A view of Palm Bay and Forness Point - Photo: Sarah

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Written by Claire.

Tuesday 27th April, 2010.

Group: Bob, Sue, Claire, Sarah, Dawn, C.B, Jake, Paul and Adrian.

We deliberately chose this date for a return visit as it was the anniversary of the American bomber crash which occurred here at around dusk in 1944.

19:56
At the far end of the promenade, near Forness Point, Jake picked-up on a young man, aged between 20 and 30, wearing a dark jersey, who was stood or sat on the cliff-top, looking at us. There was also a light anti-aircraft gun of sorts, a machine gun on a pole, which was not official issue. This was something someone had cobbled together using a personal weapon which had been a trophy of an older man acquired in a previous conflict.
Jake indicated this era was wartime, he had just been 'told' "Three parachutes" and gestured towards the area of sea off Forness point.

He was also 'seeing' a large vessel on the rocks, from a much earlier period, around the 1800's, but he couldn't 'see' any masts.

A view of Palm Bay looking towards the direction of Margate - Photo: Claire

The group started to walk back along the promenade and stopped just before the Bomber impact-site on the cliffs.

20:05
Jake picked up on the US bomber and said that one of the engines wasn't working and the propeller was "cartwheeling" or "wind-milling" on the inside port engine which was possibly also on fire.
The propeller pitch had been damaged so the propeller couldn't be stopped from turning even though there was no power from the engine.
Jake sensed there was no power going to any engines as the plane came in, maybe there was only one serviceable engine?

Jake sensed that two of the crew had been replacements as the regulars had been injured and couldn't fly or had been killed.
He felt that there had been a good bond between the crew members.
Jake was 'informed' "I wasn't dead, I couldn't go on the mission". He sensed this had affected this man because his friends had died on this plane.

20:13
Jake picked-up on a night fighter, possibly German, and the word "Blenheim" came into his mind.
He suspected one such plane may have come down nearby?

20:17
Sue stated that every time she had been to this spot, she had felt the crew were present.

Jake 'saw' a dark outline of a figure near to the headland which was almost "bouncing" down the beach. He said that for a brief moment the promenade, on which we were stood, had disappeared and the headland was further out towards the sea.

20:19
The group were now at the impact point.

Jake recalled that on the previous investigation, he had suspected that the plane had come in straight from the sea but this time he felt it had come in at an angle.

Sue sensed that there had been two planes, one had dropped into the sea whilst the second had managed to keep going until the impact at the point where the group were now stood.

Jake felt the plane had come in from the direction of Forness Point, it was banking starboard with the propeller wind-milling, which distracted the crew. He sensed the aircraft had hit the beach and the impact had thrown it up into the cliff.
Jake said that even if they hadn't hit the cliff, the plane would have stalled. The crew had been unsure whether to go for the sea or the cliff-top. There was a fire on-board and two men had already bailed out. The captain wanted the others to follow but they couldn't because there was no way he could have flown it on his own.
One of the two that had bailed out had died instantly.

Jake felt that it would have taken four men to physically fly the plane in the state it was in.
An air pocket had caused the plane to drop and hit the rocks. It had skimmed round to the left so that it pointed into land instead of the sea. At that point the crew had lost control, and they started to pull up but the port wing dipped so it hit the cliff.

20:28
At this moment, the group heard a very heavy drone of a plane from the direction of Forness Point (no aircraft was visible).
This sound stopped dead after about 30 seconds, unfortunately this was not evident on the audio recording.

20:32
Jake sensed that the cliff-face had been a little bit more forward (towards the sea) at that time in history.
He indicated that the impact had been so great that the remaining crew had been "vaporised".

They 'informed' Jake that they did not suffer. They didn't know what had happened - one minute they were there, the next minute it was very light.

Jake then walked alone to the bottom of the cliff to have a 'one to one' with the crewmen.
He was 'told' by one crew member that he had previously worked for the United States Postal Service before he joined up. They had been dragged into the war because of what had occurred at Pearl Harbor.
Jake thought that seven of the crew had actually believed they had survived the crash as they were not in pain.
Jake had picked-up that "Captain *********" (surname confirmed but omitted from this report) had a problem with his back or leg from an old injury, it was like he had woken up with no pain and that was when he realised they hadn't made it.

Jake sensed three crew members were present in battle dress of combats, boots and mae wests, and one was wearing a helmet.
One of them 'told' him "Charlie boy wouldn't have a clue about where he was going because he spent his life looking backwards".
Jake indicated that the other four crew were in Cambridge and now with their loved ones.
He also said that one of the men had lost a thumb or finger and it had never been recovered.

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