28 Jun Mastermyr Landing
The rocky Gotland coastline
A province of Sweden, Gotland is actually the largest island in the Baltic Sea. If you go to this tourist information site, you can read about Gotland’s history dating back to the Middle Ages. There are nearly 100 medieval churches and many historic sites in Gotland.
Today Gotland is a popular tourist destination, having been compared to the United State’s Martha’s Vineyard.
Much of the Gotland terrain is rich with gravel, stone, and limestone rocks.
There is a place on the island known as “Mastermyr.” It is a bog west of Hemse where significant medieval artifacts have been found. From the photos of the crash site you can see that this area was large and open … farmers’ fields … most likely had been farmed for centuries.
So this is the spot where the Liberty Lady pilot Charles W. Smith and the copilot Merle P. Brown chose to bring down the plane. As Merle explained they had to land wheels up because of the rock fences. “They would have flipped the plane.”
It was 4:55 in the afternoon. The average March high temperature is about 37 degrees Fahrenheit. There was some snow scattered about. Waist gunner Don Courson remembers that the plane just slid hard. “It was a wonderful landing.”
Ah, at last … they were on the ground.
Liberty Lady. Photo provided by Jörgen-Gustafsson
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