Freckleton Disaster A Virtual Cemetery created by: Rhonda C. Poynter
Description: On 23, August 1944, an American U.S. Army Air Force Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber crashed into the village of Freckleton, located in Lancashire County, England. 61 people in all were killed, 38 of them children when the aircraft struck an infant school - three homes and a small cafe, the "Sad Sack" were also demolished.Storms came up suddenly that day, and two bombers already in air were called back to ground with weather warnings; however, by the time the order to return to ground had been issued, flash flooding was being reported in Blackpool, and water spouts were already appearing in the Ribble Estuary.1st Lieutenant John Bloemendal, the pilot of the second aircraft - the "Classy Chassis II" - reported that he was aborting landing at the last moment, and that he would 'circle round', again. Within minutes the aircraft struck Freckleton, located east of the airfield.It was determined that the aircraft's wings were nearly vertical when it scraped the treetops; it then impacted with the corner of a building. One of the wings was sheared away, continuing along the ground and into hedges. The 25 ton fuselage slammed into three separate homes and the "Sad Sack", a cafe popular with enlisted men; the fuselage then continued across the road, already in flames. It slammed into the Freckleton Holy Trinity School, its' fuel igniting a sea of flames.The three crew on the B-24 were among the dead; 14 of the dead were in the Sad Sack at the moment of impact. Beside the 38 children, 2 teachers, Jenny Hall and Louisa Lee Hulme were killed when the school was destroyed.The official decision regarding the cause of the crash was long listed as unknown, but it was wondered whether the American pilot had not realized the dangers of an English thunderstorm, until his final approach. At this time, his speed and altitude would have been insufficient against the storm, and he could not 'correct'.Possibly one positive thing that came from this horrible tragedy was that U.S. pilots were trained from then on about the hazards of U.K. weather, and how quickly a 'shower' can go from gentle to deadly.The victims of this disaster have been forgotten for far too long unless there is a personal connection or the reader has a connection to the Freckleton area; just as I trying to honor war heroes in some of my other virual cemeteries, I am trying to get a page up for each and every victim of Freckleton. I hope that you will not only visit the children who died, but the men and women whose lives were lost that day; each soul had a family and a story. I often think about a world without military and war - had we not been at war, our bombers would not have been in England that day, and children would have grown up to have their own children...it's the classic feeling of "What if?", when I work on this file...and it is also a feeling of "There but for the grace of God...".Cherish your family, your days and your dreams. Many dreams end up resting, unfulfilled.
