'I hid under a desk as my school burst into flames' How I survived the Freckleton Air Disaster

Blackpool Gazette

Ruby Currell was just four years' old when a US Air Force bomber plane crashed into her school, killing 61 people, including 38 of her classmates.  Now 86, Ruby recalls the day when she survived the tragedy, by hiding under a desk as the Holy Trinity School burst into flames on August 23, 1944.  In the years that followed, the US Air Force helped to rebuild the village, and Ruby forged a life-long friendship with the Americans.  FILMED AND EDITED BY LUCINDA HERBERT.

Transcript

00:00I remember it going very dark. It was a real loud bang. Now, in those days, being in wartime,

00:10if you heard a big bang, you got under something. I turned round and saw a girl fall out of the desk

00:18and I saw my teacher slump over her desk and I got under mine. So that's possibly

00:25how I come not to have a load of rubble on me. I don't know. And then the next thing I know,

00:35there were two faces in the doorway. One was the headmaster and one was an American airman.

00:44They were trying to beckon me out, but I wasn't. I was moving. I don't even know whether I could have

00:50moved. I was just under my desk and I suppose I must have felt safe. It was very smoky and very hot.

00:59That was it. That's all I remember. I don't even remember the pain and I must have been in pain

01:06because I started making a lot of noise. We had to go to a hospital quickly. The nearest one was the

01:13American base hospital because the nearest one of our own was Lytham. The other one was Preston,

01:20which was seven miles the other way. So no, they took us to the base hospital because it was their

01:27ambulances that came to pick us up and they took us there and we were looked after there up until February.

01:34The Americans went to great lengths to rebuild the village determined to put things right.

01:43They quickly began turning an area of land into a beautiful memorial garden and children's playground,

01:50which was opened in August 1945. They installed a stone plaque with an inscription that reads,

01:59in the

02:12house.

02:13When I go to America, you'd think I was royalty, but I'm not. I'm very ordinary, but they just can't do enough for me.

02:26can't do enough for me, as long as they know, as soon as they know who I am and what I'm

02:32there for, that's it. Everything is laid on and done for me. They're just wonderful.

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