“Hell's Express”

Hell's Express, piloted by Lieutenant John Pryor of Texarkana, had delayed her departure from Hardwick by eighteen hours to sort out a mechanical fault before setting off on the first leg of the Circus's move to North Africa. En route to Portreath, all engines apparently failed; attempting a crash landing, the aircraft struck a tree near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, and burned. Fourteen men were aboard. Nine were killed instantly, and a tenth died the following day at Banbury Cross Hospital in Oxfordshire. Four crewmen survived. The dead were buried in the American Military Cemetery at Brookwood.