Time Team Season 6 Episode 8
February the 21st 1944.
800 American bombers are returning from a raid on targets in Germany. It’s three o’clock in the afternoon, they’d been in the air for five hours and finally, they’ve left the last of the enemy fighters and flak batteries behind.
Everyone relaxes as they pass over the Norfolk coast.
Then… Tragedy.
They were just minutes away from safety of their base when suddenly one of the bombers collided with another, and the two planes came plummeting down to earth somewhere round here in the Reedham Marshes. All 21 crewmembers were killed. So what exactly happened?
We got just three days to try and shed some light on the mystery.We’re gonna be excavating one of the planes in the hope that its carcass may yield some clues if there’s any of it left, and we’re gonna try and find out as much as we can about the two crews and the events that led up to the crash.
Serie: Time Team
Episode Title: Reedham, Norfolk - Bombers In Reedham Marshes
Air Date: 1999-02-21