Lancaster Bomber L7578

This article is an edited version of a school history project researched and written by Tom Wilson whose grandmother, Mrs Margaret Whiteside, lived in Thurgarton.

On the evening of the 26th May 1944, Cyril Sneath, a local builder, left his home at Thurgarton just before 9pm for duty as ARP warden at the Air Raid Precautions unit based at The White House in Goverton. They had been alerted that evening to night time training flights from Syerston airfield which lay a mere 2 miles south just beyond the Trent. Shortly after coming on duty the four man unit heard a plane ‘dying’ over towards Thurgarton.

In Thurgarton men in the local pubs also heard a plane in distress and rushed out just in time to hear a huge explosion followed by a column of black smoke. A mile to the west people in the hamlet of Gonalston raced to the crash site a few fields above Glebe Farm. The scene was one of devastation with a huge blaze, black smoke and the wreckage of the airplane scattered over the field. First on the scene were two local lads on bicycles (their sister Mrs Alan Yates still lives at Glebe Farm) and what they saw and heard that night gave them nightmares for many weeks afterwards. A few moments later the ARP unit arrived but nothing could be done for the seven man aircrew – all had perished on impact.

Courtesy of http://thurgartonhistory.co.uk/2011/08/lancaster-bomber-l7578/

L7578 was an ageing Mk1 Lancaster being flown by an inexperienced crew. Some reports suggest that a parachute harness blocking access to the aircraft's controls may have contributed to the disaster.