Thunderbolt crash
American aircraft crash
An American P-47 Thunderbolt resplendent with distinctive 'Normandy Invasion' stripes belly landed and came to rest about 600 meters south-west of the bunker at La Mare Mill in the summer of 1944. This article by Malcolm Amy appeared in Facebook in 2026
After a bit of research into this incident using several sources, both published and online, as well as an 'on-site' visit for a 'then and now' photo, plus tracing several surviving relics from the plane in various local collections, the following has been put together and will form the basis for an interpretation panel in the bunker:
Return to base
Heading back to base on Friday morning of 23 June 1944 after a mission to attack the rail junction near Laval, France, Pilot 2nd Lieutenant Walter Davis of the 510 Fighter Squadron of the 405th Fighter Group in his P-47 Thunderbolt (41-6358) indicated to the squadron leader that he had engine trouble and he had to land. An emergency landing was planned at an advanced Allied landing strip near Cherbourg, but on route to the landing strip, Lt Davis took a wrong turn and instead headed towards Jersey and attempted to land his faulty plane at the airport.
Falling short of his intended landing point due to either a dead battery or running out of fuel, Lt Davis belly landed in fields on the north-side of Route du Port (on the east end of what is now Les Mielles Golf course) at 10 am, sustaining only a cut above his right eye. He was quickly arrested and taken prisoner by soldiers stationed in the area.
The plane was put under guard. It proved a natural magnet for Germans armed with cameras as well as souvenir hunters who would apparently bribe the guard with three cigarettes in return for a 'memento'. The plane was soon recovered and taken by road to St Aubin's Harbour, then by barge to St Helier Harbour with the intention to ship it to Europe for examination and recycling. Due to the events of D-Day the plane is said to have remained on the beach in front of the old lifeboat station until Liberation.
Pilot's escape
On 30 June Lt Davis was taken from Jersey to a PoW camp at Rennes arriving the following day to join other Allied priisoners. On 5 July they left Rennes by train in a boxcar and were only allowed out for strictly supervised short periods with little exercise and one loaf of bread having to last each man three days.
The train waited at the marshalling yards just outside Tours for ten days, with food provided several times for the prisoners by the French Red Cross. While they were there the yards were bombed by the RAF and the engine of their train was strafed by a RAF Mosquito, killing the engine driver. The train finally got underway in the evening of 21 July and several prisoners, including Lt Davis, escaped that night though a hole in the end of the boxcar which they made with penknives.
After being sheltered by the French Resistance for two weeks, the escapees became inpatient and travelled 150km south, where they contacted an English Officer, Major Crown, and after a fortnight working on a farm they made their way to Loches and were then taken by the town Mayor to now liberated Tours to contact American Forces.
Lt Davis is recorded as returning to his unit back in the UK on 8 September 1944 – a remarkable but not untypical escape during that period of WW2 by Allied personnel.
Several small parts of the plane remain in various collections, no doubt obtained in exchanged by bribing the aforementioned guard with cigarettes.
