American GIs guarded site of Thunderbolt crash
THE MYSTERY of the World War Two bomber plane that crashed near the Blackbrook Reservoir has intrigued Looking Back readers in recent weeks and now someone has given an eyewitness account of when they pedalled down to the crash site to see what had happened.
Mr Michael Wortley, of Shepshed said that he would have been about eight years old at the time, (1944) and said: “My own involvement concerns cycling to the crash site with a friend.
“We arrived down the lane to be confronted by a G.I. on guard at the field gate, from where we could see the tail of the ‘plane sticking up.
“A couple of American soldiers were intent on dissecting what looked like a bomb site with a bayonet, trying to prize the lenses free!
“Kids, being kids, we went for a look in the ditch that ran under the hedge between the field and the lane, and found a tray of ammunition (about a metre in length) full of live ammo’!
“Not knowing any better we dragged this up to the guard who promptly took charge of it, and told us to clear off!”
Michael said: “The crash site was ether a potato or cabbage field to the right of a small rough lane that leads down from Charley Road, named One Barrow Lane. A little further down a bridge carries this lane over the tail of the reservoir. Just above is a row of houses.
“This area of Charnwood Forest was known as Botany Bay in days gone by.
“Before the Americans arrived the crash site was guarded by a section of the Shepshed Home Guard under Sergeant W. Stanley who were guarding the reservoir dam. Years later he wrote “An American Thunderbolt crashed on Fenny Springs, and debris was scattered over a wide area, I went round with a fire extinguisher, but it was too late to save the pilot.”
Lee Wortley, formerly of Shepshed has also been in touch and told of how he and his father (Ken Wortley) went back to the crash site some years later and found bullet shells that could throw a spanner in the works for researchers.
Lee said: “I was intrigued regarding the year of the crash listed as 1944. As a kid, in the mid-70’s, I went with my dad to the crash site, as he remembered it when he was a child himself, being born and bred Shepshed.
“We combed the field (with the farmer’s permission), soon after it had been ploughed.
“Recovered, were a few remnants: aluminium, canopy Perspex of around .25” thick, and odd small unidentifiable parts.
“A few 0.5 calibre shells were also recovered (mainly found in the stonework of the surrounding Charnwood stone walling). Some were complete and some with the bullet missing.
“One shell found in the walling was missing the bullet and remarkably, when tipped up, still had the cordite (bone dry like it had only just been put there), in the casing.
He said: “The stamping on the base of the shells indicates that the ordnance was manufactured in 1943.
“Not sure what the usage rate of ordnance was at the time, however, being at the peak of the war, would the ammunition manufactured in 43, been stored/shipped and still remained unspent until October 1944?”
Lee said: “I have since spoken to my Dad and he recalls a conversation with two gents, who he thinks resided in the cottages at the end of the lane, to the crash site.
“They were apparently in the lane when the plane came down and it was reported that ignited fuel temporarily set fire to their canopy on an Austin A7.”
• Do you know anything more about the mystery plane crash in Shepshed?
Maybe you have been down to visit the crash site yourself too?
If you do know anything more please contact Liam Coleman on 01509 635806. You can also email liam.coleman@trinitymirror.com