From early in WWII Liverpool’s civilian airport
at Speke became a hive of military activity and its proximity to this
strategically important port resulted in it becoming a centre for both
aircraft flown in, to be dismantled and shipped abroad, as well as those
inbound from the U.S.A. shipped into the docks and then transported to the
airport for assembly. Both the Douglas Aircraft Company and Lockheed
Aircraft Corporation used the two main hangars at Speke to assemble Hudsons,
Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightning's etc. Meanwhile in the adjacent shadow
aircraft factory, Rootes Securities began producing Bristol Blenheims and
later Halifax bombers at a steady rate.
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F/O Eugene Stanley Rybaczek
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| Position |
Rank
|
Name |
Service
No |
Age |
Status |
| Pilot |
Flight Officer |
Eugene Stanley Rybaczek |
T-190748 |
26 |
K. |
Once assembled and tested, US aircraft were flown out from
Speke, mainly by the 310th Ferry Squadron, which was stationed at
Base Air Depot 2, Warton (BAD-2) and on the morning of February 16th,
26 year old Flight Officer Eugene Stanley Rybaczek took off in the newly
re-assembled P-51B Mustang 43-6635. However, after only being airborne for a
short while, the aircraft apparently developed a fault, resulting in a fuel
or glycol leak, that rapidly filled the cockpit with fumes and left the
aircraft streaming a vapour trail that was seen by witnesses on the ground.
Clearly Rybaczek was in trouble and it must have seemed a stroke of fortune,
when he spotted an obvious runway set in the wooded parkland below. What he
had seen was in fact an RAF airfield know as No 49
Satellite Landing Ground, set in
the Earl of Derby's estate at Knowsley Park and used by No 48 Maintenance
Unit for the dispersal of newly built Handley Page Halifax's, also from
Speke. He was observed by personnel on the airfield at about 11:50am, as he
approached the landing strip with the obvious intention of landing, but in
order for him to have landed on the runway he would have needed to make a
right turn, but for reasons unknown, a slow left turn was attempted and the
aircraft stalled and spun in from an altitude of about 150 feet, impacting
about 50 feet from the Western end of the runway killing Flight Officer
Rybaczek instantly. The aircraft hit the ground nose first, rolled over,
then exploded; disintegrating across the threshold of the runway and the
wreckage was engulfed in flames. RAF personnel from the airfield immediately
ran to Assist, but with only hand-held fire extinguishers available, they
could do little and it was immediately obvious that nothing could be done
for the pilot, who lay amid the wreckage, clearly dead. The airfield’s
fire tender and further RAF personnel were quickly on the scene and soon
extinguished the flames.
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|
Crash
site of P-51B
43-6635, 16/02/1944 |
The same view today. |
The hobby of aviation Archaeology
certainly takes us to some unusual places and searching for the remains of a
WW2 fighter amid the exotic “wildlife” of a Safari park was certainly an
experience. The Earl of Derby’s Estate at Knowsley Park is now a well
known tourist attraction and following some lengthy negotiations, in 2002 a
small group of members of the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team visited
the Knowsley estate to attempt to locate the crash site of 43-6635, under
the watchful (and extremely helpful) eye of the Head Forester - Having spent
the morning viewing some of the remains of airfield buildings and dispersals
etc. we turned our attention to calculating the approximate area of the
threshold at the Western end of the runway, where the aircraft was known to
have dived into the ground. Fortunately the area we wished to examine lay
outside the enclosures for the Park’s wildlife, though we noted a rather
large and obviously somewhat territorial Ostrich was taking an interest in
our activities, so we ensured that we kept well clear of the fence! Nearly
sixty years on, identifying the boundaries of the actual runway proved more
difficult than we had anticipated, though fortunately two copses of trees
proved to be in the same position, enabling us to make comparisons with the
original photographs from the crash report. Having identified the
approximate area we began a systematic metal detector grid search, starting
off with relatively wide lanes, due to the area of ground we had to cover.
Three quarters of an hour later we found our first fragment - an aluminium
hydraulic pipe with US made brass connector. Readjusting the search pattern
to narrower lanes, in the vicinity of this piece, soon brought to light
several more fragments including a headphone earpiece from a flying helmet
and the face of the airspeed indicator, all showing signs of impact damage.
One larger signal proved to be a small cache of remains just below the
surface indicating the actual impact point. Only a few inches down, there
were still traces of oil and scorched earth, as well as two complete WW2
vintage Air Ministry marked asbestos fire blankets, bearing testimony to the
events of 56 years before - However, once we realised what these were, we
had to inform
the Head Forester and they were immediately deemed a health hazard and had to be dug out and sent
for specialist disposal! Though several pieces of 43-6635 were uncovered
during this process. A
final scan with our deep-seeking detecting equipment registered no further
contacts, but our goal had been achieved and the handful of fragments
recovered would be carefully cleaned, to be displayed with the story of this
young American pilot.
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|
Examining
derelict WW2 RAF buildings at Knowsley Park, used by No 48
Maintenance Unit as a satellite landing ground. |
The
face from the air speed indicator gauge found at crash site in May
2002 |
Eugene Stanley Rybaczek’s parents
were of Polish decent and he
came from Terryville,
a village of the Town of
Plymouth, Connecticut, where he graduated from Terryville High School
in 1937 and went on to university. In 1941 he voluntarily enlisted in the
Polish Forces under British Command at the Polish Army Recruiting Centre at
Windsor, Canada and did his basic training at the “Tadeusz Kosciuszko Polish Army Training Camp” in Owen Sound,
Ontario, eventually arriving at RAF Padgate near Warrington, HQ of No 20
(Training) Group, presumably for his RAF basic training. Following training
at No 25 Polish Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Hucknall and No 16
Polish Secondary Flying Training School at RAF Newton, receiving his
pilot’s wings in December 1942. Rybaczek was initially posted to the
Polish Airforce Depot at RAF Blackpool and then on to No 6 Anti Aircraft
Co-operation Unit (AACU) at RAF Cark, moving to RAF Belfast, Northern
Ireland in January 1943. After a spell with various RAF Flights on target
tug duties, Rybaczek was honourably discharged from the Polish Forces under
British Command and transferred to the USAAF were he was given his pilots
rating of Flight Officer in May 1943 and was posted to the 310th
Ferry Squadron stationed at BAD-2. At the time of his death Eugene,
was engaged to be married to a girl from the Nottingham area and they were
saving for their wedding, they were to have been married in June 1944. He
was initially buried at Brookwood Cemetery, London and later repatriated to
the United States, being buried in St Mary’s Cemetery, Terryville, with
full military honours in July 1948.
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| The
fragments of 43-6635 uncovered during our detector search, the
larger pieces being found whilst removing the fire blankets. |
The
largest finds proved to not be from the aircraft! – Two RAF
asbestos fire blankets used to douse the flames 60 years before. |
USAAF
Report of Aircraft Incident.
