On this date in 1944, while on a check-out flight, a brand new B-24 with 3 crew aboard, and in bad weather, crashed into the town Freckleton in the UK.

Freckleton is near Blackpool on the west coast of England, NW of Manchester and North of Liverpool.   Allied ships by the thousands carrying war materials from North America were unloaded at the Blackpool docks including B-24’s destined for the Allied bombing campaign over Europe.  One of these B-24’s was being checked-out at a local RAF base.   Due to bad weather and pilot error, the plane crashed into the town.

The 25 ton bomber hit a restaurant and then slammed into the Holy Trinity School just before 11:00 am where it exploded in a huge fireball.  By the time the fires were out 38 kids and 6 adults were killed.   14 more US and British servicemen were killed who were sitting in the little restaurant.  Counting the 3 crew, the total killed from this terrible accident was 61.   Dozens more were wounded.

Around 18,500 B-24’s were built during WW2 in San Diego, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie (TX) , Tulsa and Detroit (by Ford).  At just the Ford plant alone, in 1944, they were making 650 of them / month.

But on August 23, 1944, 61 people lost their lives when things went very, very wrong.