Hello,
I am looking for a picture of a B24 named " Stardust" from the 784th Bombergroup based at Attlebridge in England in World War Two.
This plane crashed on the 27th of march 1943 in a collision with an other B24J
The plane is one of these 3 planes 41-2936411, 41-52562F, 42-52341H.
http://www.web-birds.com/8th/466/missions.html
I’d like to know which plane of these was the stardust.
An other thing I’d like to know is how the noseart of this plane looked.
Thanks In Advance
Have you tried looking at www.b24bestweb.com yet. Not sure if it would help you but that is a great place for all things B-24 related. Hope that this helps.
I’ve actually tried that but there is nothing on it sadly
I’m assuming she flew with the 8th AF, but are you looking for the 784th bomb group or squadron?
Looks like you’re looking for an aircraft of the 784th BS of the 466th BG. There were at least two ships named ‘Stardust’ with the 784th BS, but neither of them have a serial matching what you’ve given. The two serials I have are: 42-50364, a B-24H-25-CF and 42-94902, a B-24H-20-FO.
There were also at least two aircraft from the 787th BS, 466th BS named ‘Stardust’ but their serials don’t match either.
I’m on my way out the door at the moment but I’ll give this a more thorough looksee later tonight…
Fade to Black…
This is a piece of a diary from a gunner that was a gunner telling about the collision of the Stardust and an other plane
[imghttp://www.jg5.org.uk/diary.jpg][/img]
As yet I don’t have any photos or other specific info concerning this particular aircraft but I have the following general info about this operation which you may find interesting…
The date was March 27th, 1944, not 1943. (typo?) The misson number was 282 (8th AF) and the targets for the B-24s of 2nd Bomb Divison were three airfields; Pau/Pont Long, Biarritz and Mont de Marsan.
The collision of two 466th BG B-24s took place during assembly over England, killing all twenty crew, and the aircraft crashed at Hoe and Gressenhall. Perhaps some of our members from England can help with more particulars concerning the locale?
One other 466th BG B-24 was damaged and crash landed at Attlebridge with no fatalities.
As a side note… during this day’s operations two well-known pilots of the 56th FG were shot down. Both were from the 63rd FS and both were brought down by flak. Major Gerald W. Johnson was taken prisoner but Major Walker M. Mahurin was able to evade and returned to England in early May, 1944.
Anyhoo, I’ll keep looking for more info on ‘Stardust’.
EDIT: Almost forgot… are you the same fellow looking for info over on the Army Air Forces site?
Fade to Black…
Thanks for your research Blackwolf!
That post at the armyairforces is written by a good friend of mine named Curtis Admunson from Las Vegas. I’m basicly building the B24J kit for him.
There might be a book inwhich there are some pictures of this plane: “Attlebridge Diaries” by John J. Woolnough.
Sadly this book is over a 150$ on the web, else I would have bought it.
Google has some pictures
,blackcat
I certainly can. [:)] Both of these planes are listed as B-24 Hs not Js with Prosper F Pinto flying 42-52562 which crashed at ‘North Hoe Green’ and Robert J Mogford fying 41-29364 which crashed at Gressenhall. Both were listed as 785th SQ or 784th SQ 466th BG
However the the Pinto crash site should have been listed as Northall Green, which is on the boarder of the parishes of Hoe and East Dereham. UK OS map ref around TF 995 148 (that’s just the general area, don’t know the exact position), and the Mogford crash actually occoured in Hoe, but right near the border with Gressenhall. UK OS map ref TF 974 164.
The position of the Mogford crash I am more sure about as I grew up on that farm, my grandfather was working on the farm when the plane came in, and my mother heard the explosion from Gressenhall school a couple of miles away. Family lore has it that the plane came in from the east narrowly missing the georgian Gorgate Hall and crashed in a marsh. The farm workers ran to the scene and were trying to negitiate their way across a deep dyke between themselves and the plane when it exploded.
I have just (like two days ago ) ordered the crash reports for both the Mogford and Pinto planes, if there’s any new info I’ll let you know. Oh I do have a photo of the Pinto crew, but the plane they’re in front of has no distinguishing markings.
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