The moorland search for a missing airman who died in 1944

On an autumn day 82 years ago, a crew of American airmen set off for what was supposed to be a routine test flight.

Instead, their B24H bomber crashed on Twizle Head Moor near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire, killing nine United States Air Force (USAF) personnel. There was one survivor.

The bodies of eight of the crew were recovered from the remote crash site at the time, but the remains of Cpl Clarence Watson, 22, were never found.

This month, the US government has funded further excavations on the moor in the hope of finding Cpl Watson's last resting place.

The site will then remain as a war grave so that visitors can pay tribute to the brave serviceman who died on 9 October 1944.

It will also fulfil his country's wish that no man should be left behind on a battlefield.

The investigation has been contracted to UK-based forensic archaeologists Geoscope, who first sent a team to Twizle Head Moor two years ago to carry out ground surveys to help them understand more about the circumstances of the tragedy.

The plane was on a test flight, keeping visual contact with the ground in poor weather, when the pilot misjudged how quickly the moorland rises at the end of the Holme Valley.

Its tail struck the ground and the aircraft broke up across a wide area, coming to rest in flames.

Poignantly, Cpl Watson and one other man were serving as ground crew, and were only passengers on the flight.

The survivor, Staff Sgt Curtis Anderson, provided an account of the crash in a book he wrote, and together with survey data, Geoscope and a group of local volunteers were able to return to the moor for a five-week dig around the wreckage.

"We can identify parts of the aircraft and we know where they have come from and it is in a sense following the breadcrumbs to what we're looking for," says lead archaeologist Tim Fletcher.

Cpl Watson's niece has also visited the excavation team.

"She had been planning to come here for many years and it is pure chance she decided to make that trip while we were here, which is remarkable.

"She and her wider family are still so invested in trying to find out what happened to Clarence. It was a very moving experience."

The volunteers from Moors for the Future have given their time in wind and rain to help lay bales of heather as part of the post-dig land restoration. The site is half an hour from the nearest road and the bales were dropped in by helicopter.

"We've been working to restore the surrounding landscape," explains Tim Harrison from the group.

"As this is a war grave we've not been able to restore this patch, but the legacy of this project means we can restore it to the level of the rest of the landscape that surrounds it."

The open access land is owned by Yorkshire Water, who say visitors are welcome to walk past the memorial, but must not take any items or debris away from the site. Parts of the bomber's landing gear are still visible.

As to whether the remains of the young man who left California for an RAF base in England during World War Two have been found, Fletcher says only that some material has been recovered.

"We'll likely send it back to the United States, for analysis under lab conditions, which is where it really needs to happen."

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