Researching historic aviation accidents and locating crash sites in the Peak District & throughout the British Isles
Republic P-47D Thunderbolt 42-75101 of the 495th FTG USAAF, crashed on Mynydd Copog near Dolgellau on the 4th May 1944
John W. Beauchamp
1st Lieutenant
Pilot
Killed
The pilot was performing authorised aerobatics and local flying from Atcham near Shrewsbury, he had flown west across mid Wales and during a series of rolls drifted over higher ground. He lost control of the aircraft which entered a spin, he managed to recover from the spin but had insufficient height to regain level flight before the aircraft struck the top of the hill and broke up.
A photo taken by Mark of myself holding a piece of the aircraft, it is very hard to see but the colour on the top of the part is blue. It is a piece of skinning that has the edge of the ‘Star and Bar’ on it.This photo shows the remains of the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Twin Wasp engine from the aircraft.The wreckage is scattered both inside a forestry plantation and along the edge. This shot shows the wreckage along the edge of the plantation.A slightly different shot to the previous ones. This is from the USAAF crash report and shows the hill before the trees were planted that now cover the site. The stone wall visible in the third photo can be seen at the bottom right of this shot. Thanks: Mike StoweAfter being initially buried in the UK 1st Lt Beauchamp was later re-interred at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Francisco, California