ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 113814
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| Date: | Saturday 13 January 1945 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  North American P-51D-10 Mustang |
| Owner/operator: | 363nd FSqn /357th FGp USAAF |
| Registration: | 44-14245 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Butley, Suffolk, England -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Initial climb |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
On Saturday 13 January 1945, during Eighth Air Force Mission 791, 958 bombers and 469 fighters were dispatched to hit marshalling yards and Rhine rail bridges mostly by PFF methods; 7 B-17s, 1 B-24 and 2 P-51s were lost over Germany, while 13 more aircraft (5 B-17s, 1 B-24 and 7 P-51s) crashed in Allied territory.
This day saw typical British winter weather, the sort that is particularly poor for flying; bad icing, thick cloud and snow storms. The fighter groups of the 8th Air Force were nonetheless tasked with escorting the heavy bombers. This resulted in the deaths of six fighter pilots as their Mustangs crashed within the space of about an hour in East Anglia that morning. Very probably all the crashes were the result of the pilots suffering from vertigo – severe disorientation while relying on instruments, something that was difficult to train for in the clear skies of the American mid-west.
Lt Robert L. Schlieker of 363nd FS, 357th FG was another who disappeared as he was climbing up through overcast. He crashed about 15 minutes after he taken off as the Fighter Group were still forming up. Flying in the #4 position of his flight, he was in formation just prior to starting the climb through the overcast. His leader reported that ’the air was very unstable in the thick overcast’ and that upon breaking out of the overcast at about 2,500ft, Lt Schlieker was not in position.
Sgt Leslie Dunnett, a local policeman reported that his P51D-10NA 44-14245 G4-B ’Floogie II’ had crashed about 1/2 mile north east of Butley Church, this lies about 3 miles east of RAF Woodbridge airfield and to the south of Leiston, where he had taken off from. The plane was reported to have been completely burnt out and pilot killed, he was initially identified from a piece of his shirt with his name on it.
As an aviation archaelogy team searched the field the spread of parts suggested that the Mustang had hit the ground at a shallow angle and had cartwheeled across the field. The ground in the Butley area is particularly sandy and what little was left of the wreckage was badly corroded, as can be seen from state of the propeller blade found, but items found also included a set of individual exhaust stubs off one bank of the engine compressed into one piece, a large section of mainwheel tyre, a rudder pedal, bomb or drop tank release levers, and the crash pad off of the K14 gunsight.
Sources:
http://www.sweffling.freeserve.co.uk/13%20jan.htm
http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii/usaf/html/Jan.45.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butley,_Suffolk
http://www.maplandia.com/united-kingdom/england/east-anglia/suffolk-county/butley/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 20-Oct-2011 13:25 | harro | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 14-Jan-2016 08:52 | Laurent Rizzotti | Updated [Operator, Location, Phase, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 13-Jan-2017 09:43 | Laurent Rizzotti | Updated [Operator, Embed code] |
| 13-Feb-2020 18:58 | Iwosh | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 23-Jan-2021 15:48 | Anon. | Updated [Operator, Location, Operator] |
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