Tommy Thumper II was a B-24 Liberator in the 467th heavy bomb group, 790th bomber squadron, stationed at RAF Rackheath, north-east of Norwich.  It's serial number was 42-94811 and it originally served with the 34th bomb group at Mendlesham in Suffolk.

During August and September 1944, the 34th group replaced it's B-24s with B-17s, so Tommy Thumper II was moved to the 803rd (P) Radio Counter Measures Bomb Squadron based at Cheddington, Hertfordshire.  In early January 1945, Tommy Thumper II was transferred to the 467th bomb group at Rackheath in Norfolk.

It was named Tommy Thumper II after the original Tommy Thumper B-24 was badly damaged during a hard landing.  The crew of the original Tommy Thumper took charge of another B-24 and named it Tommy Thumper II.

On the 22nd January 1945, Captain John T. McArthur Jr. took charge of Tommy Thumper II for a training mission.  The aircraft took off from RAF Rackheath in the early afternoon.  Not long after take off, at about 13:45, Captain McArthur radioed the tower at Rackheath stating that he had engine problems.  The tower instructed McArthur to return to the airfield.

The aircraft was sighted near to Horsham St. Faith airfield (now Norwich airport).  Number 1 propeller appeared to be feathered and there were bursts of smoke coming from the number 2 engine. Things must have become serious as McArthur radioed the tower at the nearer Horsham St Faith airfield.  He was instructed to circle until another aircraft was landed.  Then, at about 13:56, flying at a height of about 400 feet, the aircraft appeared to stall, did a complete wing over, and spun into the ground.  It crashed in the grounds of Catton Hall, near Church Street in Old Catton.

All nine crew members died.

An official investigation was carried out by the USAAF, but because the aircraft was completely destroyed and none of the crew survived, no reason was ever given for the crash.  Below are the pages from the official crash report.

Below is a photograph of Tommy Thumper II in happier times and some official USAAF photographs of the crash site in Catton Park.  Note the amazing aerial shot of the crash site with Church Street to the left and Spixworth Road at the top of the picture.

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