View panel 4. Aircraft wreckage

THE LIBERATOR
The Liberator was one of the most famous fighter aircraft during the war. More than 18,000 of them were produced. Carrying over 3,600 kilos of bombs, the long-range aircraft were on their way to targets in Nazi Germany. But not infrequently they were shot down over the Netherlands by German anti-aircraft guns.

PLUNGED INTO IJSSELMEER
This also happened to captain Kent F. Miller and his crew. Their B-24H Liberator, christened 'Big Banner' by the crew, flew with a fleet of 574 bombers to Germany on 22 December 1943 to bomb Münster and Osnabrück. On the way back, they were hit by German anti-aircraft fire. Captain Miller ordered his crew to jump out of the aircraft. Only after three of the gunners jumped with their parachutes did Miller see that the B-24H was flying over a large body of water. He decided to make an emergency landing on the water.

HARD CLAP
Flight engineer Edward E. Birge stood in the doorway during the emergency landing to measure speed. When flying very low, instruments work poorly or not at all. When the plane hit the surface of the water, Birge slammed forward against the
instrument panel, that he was killed in the process. Pilot Kent Miller hit the steering wheel and died instantly. The crash was fatal for most of the crew. Only co-pilot Charlie Taylor survived the heavy crash.

LOST IN THE WAVES
As the plane disappeared into the waves of the IJsselmeer, Taylor managed to save himself with a dinghy. He was picked up by a German patrol boat and taken prisoner of war. The bodies of the three boarders and a fourth crew member were found in the IJsselmeer. You now overlook the spot where the B-24H Liberator disappeared into the waves.

BORNED
Taylor was there when the 'Big Banner' was lifted from Oostvaardersplassen by the Royal Air Force Salvage Service in October 1975. To get to the aircraft, the Royal Army constructed a Bailey bridge and an earthen dam. The last stretch
to the wreckage was bridged with a makeshift ferry. A dam wall was built around the cockpit so that the salvagers could do their work safely. A little further on, you can still see the traces of the sheet piling in the ponds.

TRIBUTE TO THEM
A film about the Liberator can be seen at the Nature Experience Centre 'De Oostvaarders' in Almere. The names of the crew members who perished on 22 December 1943 are: Edward E. Birge (12 October 1922), James C. Childers (6 December 1922), John H. Larson (26 March 1923), Gerald D. McCord (30 December 1916), Kent F. Miller (17 October 1922), Frank A. Passavant (16 May 1918), Stanley Pilch Jr.
(26 November 1920), Donald Shaffer (20 February 1922) and William J. Sheehan (15 April 1923).