USAF World War 2 P-47D Thunderbolt Air Crash on the Gleniffer Braes

P-47D Thunderbolt, with serial number 42-75606 took off from Renfrew at 11:10 hours on the 29th December 1943 on at internal flight to Burtonwood. At 11:30 hours the aircraft flew lower than the surrounding terrain in mist, crashed through 2 lines of trees at Hartfield Farm and into a field, on the Gleniffer Braes, Scotland.

(You can see the site of Lapwing Lodge in relation to the now drained Whittlemuir Dam, close to the Hartfield Moss Thunderbolt crash site. Photographs courtesy of Yvonne Goldie)

hartfield-moss

Pilot, 2nd Lt Herman C. Carey, sole person on board, was killed.

There is a difference in the date of death of Herman C. Carey. On the headstone application form it is 28 December 1943. There is a memorial plaque on the place where he crashed in Scotland with the date of 29 December 1943

Avro Anson

Memorial stone in a field between Howwood and Neilston, Renfrewshire, Scotland reads: “Herman Carey killed at this spot 29th December 1943 while flying P-47D Thunderbolt.” He was in 311 AAF Ferrying Squadron. Crashed while flying from Renfrew Airport to Burtonwood in low cloud and heavy mist into the plateau, altitude approximately 750 feet. Memorial stone located in field 250 yards from Hartfield farm, Hartfield Moss.

lt herman carey

NOTE: 311th Ferrying Squadron, 27th Air Transport Group, 8th Air Force, was based at Maghaberry, Northern Ireland, (USAAF Station 239) at this time

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