St Barnabas - Civilian War Dead and the Crash of the Lady Jane
Civilians Who Lost Their Lives Through Enemy Action.
May Alden
Ephraim Austin
Charlotte Hansell
Benjamin Hayhoe
William Meek
Bertram Utting
In memory of the crew of the B24 Liberator 42-95133 458/753-K
Who lost their lives on the 24th November 1944
In this Parish.
2nd / Lt Ralph J Dooley
2nd / Lt. Arthur Akin Jnr
2nd / Lt. Paul E. Gorman
S/Sgt John J. Jones
S/Sgt Paul A.Wadsworth
S.Sgt Oscar B.Nelson
S/Sgt John A. Phillips
S/Sgt Don Pete Quirk
S/Sgt Ralph Von Bergen
***************************************************************
May Alden*************************************************
Name: ALDEN, MAY BLANCHE
Civilian War Dead
Age: 60
Date of Death: 29/04/1942
Additional information: of 4 Home Street, Heigham Street. Widow of Isaac John Alden. Died at Raynham Street.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146158
Ephraim Austin*****************************************************
Name: AUSTIN, EPHRAIM
Civilian War Dead
Age: 84
Date of Death: 07/05/1942
Additional information: Husband of the late Frances Elizabeth Austin. Died of shock as a result of the April bombing, at The Lodge, Bowthorpe Road.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=4032367
Charlotte Hansell***************************************************
Name: HANSELL, CHARLOTTE PHOEBE
Civilian War Dead
Age: 55
Date of Death: 28/04/1942
Additional information: of 27 Orchard Street. Daughter of Mrs. S. Chapman, of 71 Knowsley Road; widow of William Russell Hnsell. Injured at 27 Orchard Street; died same day at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146280
Benjiman Hayhoe***********************************************
Name: HAYHOE, BENJAMIN
Civilian War Dead
Age: 52
Date of Death: 28/04/1942
Additional information: Firewatcher; of 7 Clifton Street. Husband of Clara E. Hayhoe. Died at Northumberland Street Shelter.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146283
Benjamin was a Nurse at a Public Assistance Hospital.
www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/family-history/victims-of-the-b...
William Meek**********************************************
Name: MEEK, WILLIAM HENRY ROBERT
Civilian War
Dead Age: 82
Date of Death: 07/05/1942
Additional information: of 11 Midland Street. Died at The Lodge, Bowthorpe Road. Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146349
William was a retired Bricklayer
www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/family-history/victims-of-the-b...
Bertram Utting************************************************
Name: UTTING, BERTRAM EDWARD
Civilian War Dead
Age: 41
Date of Death: 29/04/1942
Additional information: of 39 Midland Street. Son of Brian E. Utting, of West Farm, Attleborough; husband of Beatrice Utting. Died at Greyhound Opening.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146460
Bertram was a Motor Mechanic
www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/family-history/victims-of-the-b...
******************Crash of Liberator 42-95133 458/753-K 1944**************
Eastern Daily Press - 3rd December 2010. Derek James.
Nine white roses, each representing a young life, were laid on a cold day near a busy road in Norwich.
As the traffic sped past us we stood in quiet reflection to remember the young men who lost their lives on the same day in 1944.
Since then this part of Norwich, Heigham Street, has completely changed and has been re-developed with new homes and industrial developments.
But as we put the roses on the memorial in Freeman Square our thoughts went back to that terrible November day as pilot Ralph Dooley struggled with the controls of his stricken Liberator, looking for a way to avoid crashing on houses.
While we could imagine what it would have been like, eye-witnesses from that day have never forgotten watching from the ground as the mighty bomber – named the Lady Jane – fell out of the sky.
The people gathered for this short and moving service, conducted by the Rev Elsie Hutcheon of St Barnabas Church, where there is a memorial to the men, all had their reasons for attending... and remembering.
As sheriff and sheriff’s lady, my wife and I, were representing you at this special service. Among the congregation was author Richard Clements who wrote a book In Search of the Lady Jane and artist Mike Bailey who painted the tragedy.
Others remember the incident as if it were yesterday. The huge bomber was in trouble when it flew in, low over the city, on November 24 1944, narrowly missing St John’s Cathedral – a landmark for American planes.
People, children at the time, said the noise was deafening. The Lady Jane was almost on its side as pilot Dooley, aged just 20, fought the controls, searching for waste ground. The plane then clipped the top of the old St Philips Church. The pilot brought it down on one of the few areas without houses – the corporation yard – and it exploded in a ball of fire. The crew didn’t stand a chance.
The boys in the Lady Jane, all in their early 20s, will never be forgotten.
www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/derek-james/remembering_the_...
Lady Jane was a B-24H-25 model Liberator, serial number 42-95133 and was part of the 753rd Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group.
Accident Report 45-11-24-516: On 24 November 1944 at 1730 hours, A/C B-24 (H) 42-95133 returning from a Practice Mission and in the process of making an instrument landing approach to AAF Station 123. The weather was: 3900 yards Viz, with 400-600 foot ceiling, 10/10ths coverage and the wind NW at 12-14MPH.
The A/C hit the steeple of St. Phillips Church on Hamm Road, damaging the right wing and right tail assembly and continued 1000 yards, apparently in normal flight at which time the right wing dropped and the ship crashed and burned. Wreckage shows that landing gear was retracted.
Mr. A. Hindry and Mr. George Baxter, employees of Baker Street Corporation and eye witnesses of the accident declared the A/C descended at a steep angle and in an abnormal flying attitude.
The result was total loss of A/C and all personnel. Damage to civilian property was negligible. There were no civilians injured.
- #Eyewitness statements
1Lt Cliff D. Gersbach, 752nd Squadron: "I was standing at the corner of Earlham and Mill Hill Road, Norwich, 24 November 1944 at approximately 1700 hours when B-24H Airplane No. 42-95133 made a 180 degree left turn in a vertical bank almost overhead. The airplane was flying about 200 feet above the housetops and I noticed that it was losing altitude (slipping off on the left wing). The turn was so sharp that the wings were vertical to the ground. The airplane started to level out from the turn and disappeared from sight for a moment; by that time it was skimming the housetops; when I heard a sharp crash, which was reported by an RAF Sergeant to be caused when the right wing of the airplane hit the top of the tower on St. Phillip's Church (Hamm Road). After hitting the church, the airplane reappeared in a steep climb gaining about 300 feet altitude when it fell off on the right wing, crashed and burned.
"The tip of the right wing and part of the right rudder were torn off when the airplane hit the church. The airplane appeared to be under control after hitting the church and it appeared that the pilot stalled it out by trying to gain altitude too fast, causing it to fall off on the right or damaged wing and crash about 1000 yards from the church.
"The airplane seemed to be having no mechanical difficulties and the engines were apparently running normally. The landing gear was retracted."
2Lt Edwin J. Sealy, pilot 755th Squadron: "We had just broken into the clear after an instrument letdown and had circled the town of Norwich once when we saw an aircraft approximately two miles in front of us apparently flying straight and level. The plane started a steep bank to the left and continued the bank onto its back. Then it dived into the ground and exploded immediately. I learned later that this A/C was 113-K of my own base."
There are several pictures of the crew amd a letter of thanks from a Mrs E Notley of 43 Mancroft Street, Norwich, thanking the crew for the efforts they made to avoid coming down on houses
www.458bg.com/crewba80dooley.htm
The Lady Jane was a Liberator bomber aircraft which crashed, close to where Eagle Canoe Centre now is, in 1944 killing all of its crew. The pilot had fought to steer the aircraft away from a row of cottages nearby.
In memory of those who died so close to our Club base a trophy was made by club member Richard Clements and we have a four-paddler canoe race for it every year at our Friends and family day, usually in July.
The bomber was a B.24H, serial number 24-95133, reputedly named the Lady Jane, from the 753rd Bomb Squadron, 458th Bomb Group. The crash happened on 24th November 1944 at about 17:00 and the aircraft was on a training flight from Horsham St. Faith airfield. It struck a glancing blow on the now-demolished Saint Philips Church tower. Approximately six foot of one wing was lost and the aircraft crashed a few hundred yards away in open space near Barker Street, at a Corporation road depot off Heigham Street.
Crew members were:
2/Lt Ralph J. Dooley 2/Lt Arthur C. Akin Jr. 2/Lt Paul E. Gorman S/Sgt John J Jones S/Sgt Paul A. Wadsworth S/Sgt Oscar B. Nelson S/Sgt John A. Phillips S/Sgt Don P. Quirk* S/Sgt Ralph W. von Bergen*
* Buried at the American Military Cemetry, Cambridge.
members.fortunecity.co.uk/eaglecanoeclub/ladyjane.htm
Arthur Akin
There is a pay to view page for Arthur Claude Akin, born 1922 and died 24th November 1944, on Ancestry. It gives his parents as Father: Arthur Claude Akin
Mother: Ocie Lee
records.ancestry.com/Arthur_Claude_Akin_WorlWar_Ii_record...
It seems he’d “pancaked” another B-24 on the airfield on the 2nd October
www.458bg.com/crewaz01fuson.htm
www.458bg.com/Aircraft/PDFsheet/BadGirlData_WEB.pdf
Arthur is now buried at Barrancas National Cemetery, Pensacola, Escambia County, FL
. He is listed as Arthur C. Akin, born 21st March 1922.
John A Phillips
Staff Sgt. John A. Phillips, 22, Norwood, Serving in England
Norwood, Dec. 11--Staff Sgt. John A. Phillips, 22, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Phillips, North Main Street, Norwood, was killed in the crash of a B-24 Liberator bomber on Nov. 24 in England, his parents have been notified by a war department telegram. No other details of the tragedy were received.
On Saturday, the parents received a letter from Leonard J. McMananon, chaplain serving in England, which stated that their son's body and those of the others of the bomber crew who met death, were buried with full military rites in England on Nov. 28.
Sergeant Phillips, nose gunner aboard the Eighth Air Force B-24, was born in Norfolk on March 17, 1922. The family moved to Norwood while John was still a child. He was graduated from Norwood High School in 1941. He entered military service on Oct. 10, 1942, and received basic training at Camp Robinson, Ark.
On Dec. 10, 1942, he was sent to the Aleutian Islands where he was stationed until Oct. 10, 1943. Returning to this country, he was sent to Laredo, Tex., to gunnery school.
Last July he visited his parents on furlough and upon returning to duty, he went to England, where he had since been stationed.
Surviving are his parents; one brother, Cpl Joseph Phillips, now stationed in Australia, and six sisters, Mrs. Lester (Anne) Gagnon, Norwood; Mrs. William (Julia) Yolton, Waddington; Mrs. Leo (Eleanor) Farnsworth, Potsdam; Mrs. Thomas (Alice) Gagnon, Perr, Fla., Mrs. Vernon (Mary) Young, Lawrence, Kan., and Miss Hilda Phillips, residing at home.
(SLCHA Scrapbook; Watertown Daily Times)
(There are more reports at the same web-site. It also notes his body was later returned to the United States.
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~slccemeteries/...
Don Pete Quirk
Don Pete Quirk, b. 10 Jun 1920, Indiana; d. 24 Nov 1944, in World War II.
wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/Family:Whitney,_Sherman...(1867-1933)
St Barnabas - Civilian War Dead and the Crash of the Lady Jane
Civilians Who Lost Their Lives Through Enemy Action.
May Alden
Ephraim Austin
Charlotte Hansell
Benjamin Hayhoe
William Meek
Bertram Utting
In memory of the crew of the B24 Liberator 42-95133 458/753-K
Who lost their lives on the 24th November 1944
In this Parish.
2nd / Lt Ralph J Dooley
2nd / Lt. Arthur Akin Jnr
2nd / Lt. Paul E. Gorman
S/Sgt John J. Jones
S/Sgt Paul A.Wadsworth
S.Sgt Oscar B.Nelson
S/Sgt John A. Phillips
S/Sgt Don Pete Quirk
S/Sgt Ralph Von Bergen
***************************************************************
May Alden*************************************************
Name: ALDEN, MAY BLANCHE
Civilian War Dead
Age: 60
Date of Death: 29/04/1942
Additional information: of 4 Home Street, Heigham Street. Widow of Isaac John Alden. Died at Raynham Street.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146158
Ephraim Austin*****************************************************
Name: AUSTIN, EPHRAIM
Civilian War Dead
Age: 84
Date of Death: 07/05/1942
Additional information: Husband of the late Frances Elizabeth Austin. Died of shock as a result of the April bombing, at The Lodge, Bowthorpe Road.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=4032367
Charlotte Hansell***************************************************
Name: HANSELL, CHARLOTTE PHOEBE
Civilian War Dead
Age: 55
Date of Death: 28/04/1942
Additional information: of 27 Orchard Street. Daughter of Mrs. S. Chapman, of 71 Knowsley Road; widow of William Russell Hnsell. Injured at 27 Orchard Street; died same day at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146280
Benjiman Hayhoe***********************************************
Name: HAYHOE, BENJAMIN
Civilian War Dead
Age: 52
Date of Death: 28/04/1942
Additional information: Firewatcher; of 7 Clifton Street. Husband of Clara E. Hayhoe. Died at Northumberland Street Shelter.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146283
Benjamin was a Nurse at a Public Assistance Hospital.
www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/family-history/victims-of-the-b...
William Meek**********************************************
Name: MEEK, WILLIAM HENRY ROBERT
Civilian War
Dead Age: 82
Date of Death: 07/05/1942
Additional information: of 11 Midland Street. Died at The Lodge, Bowthorpe Road. Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146349
William was a retired Bricklayer
www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/family-history/victims-of-the-b...
Bertram Utting************************************************
Name: UTTING, BERTRAM EDWARD
Civilian War Dead
Age: 41
Date of Death: 29/04/1942
Additional information: of 39 Midland Street. Son of Brian E. Utting, of West Farm, Attleborough; husband of Beatrice Utting. Died at Greyhound Opening.
Reporting Authority: NORWICH, COUNTY BOROUGH
CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3146460
Bertram was a Motor Mechanic
www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/family-history/victims-of-the-b...
******************Crash of Liberator 42-95133 458/753-K 1944**************
Eastern Daily Press - 3rd December 2010. Derek James.
Nine white roses, each representing a young life, were laid on a cold day near a busy road in Norwich.
As the traffic sped past us we stood in quiet reflection to remember the young men who lost their lives on the same day in 1944.
Since then this part of Norwich, Heigham Street, has completely changed and has been re-developed with new homes and industrial developments.
But as we put the roses on the memorial in Freeman Square our thoughts went back to that terrible November day as pilot Ralph Dooley struggled with the controls of his stricken Liberator, looking for a way to avoid crashing on houses.
While we could imagine what it would have been like, eye-witnesses from that day have never forgotten watching from the ground as the mighty bomber – named the Lady Jane – fell out of the sky.
The people gathered for this short and moving service, conducted by the Rev Elsie Hutcheon of St Barnabas Church, where there is a memorial to the men, all had their reasons for attending... and remembering.
As sheriff and sheriff’s lady, my wife and I, were representing you at this special service. Among the congregation was author Richard Clements who wrote a book In Search of the Lady Jane and artist Mike Bailey who painted the tragedy.
Others remember the incident as if it were yesterday. The huge bomber was in trouble when it flew in, low over the city, on November 24 1944, narrowly missing St John’s Cathedral – a landmark for American planes.
People, children at the time, said the noise was deafening. The Lady Jane was almost on its side as pilot Dooley, aged just 20, fought the controls, searching for waste ground. The plane then clipped the top of the old St Philips Church. The pilot brought it down on one of the few areas without houses – the corporation yard – and it exploded in a ball of fire. The crew didn’t stand a chance.
The boys in the Lady Jane, all in their early 20s, will never be forgotten.
www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/derek-james/remembering_the_...
Lady Jane was a B-24H-25 model Liberator, serial number 42-95133 and was part of the 753rd Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group.
Accident Report 45-11-24-516: On 24 November 1944 at 1730 hours, A/C B-24 (H) 42-95133 returning from a Practice Mission and in the process of making an instrument landing approach to AAF Station 123. The weather was: 3900 yards Viz, with 400-600 foot ceiling, 10/10ths coverage and the wind NW at 12-14MPH.
The A/C hit the steeple of St. Phillips Church on Hamm Road, damaging the right wing and right tail assembly and continued 1000 yards, apparently in normal flight at which time the right wing dropped and the ship crashed and burned. Wreckage shows that landing gear was retracted.
Mr. A. Hindry and Mr. George Baxter, employees of Baker Street Corporation and eye witnesses of the accident declared the A/C descended at a steep angle and in an abnormal flying attitude.
The result was total loss of A/C and all personnel. Damage to civilian property was negligible. There were no civilians injured.
- #Eyewitness statements
1Lt Cliff D. Gersbach, 752nd Squadron: "I was standing at the corner of Earlham and Mill Hill Road, Norwich, 24 November 1944 at approximately 1700 hours when B-24H Airplane No. 42-95133 made a 180 degree left turn in a vertical bank almost overhead. The airplane was flying about 200 feet above the housetops and I noticed that it was losing altitude (slipping off on the left wing). The turn was so sharp that the wings were vertical to the ground. The airplane started to level out from the turn and disappeared from sight for a moment; by that time it was skimming the housetops; when I heard a sharp crash, which was reported by an RAF Sergeant to be caused when the right wing of the airplane hit the top of the tower on St. Phillip's Church (Hamm Road). After hitting the church, the airplane reappeared in a steep climb gaining about 300 feet altitude when it fell off on the right wing, crashed and burned.
"The tip of the right wing and part of the right rudder were torn off when the airplane hit the church. The airplane appeared to be under control after hitting the church and it appeared that the pilot stalled it out by trying to gain altitude too fast, causing it to fall off on the right or damaged wing and crash about 1000 yards from the church.
"The airplane seemed to be having no mechanical difficulties and the engines were apparently running normally. The landing gear was retracted."
2Lt Edwin J. Sealy, pilot 755th Squadron: "We had just broken into the clear after an instrument letdown and had circled the town of Norwich once when we saw an aircraft approximately two miles in front of us apparently flying straight and level. The plane started a steep bank to the left and continued the bank onto its back. Then it dived into the ground and exploded immediately. I learned later that this A/C was 113-K of my own base."
There are several pictures of the crew amd a letter of thanks from a Mrs E Notley of 43 Mancroft Street, Norwich, thanking the crew for the efforts they made to avoid coming down on houses
www.458bg.com/crewba80dooley.htm
The Lady Jane was a Liberator bomber aircraft which crashed, close to where Eagle Canoe Centre now is, in 1944 killing all of its crew. The pilot had fought to steer the aircraft away from a row of cottages nearby.
In memory of those who died so close to our Club base a trophy was made by club member Richard Clements and we have a four-paddler canoe race for it every year at our Friends and family day, usually in July.
The bomber was a B.24H, serial number 24-95133, reputedly named the Lady Jane, from the 753rd Bomb Squadron, 458th Bomb Group. The crash happened on 24th November 1944 at about 17:00 and the aircraft was on a training flight from Horsham St. Faith airfield. It struck a glancing blow on the now-demolished Saint Philips Church tower. Approximately six foot of one wing was lost and the aircraft crashed a few hundred yards away in open space near Barker Street, at a Corporation road depot off Heigham Street.
Crew members were:
2/Lt Ralph J. Dooley 2/Lt Arthur C. Akin Jr. 2/Lt Paul E. Gorman S/Sgt John J Jones S/Sgt Paul A. Wadsworth S/Sgt Oscar B. Nelson S/Sgt John A. Phillips S/Sgt Don P. Quirk* S/Sgt Ralph W. von Bergen*
* Buried at the American Military Cemetry, Cambridge.
members.fortunecity.co.uk/eaglecanoeclub/ladyjane.htm
Arthur Akin
There is a pay to view page for Arthur Claude Akin, born 1922 and died 24th November 1944, on Ancestry. It gives his parents as Father: Arthur Claude Akin
Mother: Ocie Lee
records.ancestry.com/Arthur_Claude_Akin_WorlWar_Ii_record...
It seems he’d “pancaked” another B-24 on the airfield on the 2nd October
www.458bg.com/crewaz01fuson.htm
www.458bg.com/Aircraft/PDFsheet/BadGirlData_WEB.pdf
Arthur is now buried at Barrancas National Cemetery, Pensacola, Escambia County, FL
. He is listed as Arthur C. Akin, born 21st March 1922.
John A Phillips
Staff Sgt. John A. Phillips, 22, Norwood, Serving in England
Norwood, Dec. 11--Staff Sgt. John A. Phillips, 22, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Phillips, North Main Street, Norwood, was killed in the crash of a B-24 Liberator bomber on Nov. 24 in England, his parents have been notified by a war department telegram. No other details of the tragedy were received.
On Saturday, the parents received a letter from Leonard J. McMananon, chaplain serving in England, which stated that their son's body and those of the others of the bomber crew who met death, were buried with full military rites in England on Nov. 28.
Sergeant Phillips, nose gunner aboard the Eighth Air Force B-24, was born in Norfolk on March 17, 1922. The family moved to Norwood while John was still a child. He was graduated from Norwood High School in 1941. He entered military service on Oct. 10, 1942, and received basic training at Camp Robinson, Ark.
On Dec. 10, 1942, he was sent to the Aleutian Islands where he was stationed until Oct. 10, 1943. Returning to this country, he was sent to Laredo, Tex., to gunnery school.
Last July he visited his parents on furlough and upon returning to duty, he went to England, where he had since been stationed.
Surviving are his parents; one brother, Cpl Joseph Phillips, now stationed in Australia, and six sisters, Mrs. Lester (Anne) Gagnon, Norwood; Mrs. William (Julia) Yolton, Waddington; Mrs. Leo (Eleanor) Farnsworth, Potsdam; Mrs. Thomas (Alice) Gagnon, Perr, Fla., Mrs. Vernon (Mary) Young, Lawrence, Kan., and Miss Hilda Phillips, residing at home.
(SLCHA Scrapbook; Watertown Daily Times)
(There are more reports at the same web-site. It also notes his body was later returned to the United States.
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~slccemeteries/...
Don Pete Quirk
Don Pete Quirk, b. 10 Jun 1920, Indiana; d. 24 Nov 1944, in World War II.
wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/Family:Whitney,_Sherman...(1867-1933)