Terry Birkencamp and his sister Marge Allen were just children on Feb. 15, 1945, when two Douglas A-20 Havoc Light Bombers (each capable of carrying up to a 4,000 pound bombload with 300 mph flight speeds) circled their home six to eight times before crash landing in the fields and cutting a 30 inch deep V in the earth.
The flights had originated at Kellogg Field in Battle Creek, Michigan and were on their way to Scott Field east of Belleville and eventually on to California.
However, they ran into a really bad snowstorm and were running low on fuel and Scott Field was closed. They thought of trying Chanute, St. Louis, Chesterfield, or Springfield airfields, but all were closed as well. Marge remembers 7-9 inches of snow that day.
With fuel low, radio contact bad, and not trusting the gauges, one pilot made an emergency belly landing that ended up about 50 yards from the Birkencamp home. The other landed in an adjacent field.
The first plane was heavily damaged on its underside and had bent propeller blades. The second one was not as bad as it landed with wheels down.
Too Damaged to Take Off. --Coot
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