B24 41030 on Beinn Nuis, Isle of Arran.
On the night of 19th / 20th August 1943 the crew of this aircraft were to fly the Liberator across the Atlantic for use in the UK by the 8th Air Force. All appears to have gone well until they closed in to make a landing at Prestwick, Scotland. The hills of Arran were shrouded in cloud at the time the aircraft approached from the west and it seemed likely that the aircraft began to let down to land but flew into the side of Beinn Nuis at around 08.10hrs and broke up. Sadly all on board were killed. An intense fire destroyed much of the aircraft near the point of impact as it ran uphill and the sign of this fire is still visible today. Some of the wreckage continued uphill and over the edge of the ridge beyond.
Pilot - 2nd Lt William M Connolly USAAF (O-796314), aged 25. Buried Beverly National Cemetery, Beverly, New Jersey, USA.
Co-Pilot - F/O Francis J Chew USAAF (T-061004), of Florida, USA. Buried Barrancas National Cemetery, Pensacola, Florida, USA.
Navigator - 2nd Lt Albert T Spindle USAAF (O-676154), of Texas, USA. Buried Madingley Cemetery, Cambridgeshire, England. (E/4/71).
Bomb Aimer - 2nd Lt Robert J Hartl USAAF (O-676481), of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, USA. Buried Mount Olivet Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
Radio Operator - Staff Sgt Joseph B Moore USAAF (13083873), of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, USA. Buried Prospect Cemetery, Portage, Pennsylvania, USA.
Flight Engineer - Staff Sgt Fred W Brantner USAAF (33066081), of Maryland, USA. Buried Conowingo Cemetery, Conowingo, Maryland, USA.
Gunner - Sgt Glen Mathew Canon Peyton USAAF (37265096), of Pennington County, South Dakota, USA. Buried Black Hills National Cemetery, Sturgis, South Dakota, USA.
Gunner - Sgt Robert F Daub USAAF (35449119), of Scioto County, Ohio, USA. Buried Rush Township Burial Park, Rushtown, Ohio, USA. Brother killed in Korea in 1951.
Passenger (Flight Engineer) - Staff Sgt Chester E Cislo USAAF (12132284), of Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. Burial location unknown.
Passenger (Radio Operator) - Sgt Louis Stanley Golis USAAF (33273545), of Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. Buried Gettysburg National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
Albert Spindle is the only member of this crew to be still buried in the UK.
I visited the crash site in July 2014 in poor weather and as a result the photographs shown here are not as great I would have hoped for. The three aircraft that crashed on Beinn Nuis are shown on this photograph; the Lodestar crashed in the cloud on the right, the B17 crashed in the centre on the rockface just in the cloud and the B24 crashed over the horizon on the left but wreckage from it is scattered down the hillside on the left of this photograph.
In the centre Beinn Nuis from the south-west with my normal camera lens and then with a big zoom lens showing the crash site on the lower part of the horizon.
A view looking down the western side of Beinn Nuis showing the largest collection of wreckage at the crash site.
A view looking up the crash site and where the intense fire took place following the crash.
A large undercarriage leg well below the point of impact on the eastern side of Beinn Nuis.
One of a number of collections of wreckage below the crash site and an example of a part number located on a fragment of the aircraft.
