The Phantom Airmen of Birchenough Hill

Memorial to the aircrew who lost their lives. Photo by Gary Tacagni.

On a cold, dark and foggy night on the 2nd of January 1945 a Boeing B17 Flying Fortress was on a flight from Burntwood Aerodrome in Cheshire, U.K. flying in an easterly direction towards Macclesfield, on board the flight crew consisted of five Americans, their names were D. Decleene, T. Mands, F. Garry, M. Stravinski and H. Ayer who were tragically to lose their lives in the appalling weather conditions that were being experienced on this night near to the end of the second world war.

The pilot had managed to avoid the hill that Cluelow Cross is sited on, and he skillfully managed to avoid crashing into the natural pyramid shape of the hill known as Shutlingslow, but unfortunately he was to low to clear the top of Birchenough hill, the plane belly flopped on the slopes of the hillside, rose back into the air before impacting on the rocks of the summit. The crew were killed instantly, and even to this day wreckage can still be found in the area around the summit.

The impact crash site on the summit. Photo by Gary Tacagni.

Wreckage from the crash can still be seen around the impact area. Photo by Gary Tacagni.

During the 1990s a coach load of former American pilots made there way to the place where the plane had crashed all those years ago and erected a memorial and a plaque to the brave airmen who died at this spot. However the story does not end there for over the years there have been reports of an aircraft passing overhead and then the sound of it crashing coming from the direction of Birchenough hill. Also the following story took place in the 1960s, the Rose and Crown public house at Allgreave a short way from Birchenough hill where the Flying Fortress crashed, the pub was then owned by a Jimmy Panayi, according to him he was late opening up one evening as the weather was quite bad and he didn’t expect many customers, before he went to unlock the door he heard a knock upon it, when he opened it there was a man standing there wearing a sheepskin flying jacket, Jimmy invited the man inside but he just stood there and muttered something, when he invited him in again he said “please help”, Jimmy thinking there had been a car crash asked him if he was all right, to which he replied “some of my buddies have crashed up the road”, Jimmy called the Police and Ambulance service, but on arriving no sign of the pilot or his buddies could be found. This is just one more mysterious story which abound in this strange and haunting area which is only a few miles from haunted Folly Mill and Ludchurch.

A view of Shutlingslow on the horizon which the pilot managed to avoid before crashing into Birchenough hill.

A view of the Rose and Crown pub, was it visited by a phantom airman? Photo by Gary Tacagni.

This is another view of the memorial which was erected by visiting American airmen in the 1990s. Photo by Gary Tacagni.