War Stories

My wife Sara and I are both members of the Tean Royal British Legion branch. We wanted for some time to place a plaque to the pilot’s memory at the scene of the tragic crash in our village.

The plaque was installed on the front of the cottages in Riverside Road in October 2009.

We originally didn't know all the facts of the crash – and we had to investigate fully the whole of the circumstances first. Here's what we discovered.....

Baby Rescued

What we do know for sure is that, in 1944 - during the final dark days of World War 2, when there was a final push to win the war against Germany – an Allied P47 Thunderbolt plane crashed into a residential street in Tean in The Staffordshire Moorlands.

Lt Pfaff

The crash completely destroyed two cottages in Riverside Road, and, sadly, the pilot, 22-year old American Lieutenant Donald Pfaff, was killed.

A one year old baby, named Ivan Wood, was asleep in his cot at the time of the crash, which took place on the 14th July. His mother was at the cinema and his grandfather was looking after him. His brother Brian was playing in fields nearby.

Fortunately, the direct point of the impact missed the cot, but the toddler was trapped by the crash debris.

Luckily, a member of the Home Guard, Arthur John 'Jack' Simcox, a 33 year old man who actually lived on nearby Draycott Road was able to effect a rescue.  It was Arthur who bravely went into the house to get the child. Arthur never received any award or acknowledgement for his rescue.

Despite the horror of the crash, no one else was killed.  In fact, our researches eventually led us to that rescued baby – who is still alive, and living today, in Werrington in Stoke on Trent! 

By comparing various accounts of the incident, I have estimated that the crash took place on that evening at 6:20pm.

A Quest for Information

But what was known of Donald Pfaff? It was hard to find much detail.

Nothing was found at all for the pilot for air crashes in the Peak District and Midlands in Rolls of Honour.

The plaque dedicated to Lt.Pfaff

We wrote to our own War Graves Commissions; searched all military burial web-sites here and in America; and examined all Rolls of Honour in both countries.

I then searched American websites in the hope of finding information on the birth and death of Donald Pfaff. I discovered that the records of the years I was looking for were destroyed in a fire in 1973.

My next thought was to contact researchers in the state of Pennsylvania, where he came from, and eventually I struck lucky, thanks to one researcher who helped us a great deal. I managed to find contact information for Donald’s brother, who filled in all the missing details.

Finding someone who knew the facts was wonderful!

Lt Pfaff’s family were likewise over the moon - as they knew nothing about the crash other than that it had happened in Upper Tean; and on three visits to this country had been unable to trace anything. In fact, they had found it difficult to establish where Upper Tean even was...

False Security

What happened that fateful evening? As an outcome of my research, we were able to work out what had happened.

I discovered that Lt. Pfaff’s aircraft was in a pack of four planes, which was flying over the Moorlands on that day. The squadron was based at Atcham in the next county, Shropshire.

Another plane appeared in the sky though, causing a disturbance, and Lt Pfaff seems to have spun out of the formation - completely unnoticed by the other pilots in his squadron. It is believed that he then flicked on the brakes to try and steer the aircraft out of his spin, and back on course.

But… he entered clouds. This may have given him a false sense of security by making him think the recovery was successful. This left no time for him, when he emerged from the low-lying cloud, to make any more firm decisions - which resulted in the fatal collision.

He may have tried so hard to get his plane out of its spin - and perhaps was even desperately truing to avoid the cottages - that he did not consider bailing out.

For more information on the Tean Royal British Legion, and on this air-crash, contact Jeffrey and Sara Gibson on jeffrey.gibson@talktalk.net.

For further details on the British Legion in North Staffordshire, visit http://www.britishlegion-northstaffs.org.uk.