On 3rd June 1943 this aircraft took off from Iceland to fly to Prestwick, Scotland, it was one of a number of aircraft being ferried across the Atlantic from the USA, via Canada, Greenland and Iceland to the UK for use by the 8th Air Force in the UK. Their final ferrying destination was to have been Horham, Suffolk. It's intended Group was probably to have been 323rd Medium Bombardment Group which at the time of this accident was already using Horham and had four operational squadrons by June 1943. Before take off from Meeks Field the crews were briefed that if weather was bad over Scotland and they could not see the ground visually they should land at Stornaway and continue the flight when the weather improved. This would try and ensure the crews did not fly on intruments near the area of very high ground to the western side of Scotland which they would not have known until it was too late and would almost certainly ended in a crash. One aircraft on the flight had been lost the previous day between Greenland and Iceland with the loss of the crew.

This Marauder in question flew in over the Scotish coast but was some way off course and the weather over the western part of Scotland that day was poor, there was low cloud, fog and drizzle, it was thought that the crew had come in over the Western coast but became lost. The pilot was flying on his instruments and that he had let down through the cloud to make visual contact with the ground which was a common thing to do though techinically not permitted because of its dangers. The aircraft was by now over high ground in the Torridon area, the aircraft soon struck the side of Beinn na Feusaige, to the north of Glen Carron and caught fire. All five airmen on board were killed.

Pilot - 1st Lt Merrit Edwin Young USAAF (O-662715). Aged 26, of Payne, Ohio, USA. Buried Lehman Cemetery, Payne, Ohio, USA.

Bomb Aimer - 2nd Lt Robert A Anderson USAAF (O-729949). Aged ? Of Illinois, USA. Buried Madingley Cemetery, Cambridgeshire (F/6/78).

Flight Engineer - Staff Sgt Vincenzo Bravo USAAF (11021367). Aged 24, of Medfield, Massachusetts, USA. Buried Vine Lake Cemetery, Medfield, Massachusetts, USA.

Radio Operator - Staff Sgt Marshall R Miller Jr USAAF (38111816). Aged 23. Of Texas, USA. Buried Oakwood Cemetery Index, Austin, Texas, USA.

Gunner - Master Sgt Lewis M Cross USAAF (14069227). Aged ? Of Alabama, USA. Buried Madingley Cemetery, Cambridgeshire (D/7/99).

Merritt Young was born on 25th December 1916. At the time of the accident in Scotland he had a total of 450 flying hours since August 1942, and some 250 hours on the B-26 Marauder. His body was returned home and buried in the family plot in the town of Payne, Paulding County, Ohio. I would like to thank his niece Jamie Young for contacting me in June 2011 and for supply additional details regarding Merritt's life. On the photograph shown above he is the young man on the far right of the group of brothers and their father.

S/Sgt Vincenzo "Vinnie" Bravo. My thanks to Mr James Mott, nephew of Vincent Bravo for contacting me and for allowing this photograph to be shown here.

M/Sgt Lewis Cross and his grave at Madingley Cemetery. Lewis Cross' photograph is via David Earl and came from his grandson Mr John Cross.

Robert Anderson's grave at Madingley Cemetery.

Marshall Miller and his grave stone in Austin, Texas, USA. Photograps via "Findagrave.com".

My wife and I located the crash site in August 2005 while on a holiday in this part of Scotland, a sizable area still exists on the mountain where the aircraft burnt out. We also located smaller pieces down the mountain for a few hundred metres.

A general overview of the crash site and the surrounding area.