The Beaumont Leys plane crash on 25th April 1943.

    I wrote some years back to the Leicester Mercury about the aircraft crash on what we called Brundells Hill, I.8. in your account (as shown in Cartwright 2002) and as the Leicester Mercury and it’s readers could not recall if I had thought that I had imagined it! My parents soon confirmed my recollection of it.

    We lived on Mill Hill at the end of Rosses Walk in Belgrave. From the front of the house we had a clear view over the fields towards Abbey Lane and Corporation Road. I was sitting in the front room when I heard an explosion and running outside saw a tremendous fire, flames, 50 feet high on the brow of the hill behind the Central Railway. My parents came in just after and told me that they were walking down Checketts Road when this plane came overhead on fire. It just missed the Church (St. Peters) then went over the fields beyond the river and Beaumanor Road, climbed slightly then crashed.

    The area was closed off and I didn’t get a chance to look, but after it was cleared, we found a shallow crater where it had fallen. There were rumours that the crew had bailed out just before impact and that their parachutes were opened around the crash site. It was also said that the pilot had lifted the plane over the houses in Beaumanor Road and Abbey Lane so as to spare the people there.

    I have often wondered who the crew were and if there is any memorial to them?

    I think the site of the crash was at Greystoke Close or thereabouts. I have heard it said that the crew were Canadians. One of my hobby horses is the often made remark that we "stood alone" in 1940. The Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and many more Commonwealth Nations stood with us from the very beginning.


By Mr. Brian Turner
Braunstone Town

See Postscript here.



Sources:

Cartwright, T.C. 2002 “Birds Eye Wartime Leicestershire 1939-1945” TCC Publications, Leicester.