Description:Lt Richard Dunlap was on a flight from the American air base at RAF Atcham near Shrewsbury when his engine failed at 3,000 feet. He attempted an emergency landing at RAF Wheaton Aston but undershot the runway and skidded across a field killing two cows before coming to a halt in the Shropshire Union Canal.
RAF Wheaton Aston was operational from 1941 to 1947 and functioned as a training unit for the RAF and USAF. It was later utilised as a resettlement camp for Polish servicemen and their families. The camp was finally abandoned in the mid 1960s with the land returning to agricultural use, latterly as a pig farm.
This photograph is courtesy of the Imperial War Museum (Roger Freeman Collection).