I have spent many hours trying to search up information about a US Air Force Bomber that crashed on a golf course near where I live but have come up with very little information after hours upon hours of scouring the internet. (and a trip to the library to look for old news cuttings) I am wondering if anybody could give me some advice of the best place to look to try and find any official records of this crash.
In case anyone is curious, here is what I have researched so far: I had an old friend who told me when he was a kid he witnessed a B-17 Bomber crash land onto a golf course in Churston, England, recalling how loads of oranges that the plane was carrying had scattered onto the course. It took me hours of entering different combinations of words into google to eventually find a reference in a list of serial numbers about a B-17 with the serial number 42-5250 that ran out of fuel during a flight from Morocco and crash landed North-East of the town of Brixham (Where Churston is) on January 12th, 1943. Going off that, I eventually found another reference in a B-17 Master Log Book briefly mentioning the same crash, but also naming a crew member called Lt. A.F. Burch. I eventually found this out to be a man called Armand F Burch but I'm not sure what part of the air force he was in at the time, having found references to both the 12th Air Force and the 8th Air Force. This is the last new info I have found and have now hit a road block after spending ages on google trying to find more with the information I have found. Which is why I am here.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Burch and his crew were replacements for the 427th Bomb Squadron of the 303rd Bombardment Group; the 303rd had an active Association with a lot of material online including a photo of Burch's crew.
Radio operator George W. Ashworth recalled the crash in the November 1997 newsletter (page 17):
"On January 12, 1943 we arrived in England from N. Africa, out of gas after being lost over occupied France. We landed wheels up on a golf course in southern England. I can still see the long-legged grounds keeper, come running out with coat-tails flying and holding onto his cap to complain about his golf course being dug up. The British anti-aircraft crew nearby came running out to gather up the oranges that spewed from the nose of our new B-17."
In the following newsletter of February 1998 there's a letter from an Iris Drinkwater with a Somerset address, who had heard of the crash from several witnesses but hadn't been able to get any more details until reading Ashworth's account, expressing an interest in getting in touch. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any follow-up, and the intervening years won't help, but the website or Facebook group may be able to help.