We saw Switzerland across the lake but Lt. Scarborough said, ‘Let’s go home.’ Fortunately we were not attacked as I think we lost another engine before reaching England. We were banking to make a landing on a fighter field somewhere in Kent when our other two engines quit! Our left wing dropped and an observer on the ground said we hit a tree with our wing tip. I know when I looked out of the waist window I was looking straight down at the ground. I remember being thrown forward and then the waist section rolling over and over, with dirt and spent casings falling on me. When it all stopped, my one thought was to get out before any explosion or fire. I saw an opening above me and crawled up to it and without hesitating, went right out. I dropped about four feet to the ground and kept moving. About 20 feet away from the plane, I heard Vern Brenn call and saw him in a drainage ditch. I fell in beside him to learn that Jerome also was out and a bit farther away.



“When we realized there was no fire, we went back to see if anyone else survived. We found Lt. Bean, our co-pilot and Lt. Edmonds, our navigator next to one another. We knew that Bean was dead, but Jerry gave Lt. Edmonds a shot [morphine] from the escape kit because we were not sure about him. We saw Sgt. Howley, radio operator, laying across a bush, but people had arrived by then and forced us to lay down on stretchers.



“Up until then I hadn’t realized that I had injured my back and my head was bleeding. Vern had a broken nose and ankle, while Jerry only had frostbite. Bob Stickel died a few weeks later. Bob was new to our crew, having been picked up when we were in Ireland.”



Sgt. Vern A. Brenn clarified some items. “I’ve always carried a sense of guilt about being one of the three of us who lived through it. All of the other seven were far more deserving to live than me. The only one who was not one of our regular crew members was the navigator, Edmonds. He flew as a spare, replacing 2nd Lt. O’Connell from New York.



“Yes, we were a new crew in the 67th. Lt. Scarborough and I had flown our first mission as spares on another crew – he as a co-pilot and I as a ball gunner. That mission was to Berlin. The plane we were flying when we crash-landed was SHARK FACE and it had a lot of missions on it.



“The day we went down was mission number three for Lt. Scarborough and me. Flak was heavy and we had to feather one engine due to low oil pressure – this on the way to the target. We were still able to hold our position in the formation and completed the bomb run. On our way back we lost another engine and were then not able to keep up with our group, and the P-38 escort took turns covering us back to the English Channel.“By this time our fuel supply was about gone. I remember the pilot asking all of us if we wanted to ditch or try to make it to the English shore. We all said to go for England. Somewhere over the Channel, we lost another engine and started to lose altitude very fast. One crewman in the front spotted a farmer’s field and we headed for it. At this time we were only about five hundred feet with the pilots struggling to keep the plane in a position to crash-land. Then I heard the last engine cough and die!



“I seem to remember a large bump and a very loud crushing noise – and then I must have been knocked out. When I came to and realized I was still alive, I tried to get out and run but I couldn’t move. So Jerry Silverman and Charles Landells carried me to a safe grassy place away from the wreckage, then they went back to check on the rest of the crew. They found all the others dead except Bob Stickel. He was injured so badly that I don’t think they tried to move him immediately.



“Some English farmers were the first to arrive on the scene after they had called for assistance from the nearest hospital and an ambulance. All four of us survivors were loaded into the ambulance and driven to the hospital. We were there several days until they transferred all of us except Bob Stickel, to an American hospital near Southhampton. We were told that Bob could not be moved and he later died.



“Landells was so badly injured he never flew again. Jerry Silverman retrained to fly the nose turret position. I flew only three more missions after being grounded for a long time.” Many years after the war, Charlie Landells visited Woodchurch and learned more about the perspective of the people on the ground. It was their contention that Lt. Scarborough pulled up to save the houses, and the green where the school children were playing.

Connections

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Units served with

The insignia of the 44th Bomb Group.
  • Unit Hierarchy: Group
  • Air Force: Eighth Air Force
  • Type Category: Bombardment
The 'semiofficial' insignia of the 44th Bomb Group.
  • Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
  • Air Force: Eighth Air Force
  • Type Category: Bombardment

People

  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 44th Bomb Group 67th Bomb Squadron
  • Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
  • Role/Job: Co-Pilot
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 44th Bomb Group 67th Bomb Squadron
  • Highest Rank: Sergeant
  • Role/Job: Tail Gunner
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 44th Bomb Group 67th Bomb Squadron
  • Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
  • Role/Job: Bombardier
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Civilian
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 44th Bomb Group 67th Bomb Squadron
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 44th Bomb Group 67th Bomb Squadron
  • Highest Rank: Sergeant
  • Role/Job: Ball Turret Gunner

Missions

Events

Event Location Date Description

Other

Crashed

Woodchurch, Kent 16 March 1944

Revisions

Date
ContributorEmily
Changes
Date
ContributorAAM
Changes
Sources

MACR 15181 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database

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