1944 — July 27, USAAF C47 ambulance plane hits cliff, fog, Isle of Mull ~Port Logan, Scotland-22
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-29-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 22 ASN. Accident description. USAAF Douglas C-47A-DK, 1944, Jul 27, Port Logan UK
— 22 Clark. Douglas C-47A 42-93038 of the 441st TCG, USAAF…cliffs…Cairngarroch Bay…
— 22 Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 28.
— 22 Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Ambulance Plane Crash Kills 22.” 6-28-1944, p. 2.
Narrative Information
Aviation Safety Network: “….C/n / msn: 12905….
“Destination airport: Glasgow-Prestwick Airport…
“Narrative: Two C-47A Dakotas were transporting wounded U.S. soldiers back home. Visibility was poor and Dakota 42-93038 was flying at low altitude so the following plane could keep it in sight. As the Dakota approached the Mull of Galloway, the pilot tried to gain altitude to clear the cliffs. The airplane did not make it and collided with a cliff rising to more than 400 ft (120 m) just below the crest.”[1] (Aviation Safety Network. Accident Description. United States Army Air Force, Douglas C-47A-DK, 1944, Jul 27, Port Logan UK.)
Clark: “The aircraft had taken off, along with a second C-47, from its home station of Merryfield, 8 miles SE of Taunton in Somerset, and had flown to Filton on the edge of Bristol where both aircraft took on injured US military service personnel from various units returned from Normandy and accompanying medical staff. In addition a single RAF airman had boarded 42-93038, he was returning home to Ayrshire on leave. Once loading was complete to two aircraft took off from Filton bound for Prestwick. The injured soldiers were going to be taken back to the US, probably by sea in a convoy leaving from the Clyde.
“At the time the two C-47s arrived at the northern end of the Irish Sea a dense fog hung over the area around the Mull of Galloway which obscured all of the coastal features, including the 200ft high cliffs which 42-93038 flew into above the beach in Cairngarroch Bay to the south of Portpatrick. The second aircraft had also come very close to crashing into the cliffs and landed RAF West Freugh.
“Nine of the American personnel were buried at the American Military Cemetery near Cambridge.”
Crew / Passengers Rank Position
Galen R. Hendricks 1st Lieutenant Pilot
Raymond Hutchings 2nd Lieutenant Co-pilot
Dan Willard Meshew Flight Officer 3rd Pilot
Leon Julius Tully 2nd Lieutenant Navigator
Jay V. Alcorn Sergeant Radio Operator
Merl William Skinner Staff Sergeant Crew Chief
Mary Edith Jackley 2nd Lieutenant Nurse
John Henry Salmi T/3 Medical Attendant
Irving I. Shure Major, US Army Passenger
John Wilbur Ingram 2nd Lieutenant, USA Passenger
Theron S. Ward 2nd Lieutenant, USA Passenger
Ernest Howard Corvin Sergeant, US Army Passenger
Billy G. Morris Sergeant, US Army Passenger
Elmer F. Lauf Corporal, US Army Passenger
James D. Green PFC, US Army Passenger
Keith Glenn Lowdermilk PFC, US Army Passenger
Marcus Saspochnikoff PFC, US Army Passenger
James E. W. Ayers PFC, US Army Passenger
Edmund Leroy Davis PFC, US Army Passenger
Donald R. Hammerstrom PFC, US Army Passenger
Jack F. Sheidler PFC, US Army Passenger
Samuel Gilmour Leading Aircraftman, UK Royal Air Force Passenger
(Clark, Alan. Douglas C-47A 42-93038 of the 441st TCG, USAAF, flew into the cliffs in Cairngarroch Bay near Portpatrick on the 27th July 1944. Peak District Air Accident Research. 2-22-2012 update.)
Gero: “Date: 27 July 1944 (c.16:00)
“Location: Near Westfrouegh, Argyllshire, Scotland….
“Aircraft type: Douglas C-47A (42-93038)
“All 22 military personnel aboard lost their lives in the crash of the twin-engine transport on the Island of Mull, in the vicinity of Port Logan. Except for one member of the Royal Air Force, the victims were Americans, including a nurse and the five members of the flight crew. The passengers comprised 13 men wounded in the Normandy invasion the previous month, who were being transported to the US, the C-47 had been en route to Prestwick from Filton aerodrome, near Bristol, and was proceeding under a low overcast at a minimal altitude so that a following aircraft could keep it in sight. Approaching land, 42-93038 initiated a climb, but did not gain sufficient height to clear a fog- shrouded cliff rising to more than 400ft (120m), which it struck only about 20ft (6m) from its crest, bursting into flames on impact. The second aircraft barely avoided the terrain itself.” (Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 28.)
Newspaper
June 28, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison: “London – (UP) – Twenty-two persons aboard a troop-carrying ambulance plane en route to the United States were killed Thursday night when the aircraft crashed into a cliff near the Mull-of-Galloway in Scotland, the Ninth air force announced today. There were no survivors. After striking the cliff the plane crashed to the rocks below and burned.
“The victims included wounded American soldiers and one U. S. army nurse. The wounded were being returned home from the Normandy battlefields. Ninth air force headquarters said it was the first fatal accident in the course of air evacuation by the flight command. The command has carried thousands of wounded men from the front lines to hospitals in Britain and elsewhere.
“The plane was a C-47 and was a part of a sky train en route to a Prestwick, Scotland, hospital in
the next-to-the-last lap of the trip to the United Slates.
One Royal Air Force flier also was listed among the victims….” (Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Ambulance Plane Crash Kills 22.” 6-28-1944, p. 2.)
Sources
Aviation Safety Network. Accident Description. United States Army Air Force, Douglas C-47A-DK, 1944, Jul 27, Port Logan UK. Accessed 3-15-2012 at:
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19440727-0
Clark, Alan. Douglas C-47A 42-93038 of the 441st TCG, USAAF, flew into the cliffs in Cairngarroch Bay near Portpatrick on the 27th July 1944. Peak District Air Accident Research. 2-22-2012 update. Accessed 3-29-2024 at: http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/pages/scotland/scotland42-93038.htm
Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. UK and Newbury Park, CA: Patrick Stephens Limited, an imprint of Hayes Publishing, 1999.
Wisconsin State Journal, Madison. “Ambulance Plane Crash Kills 22.” 6-28-1944, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=99981201
[1] Cites Baugher and Gero as sources.