Name	Pos	Status	Date	Notes
2Lt Ralph J. Dooley	P	DNB	24 Nov 1944	Practice Mission
2Lt Burton W. Wheeler, Jr.	CP	CT	19 Aug 1944	Not on Nov 24th flight
2Lt Paul E. Gorman	N	DNB	24 Nov 1944	Practice Mission
2Lt John Kowalczuk	B	CT	18 Apr 1945	Not on Nov 24th flight
S/Sgt Johnie J. Jones	TT/E	DNB	24 Nov 1944	Practice Mission
S/Sgt Paul A. Wadsworth	RO	DNB	24 Nov 1944	Practice Mission
S/Sgt Oscar B. Nelson	WG	DNB	24 Nov 1944	Practice Mission
S/Sgt Don P. Quirk	WG	DNB	24 Nov 1944	Practice Mission
S/Sgt John A. Phillips	NTG	DNB	24 Nov 1944	Practice Mission
S/Sgt Ralph W. VonBergen	TG	DNB	24 Nov 1944	Practice Mission

2Lt Burton Wheeler and 2Lt John Kowalczuk were not on the practice mission that day.  They both completed their tours and were rotated back to the States.  Flying as co-pilot that day was Ralph Dooley's good friend, 2Lt Arthur C. Akin who had his own crew.  Akin and Dooley were both assigned with their crews on the same day.  He was filling in for Burton Wheeler who had just lost his brother, a pilot in the 94th Bomb Group flying B-17's out of Bury St. Edmonds.  John Kowalczuk was not along as bombardiers were not needed for this practice mission.

Accident Report 45-11-24-516: On 24 November 1944 at 1730 hours, A/C B-24 (H) 42-95133 returning from a Practice Mission and in the process of making an instrument landing approach to AAF Station 123.  The weather was: 3900 yards Viz, with 400-600 foot ceiling, 10/10ths coverage and the wind NW at 12-14MPH.

The A/C hit the steeple of St. Phillips Church on Hamm Road, damaging the right wing and right tail assembly and continued 1000 yards, apparently in normal flight at which time the right wing dropped and the ship crashed and burned.  Wreckage shows that landing gear was retracted.

Mr. A. Hindry and Mr. George Baxter, employees of Baker Street Corporation and eye witnesses of the accident declared the A/C descended at a steep angle and in an abnormal flying attitude.

The result was total loss of A/C and all personnel.  Damage to civilian property was negligible.  There were no civilians injured.

1Lt Cliff D. Gersbach, 752nd Squadron:  "I was standing at the corner of Earlham and Mill Hill Road, Norwich, 24 November 1944 at approximately 1700 hours when B-24H Airplane No. 42-95133 made a 180 degree left turn in a vertical bank almost overhead.  The airplane was flying about 200 feet above the housetops and I noticed that it was losing altitude (slipping off on the left wing).  The turn was so sharp that the wings were vertical to the ground.  The airplane started to level out from the turn and disappeared from sight for a moment; by that time it was skimming the housetops; when I heard a sharp crash, which was reported by an RAF Sergeant to be caused when the right wing of the airplane hit the top of the tower on St. Phillip's Church (Hamm Road).  After hitting the church, the airplane reappeared in a steep climb gaining about 300 feet altitude when it fell off on the right wing, crashed and burned.

"The tip of the right wing and part of the right rudder were torn off when the airplane hit the church.  The airplane appeared to be under control after hitting the church and it appeared that the pilot stalled it out by trying to gain altitude too fast, causing it to fall off on the right or damaged wing and crash about 1000 yards from the church.

"The airplane seemed to be having no mechanical difficulties and the engines were apparently running normally.  The landing gear was retracted."

2Lt Edwin J. Sealy, pilot 755th Squadron:  "We had just broken into the clear after an instrument letdown and had circled the town of Norwich once when we saw an aircraft approximately two miles in front of us apparently flying straight and level.  The plane started a steep bank to the left and continued the bank onto its back.  Then it dived into the ground and exploded immediately.  I learned later that this A/C was 113-K of my own base."