
P-38 CRASH
I have just been reading Aviation Archeology
on a web site in England and it brought back a memory of a crash that
I and several others witnessed while I was at Chelveston, England in 1944.
We were in the 422dn Sq. of the 305th BG. One day we heard a plane, which
seemed to be stunting or "hot-dogging" over our Field. Of course
this being in the middle of the day, and on a rare clear day, we all ran
outside to see what was happening. A P-38 came hedgehopping across our
Quonset hut cutting the wire radio antenna someone had put up on our barracks.
He then hung that plane on its props and went out of sight. As we turned
to go back into the barrack we heard a scream of this plane coming straight
down. As the saying goes, 'He dug his own grave." Don't know if the
plane and body were recovered or not. This crash site, I think, was south
and a little east of the Chelveston Air Base. I have read since then that
the P-38 Lightening was difficult to fly, and that when it was in a dive
that the controls were reversed and that if the pilot didn't remember
this, it would cost his life.
 
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