On the morning of August 23, 1944, as the Second World War raged across Europe, the peaceful village of Freckleton in Lancashire was torn apart by a sudden and unimaginable tragedy.
A U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber, known as Classy Chassis II, was caught in a violent thunderstorm shortly after takeoff from Warton Aerodrome.
Battling fierce winds and blinding rain, the aircraft lost control and plummeted into the heart of the village. It struck the Holy Trinity School and an adjoining café without warning.
The explosion and inferno that followed killed 61 people – among them 38 children, their teacher, and several local residents. What should have been an ordinary school day ended in chaos, flames, and heartbreak.
Survivors spoke of charred books, twisted metal, and the haunting silence that followed the screams.
The Freckleton Air Disaster remains one of the most devastating home-front tragedies of the war, a day when the war quite literally fell from the sky.
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