B-24H serial 42-110033 (MACR documents cite 41-110033; corrected to 42-110033 per 3rd Indorsement, HQ 93rd Bomb Group, 30 October 1944), assigned to the 330th Bombardment Squadron, 93rd Bomb Group, departed Hardwick on 29 March 1944 for a bombing mission to Watton.
During formation assembly over Malesworth Station at approximately 1015 hours, the aircraft collided with A/C 41-28590 (pilot Lt. Robert L. McPetrich). The nose of one B-24 struck the fuselage of the other aft of the right wing near the waist window. The aircraft hit in the waist lost its entire tail section and dived spinning. The aircraft with the dented nose entered a spin to the right, briefly pulled out, then entered the lower cloud deck at a 45-degree angle.
No parachutes were observed by the eyewitness. Only one crew member, S/Sgt. Kenneth L. Gurney (radio operator), was able to bail out and survived. All other nine crew members were killed in action. Eyewitness statement provided by 2nd Lt. George F. Hase, 330th Bombardment Squadron, dated 16 April 1944.
Note: a separate account places one of the two colliding aircraft at Henham Park, Suffolk, where an explosion following the crash caused 36 fatalities and 89 casualties, including members of the 56th Fighter Group at Halesworth. That account may refer to A/C 41-28590 (McPetrich), the other aircraft in the collision, or to a different incident requiring further verification.
Gordon K. Reynolds, a garden boy at the Earl's Hall, watched this 93rd ship and 41-28590 lock together in a clear sky on 29 March 1944 while forming up for Watten, then break apart and crash about a quarter mile apart on Henham Park. Two 2,000 lb bombs burst on the parkland; a further 2,000 lb bomb exploded in the wreckage during rescue, killing 19 more and injuring over 38.
Articles, columns, and letters naming this aircraft in the 2nd Air Division Association journals and the group’s own newsletters. The summaries below are ours; the pieces themselves belong to the writers and publications that produced them.
From the ground at Henham Park on 29 March 1944: two 93rd Liberators locked together in the assembly, one breaking in half, with bombs going off in the parkland as rescue parties worked.