1st Lt. John K. Eckert; Pilot.
2nd Lt. Thomas W. Worrell; Co-Pilot.
1st Lt. George E. Bair; Bombardier.
S/sgt. Alfred R Border; Engineer/Gunner.
S/sgt. Lewis O.Thompson; Radio/Gunner.
S/sgt. Edward J. Powell; Armourer/Gunner.
All Crew Onboard Perished
The incident was actually the first time any lives had been lost by the 344th
it was only their 3rd mission since arriving in Britain
.On February 22nd 23rd 1975 we undertook the excavation of the Marauder, this was to be carried out over a
Saturday and Sunday to allow us to have plenty of time to remove what was
buried without damaging or loosing any of the smaller finds, as this was our first twin engine aircraft dig we had carried out, all the others up to that date had been single engine fighters.
But on the first day the Digger failed to arrive at the crash site due to a puncture, so now we were
going to have to cram this excavation into just the Sunday so for the rest of Saturday it was back to the spades.
We started bright and early around 7.30 am, we had dug down on the Saturday by hand to a depth of around 4 ft by 6ft wide (1.2m+ 1.6m) and had hit solid aircraft so we new exactly where to dig, Kurt our digger driver an Ex German P.O.W arrived with the puncture now fixed, so by 8 am we started digging.
Items found included; one Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine, 1 Bendix-Stromberg Carburettor, one .5 calibre Browning machine gun, and a mass of wreckage all from one side of the aircraft.
By late afternoon and with the light failing it was decided to shut down the excavation this was done with great sadness as we new we had needed more time to fully go and check the spoil heaps, the hole was filled in and the topsoil reinstated.