THE 75th anniversary of a WW2 air crash near Hartland Point, in which an American plane came down killing all ten crew aboard was commemorated by a few in January, but their search is still on to contact relatives of crew members.

Graham Moore, along with Stephen Heal, has been assisting Robert Palmer to collect information about the crash of the Consolidated Liberator, 41-24019 of the USA Air Force (USAAF), and hope to get in contact with relatives to find out more.

One of the airmen was called Elliott Ernest Stone. Research has shown his father, William Stone, was born in Holsworthy. William emigrated with his brother Wilfred to the USA in 1909. He met and married an American and had a son, Elliott.

In a report compiled by Mr Palmer, he gives a brief background to Elliott and his family: “Elliott Ernest Stone was born in 1918 in Missouri, USA, and was the Bombardier (or bomb aimer or air bomber in RAF terminology) on the flight. His father was William Ernest Stone, who was born in 1881 in Holsworthy. He…married Anna D Davies in 1913, in Webb City, Jaspar, Missouri. She was born in that county of the USA on June 11, 1894, so was much younger than her husband. They had three children, Mary Dorothy, born in 1914, William Thomas born on April 24, 1916, and Elliott Ernest, born in 1918; all three being born in Missouri.

“Elliott was a graduate of the Webb City High School, and the University of Missouri. Shortly after receiving his commission, he married Miss Sue Wright, of Salisbury, Missouri.

“His brother, Lt William Thomas Stone (known as ‘Bill’), joined the USAAF, but died on August 26, 1942, at Barksdale Field, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana. The two brothers are buried in Section 17 of the Mount Hope Cemetery, Webb City, Jasper County, Missouri.”

Speaking about the crash Mr Moore said: “It is quite an interesting story. One of the crew members’ father’s was born in Holsworthy. We found out that he emigrated to America in 1909. Whilst there he met an American lady and they had a son — Elliott —who joined the American Air Force. It was whilst on an eight-hour operation from St Eval, near Newquay, that the son and the other nine members of the crew died in a plane crash. The plane crashed just 15 miles away from where the son’s father had grown up.”

Mr Moore said through their research they had discovered what happened leading up to the crash. It is believed the crew of the 2nd Anti-Submarine Squadron had been left their base at St Eval and were looking for submarines and German craft as part of a training exercise when the weather closed in fast. Mr Moore said: “Back then navigation wasn’t what it is today and they subsequently got lost.

“We think they tried to make contact over radio — you are supposed to use a certain frequency in order to communicate but we think they were using the wrong one so their message never got through.

“In the end the team at St Eval realised the crew hadn’t returned when they should have and found out that the plane was in trouble but by that time it was too late.”

Mr Moore said it is believed that the plane crashed after it tried to fly below the fog in order to see, not realising that they would be flying directly into the cliffs two miles east of Hartland Point.

Ten crew members were killed on Monday, January 22, 1942.

Besides Elliott, the other crew were: George Oscar Broussard, Leonard L Dechant, Robert L Shedden, Grant L Craig, Bernard L Hickman, Harold Kaplan, Frank Koziak, George Malham Shaheen and Louis A Nagy.

The team hopes to organise a memorial event once they have made contact with relatives of the airmen.

If anyone has any information or believes they are related to one of the airmen who perished in the crash they can contact Graham via email to [email protected]

For more information about their work visit www.britishmilitaryhistory.co.uk