Sunday, August 19, 2018

Sussex County, New Jersey: Tragic airplane crash recalled



By JENNIE SWEETMAN
Posted: August 19, 2018 12:01 am

HAMPTON -- It was on Aug. 24, 1948, when one of the worst airplane crashes in Sussex County history occurred and nine lives were lost. The headlines that appeared in the Aug. 26, 1948, Herald blared: "Nine Die in Crash of C-47 on E.H. Blakeslee Farm -- Worst Plane Accident in History of Sussex County."

The article commenced: "The worst plane accident in the history of Sussex County occurred on the E.H. Blakeslee farm at 1:10 p.m. on Monday, when a C-47 Army transport crashed and burned, killing nine men." The article continued: "The plane was seen flying at low level and apparently in distress by several Sussex County residents. Charles Emmons of Halsey said the plane flew over at low level, turned and the pilot attempted to gain altitude. It rose, then leveled off, and a minute later crashed."

Later in the article it was written: "Cpl. Loesser and Trooper Walters, of Sussex; Trooper Lattimore and Detective (Terrence) Gillen, of Newton; and Lt. A.H. Albrecht, of Morristown, who happened to be near, all picked up the radio call and hastened to the scene. By the time they reached the spot, there were nothing left but charred bodies and charred pieces of wreckage. Capt. R.A. Miller, Base Operations, Stewart Field, Newburgh, N.Y., said Monday evening that the destruction of the plane was so complete nothing could be salvaged.

"The force of the explosion blew pieces of the plane over a wide area. Bodies of the victims were scattered about and parts of arms and legs were found some distance from the larger pieces of the plane."

In explaining how the tragic accident happened the newspaper article continued: "Shortly before the crash, the transport and a B-25 bomber scraped each other at an altitude of 7,000 feet. Lt. David F. Tatum, pilot of the bomber, radioed Mitchell Field, L.I., that he had scraped against a C-47. The bomber continued to Stewart Field, Newburgh, N.Y., where the plane landed safely. The crew stated they were flying at cloud level when suddenly a plane seemed to loom out of the clouds. The B-25 veered sharply and they felt a slight jolt. They then noticed the damaged left wing and returned to Stewart Field.

"No one of the crew of the bomber was hurt. The transport lost a section of wing over Route S-31 at Red Top Farm, and some more pieces on the top of another hill before crashing on the Blakeslee farm."

The crew members who lost their lives included Capt. William D. Betty Jr., 30, of Portland, Maine, pilot; Capt. John Fritts Jr., 26, of Virginia Beach, Va., co-pilot; and Tec. Sgt. John Stringer, 31, of Washington, engineer, according to officials at Bolling Field.

The six passengers were identified as "enlisted men handpicked by their commands for the privilege of attending a Protestant layman's retreat of U.S. Air Force chaplains in Connecticut. It was emphasized that these six were neither assistant chaplains nor personnel officially connected with Army religious work. The Air Force identified four of the six as Pfc. Fred Anderson, 18; Pfc. James E. Ford, 24; Sgt. Forrest J. Grate, 20; and Pfc. Bernard E. Mahoney, 18."

(Warning. Proceed with caution. Some of the details are rather gruesome and gory at best.)

Branchville resident Bill Bathgate shared his memories of that fateful day, when as an 11-year-old boy he experienced witnessing the devastating impact of that tragic airplane crash.

Bathgate and his Dad, Bill Sr., were sitting on bar stools at Lew's Bar and Grill, located at the intersection of Route 206 and Pines Road, where the regulars referred to it as "going to Sunday School." Bill was enjoying a Kelly's Root Beer while his dad had Ballantine Ale.

A telephone call abruptly ended the day's pleasure. Bathgate recalled that Lew ordered his dad to "run next door to my garage, get the ambulance out and head to Russ Blakeslee's farm. There's been a bad two-airplane collision and one has hit the ground."

"It seemed in an instant that we had flown clear of our stools and were entering the front seat of the dust covered vintage ambulance." Bathgate paused in his narration to muse, "Why Lew had this old vehicle in his garage baffles me to this day."

Their route to the scene was 206 south to Augusta Hill Road and then to 519. Just past the intersection of Augusta Hill Road and 519, in the first meadow on the left, was the downed airplane. It had taken seven minutes for them to arrive.

"When Dad and I exited the ambulance, we heard the sound of sirens blaring from all the surrounding municipalities, the whine of a less formative siren on a state trooper's motorcycle, and we saw a large number of people on foot racing through the meadow. Secondly, and much more predominate, was the abominable, indescribable stench of a burning aircraft, burning fuel and burning flesh that permeated the atmosphere."

Continuing, Bathgate explained: "To reach the area of devastation one would have to cross through a barbed wire fence. With left hand grabbing the upper strand of wire and the right hand the same for the middle strand, then pressuring each in opposing directions so that my body would be able to pass through that expanse, I proceeded. For a country boy, this was nothing new and had been accomplished many times before. This time, though, would be much different and wind up with a horrid encounter. For, in my zeal to get to the scene, not much attention had been paid to the act of passing through the fence, but this time there was something different. Feeling a distinct back and forth swaying motion of the upper strand caused me to look upward. A very small twig from a wild bush was making contact with the wire; however, this was not the cause of the heavy swaying. Looking farther beyond, I saw a smoldering head staring straight at me, caught by its few remaining stands of hair on the fence. My grabbing the upper wire must have generated the swaying motion.

"Transfixed between two strands of barbed wire, shock must have been my nemesis. It seemed like an eternity standing in that position. The sight of this head, a large portion looking like a charred black marshmallow and the remaining portion appearing as a huge blister with the one lidless eyeball staring straight through it, would have a haunting effect on me for weeks to come."

Continuing, Bathgate recalled: "Pieces of aircraft and human remains were smoldering and in flames in an area encompassing a half mile. Body parts were everywhere. My first observation was that of an Army boot with the calf of a leg protruding from it. Continuing on through this abomination of humanity, we saw more carnage than any 11-year-old should have ever seen. By now, the smell and taste of the atmosphere seemed so much stronger as it clung to my nostrils and lungs. One large area of the scene looked as though it had been bleached. This was where the aircraft had made impact and the intense heat had transformed the earth to glass and bleached the rocks."

Bathgate concluded by observing that it was a long, long time before he went to "Sunday School" with his dad. Summing up his recollections of that tragic event of 70 years ago, when the worst airplane crash in the history of Sussex County resulted in the loss of nine lives, he sums it up by saying, "I never wanted to be the first on scene for anything again, nor did I ever want to brag about that day to my friends."

•••

Jennie Sweetman is the history columnist for he New Jersey Herald. She may be contacted at jenniee@warwick.net.

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