Date:	Friday 3 December 1943
Time:
Type:	Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator
Owner/operator:	US Navy
Registration:	32014
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 10 / Occupants: 10
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Steeperton Tor, Dartmoor, Devon -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Dunkeswell
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 3 December 1943, the PB4Y-1 BuNo 32014 "Berlin Express" of VB-103 took off from Dunkeswell, Devon, for an Instrument training flight. While flying in cloud it hit one-hundred feet below the top of the 1739 foot ridge of Steeperton Tor, Dartmoor, Devon. The aircraft disintegrated scattering wreckage on
eight-hundred yards down the steep western slope and into Steeperton Gorge. The tail and after fuselage laid scattered two-hundred yards from point of impact and remainder of wreckage laid four-hundred yards away. There were no survivor.

Crew (all killed):
Lt(jg) Tony Anthony Lucas, Jr. (pilot)
Lt(jg) James Herbert Alexander, Jr. (co-pilot)
Ens Donald Barrett Shea
Ens Francis James Buckley
Amm1c Theodore Lemoine Ra
Rm2c Wilse Adolph Bean
Aom2c William H. Davidson
Aom2c james Woodrow Laubinger
Amm2c Richard James O’Leary
Amm3c Eldret Aloysious Shubert

AOM2 William H. Davidsonn was not a regular member of this crew. He volunteered to replace a sick tail gunner. Some of his original crewmembers where at his memorial service in Norton, Va. after the war.

No 67 MU RAF spent 9 days salvaging the aircraft, and had to borrow several vehicles from the US Army that were more suited to the boggy terrain. As a result, only a few fragments now remain on the upper slopes today.

"Aircraft Wrecks: The Walker’s Guide : Historic Crash Sites on the Moors and Mountains of the British Isles", by Nick Wotherspoon, Alan Clark and Mark Sheldon. ISBN 978-1-84415-9109
http://dmm103105110.btck.co.uk/VB-103
http://www.vpnavy.com/vp103_mishap.html
Fleet Air Wing 7 War Diary, December 1943 (available online at https://www.fold3.com/image/270951921)
http://www.dartmoorwalker.co.uk/tor.php?id=275

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
14-Nov-2010 11:55	ASN archive	Added
05-Dec-2015 10:30	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]