Cycle Route Wings of Freedom: Crash Site Thunderbolt P-47D, W-No. 42-8549 'Elsie'

The pilot, Howell Leslie Broxton, participated with his P-47 (fighterplane) in Operation Market Garden.
The purpose of this action was to occupy various bridges in the Nijmegen-Arnhem area. After ten days this action had to be cancelled and was looked upon as a failure. It was Broxton’s 54th flight.

The American plane was hit by enemy gunfire and the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing. Though the machine was badly damaged at the landing the pilot survived unscathed.
He was looked after by his fellow combatants that had been dropped before in the same area. A number of years later this H.l. Broxton made another 101 flights above enemy ground during the Korean war.

The crash took place at the coordinates: 51.754246, 5.911019.

In collaboration with the municipalities of Bergen, Gennep, Mook-Middelaar and Weeze, the initiative was created for cycling routes 'Wings of Freedom' along crash locations.
In the four municipalities, 28 crash sites have been definitively confirmed. Near each crash site is a memorial sign with information about the cause of the crash. Using the network of cycling nodes, there are four routes of approximately 30 - 40 km. deployed along these places.

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: Werkgroep Wings of Freedom
• Photos: Werkgroep Wings of Freedom
• Vliegtuigcrashroute Wings of Freedom