Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Liberator explosion over wirral

On the 19th October 1944 a USAF B-24 Liberator was flying over the Wirral, west of Liverpool, when it inexplicably blew up killing all 24 on board. There is a plaque situated near Durley Industrial Estate, by Brook Road on the river Fender, which reads:

IN MEMORY OF THE 24 U.S. ARMY AIR FORCE WHO DIED WHEN THEIR AIRCRAFT EXPLODED IN MID AIR

ABOVE THESE FIELDS ON 19th OCTOBER 1944

The plaque is directly outside the main gate to Avon Coaches! Way back then all that was just open fields! If i remember right, there was a big memorial service there years ago where relatives attended from USA.
There is quite a lot written about this crash site, ive seen pics too!
Nice reminder DAVA

I will have to get myself over there and get some pics.

The plaque was there in the 90s i used to work on durley and passed it very interesting.

I may go down there and take a picture the globe posted some info about this a few years ago i think aswell.

You can find pictures of the plaque i took last year here:

USAAF Liberator Bomber number 42-50347

brilliant i aint seen it for over 10 years

So reading the other postings about this - there are two memorials - the one on Durley drive Industrial estate and the one with 24 yellow bricks which is near the crash site?

Iv never seen the one about 24 yellow bricks ?

Are you sure your not getting mixed up witn the P47 that came down in Saughall Massey ?

P47 Crash

The yellow brinks are mentioned at the end of the first paragraph of the article that you linked to and it just set me off thinking as I couldn't see any yellow bricks in the pictures of the memorial.

It does indeed !. Maybe there were yellow bricks orinionally. But deffo not now.

If anyone is interested, I have a s/s of all USAAF losses over the UK. There were 6436 crashes.

Yeah,post them dude.with photos.

theres also a plaque on the footpath from landican to storeton about a plane crash in the 1940's its buy the railway bridge don't know if its the same one as its been a while since i've been up them ways

6436 losses thats huge

"theres also a plaque on the footpath from landican to storeton about a plane crash in the 1940's its buy the railway bridge don't know if its the same one as its been a while since i've been up them ways"

Thats probably the one with yellow bricks then i guess