Eyewitness accounts of a wartime air crash on a hill in the
Western Isles which killed 10 American aircrew have emerged which
show the horrific consequences of a pilot’s error.
Flying too low in poor visibility resulted in the B24 Liberator
crashing into North Ben Lee, just south of Lochmaddy harbour on
North Uist, in 1943.
The then unborn son of one of the crew who died that day has
recently been in Uist on another emotional trip to visit the site
where the tragedy happened.
For 50 years Ralph Fischer, from Nebraska, and his family thought
that the crash had happened down near Prestwick in Ayrshire.
Since finding out that the B24 Liberator hit North Lee, south of
Lochmaddy harbour, he and wife Karen have made the journey to
Uist several times. Mr Fischer has been briefed on the local
efforts which were made on the island at the time of the crash by
local people on North Uist.
Liberators like the one that crashed
“We have heard so many stories from Ian Morrison and Dr John Macleod, whose father, Dr A J Macleod, was also the doctor here back in those days. He and John Morrison, the father of local men Ian and Angus Alex Morrison, who was the gamekeeper, led a rescue party across as soon as they could.
“When they got to the wreckage site on the hill, there was
50-calibre machine gun ammo going off because of a fire.
“Dr Macleod chopped a hole in the side of the Liberator and
hauled a man out. Two men were alive but not for long. They died
after 24 or 48 hours,” said Mr Fischer, who is the only surviving
descendant of any of the crewmen.
On the fateful day, the Liberator was on a delivery flight from
Iceland to Northern Ireland when it ran into bad weather after
checking in with Stornoway Airport.
Stornoway aviation enthusiast Rodney Long has managed to get the
United States Air Force accident report into the tragedy, which
happened on September 15, 1943.
In it, Murdoch Macdonald, who was 59 and worked in the Public Assistance Office in Lochmaddy, said: “I would be about 25 yards away from the door of the office when I heard a loud crashing sound in a southeasterly direction. On
looking in the direction of the sound I saw purplish-coloured flames leaping out of the mist and I would say that the whole of North Ben Lee seemed to be on fire.”
Another witness, Arthur Sutherland, is in the report saying the
plane was flying in a southeasterly direction when it hit the
hill.
He said: “The aircraft was in a very bad rainstorm and fog …
Immediately after crashing in the mountain there were about a
dozen fires in different spots and they burned out very quickly.”
The altimeter, which records aircraft height, was found in the
wreckage and the reading was 880ft. The readings on the other
instruments were all normal suggesting that mechanical problems
were not to blame.
The report concluded that the cause was down to aircrew error as
the plane crashed at that height when it should have been at
5,000ft when flying on instruments in poor visibility. The flight
plan was wrongly drafted for 1,500ft.
Taking up an invitation from the Morrison family to visit, he and
Mrs Fischer have been back to Lochmaddy to visit the site five
times since 1994. Very unusually for wartime crash sites, it was
not completely cleared by the authorities and the wreckage of the
plane, though partly taken away by the Army and Air Force in
late-1943 and 1944, remnants of it are still on the hill.
Mr Fischer has had a plaque made with all the crew names on it
which has been mounted on a rock at the crash site by Ian and
Angus Alex Morrison.
“The reason we have come back is the people we have met in this
marvellous place. And, of the thousands of planes that went down
in WWII, there are very few places you can visit and say this is
the exact spot where a certain plane went down.”
Mr and Mrs Fischer have been married for 47 years and have three
children and six grandchildren. He said: “We love the people and
the place. It means a lot to me. This is one of my favourite
spots in the world and I am happy to be here one more time.”
My Uncle Clyde died in this crash. His body was brought back to the states after the war and I remember his full military funeral. I still get goose bumps remembering the “taps” being played. I have two other Uncles that came back from the war.