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Freckleton air disaster 75 years on: Death and destruction on a school day unlike any other

In 1944, a US B-24 plane crashed into a school on the Lancashire coast, claiming 61 lives during an intense inferno. Here, Godfrey Holmes examines how such a tragedy occurred

Tuesday 20 August 2019 18:27 BST
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American airmen and villagers desperately search for survivors after the accident
American airmen and villagers desperately search for survivors after the accident

On 23 August 1944 – as Paris was being liberated and Russia’s Red Army was pushing the German’s out of Romania – the Freckleton air disaster happened. Within the span of 15 minutes an entire village school was obliterated. The unlucky Minnesotan pilot: First Lieutenant John Bloemendal – experienced, athletic, handsome – had been instructed to conduct his “routine” test flight at 08.30. But he got distracted by other Warton Aerodrome duties, leading to a 10.30 reschedule.

During the Second World War Freckleton, Fylde, was known as “Little America” due to an influx of 10,000 air force personnel: GIs bearing chocolate, citrus fruits and silk stockings. And why Warton Airfield? It was flat; coastal; fairly remote, yet not too far from Lancaster, Preston and Manchester for supplies; finely-positioned for crucial air reconnaissance and bombing sorties to north Africa, France and the Mediterranean.

And Warton was where aircraft could be serviced, refuelled, repaired: activities are still happening on site to this day – under the auspices of BAE Systems.

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