Memories of the Redbank Plane Crash
July 11th, 1944

                    Over the years I have heard stories of the plane crash which happened in my old neighborhood. The New York Times article dated July 12th, 1944 told that the plane crashed and exploded in the Westbrook Trailer Camp, adjacent to nearby Federal Redbank Housing Development, also called Redbank Village by a resident witness named Theodore Halley. I knew my Uncle Phil Roberts was a witness to it and even ran home from the dam, where he had been swimming, to get his brownie camera to snap a picture. The photo captured a huge black cloud of smoke and fire and standing alone near the bottom edge of the picture was a couple of small children. I remember that picture when I was growing up, because it was haunting. Since the Redbank Blogs began, I have talked with a few others about the plane crash. One woman told me that when she was very young, her parents drove over to the site of the crash from Portland She said she remembered little but did recall someone setting her on the car, so she wouldn’t get too close. It was still a strong memory. Another fellow who lived in Thornton Heights told me that his parents always spoke about that crash and how they drove over to the crash site from Ferry Village. Recently there was a fictional account of the plane crash in the December issue of Portland Magazine, an account of the conversation in the cockpit moments before the plane crashed. There is also a nice account from Robert Dyke on the Maine government website. Most recently, I was at South Portland Historical Society and had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman who is a retired pilot who has done a great deal of research regarding that crash. He has also been writing about it. I doubt that these stories will die, as there is a desire to gather information before all the witnesses to the event are gone. In fact, I hope to awaken stories in the memories of those who witnessed   events of that day. I know that there were people from all around who came to the site. The witnesses were most likely primarily around the Redbank and Long Creek area. I am curious about what the talk was in the neighborhood, between neighbors. What memories came about after the crash? Was it something that was never spoken about again? Only having mainly newspaper accounts of the crash gives a flat account of what happened. It takes the collective gathering of information from people who were there to present a full historical perspective of the day the Plane Crashed in Redbank.
                     The following story is an account of a conversation I had with Lenny Gray [July 31, 2008-telephone conversation] who was age eight when he witnessed the plane crash. Fortunately, I work with his wife and upon talking about Redbank; she revealed to me that her husband had witnessed the crash as a boy. Seeking permission first, I called Lenny.
                     Lenny relayed to me that he had been down at Clark’s Pond swimming with his older sister Christine, who was five years older than him. There were different areas to swim in the pond. Lenny told me that he and his sister were down near where the ice shack was as there were fewer kids. He recalled in winter, walking from the ice house to the island as he thought the water was sometimes deeper freezing up that area.  He  recalled there were quite a few kids over near the dam swimming and there were some near the trestle. The trestle was along walk around. I asked if it was a train trestle but he thought it was a trestle for cows to use. I also asked him is he remembered anyone drowning at the pond. He did not recall that but said it was not uncommon for kids to fall over the dam to the rocks below. 
                     Lenny told me that they were supposed to move into one of those trailers but for some reason it did not work out and they rented a place in Redbank Village instead. He said the trailers were less expensive than Redbank. His mother, Margaret Gray was a welder on the second shift at the South Portland Shipyard. He told me that his grandmother took care of them during the day and there were younger siblings at home. I was interested when he told me that there was a bus that came into Redbank to transport the workers to the shipyard. On the day of the crash, you can imagine the horror of parents not knowing where their children were. Lenny told me that the workers were all released early that day.
                     He remembers heading back to Redbank, as he was down by dam, heard a loud road and saw a plane flying very low. Lenny said it looked as if it just missed the Reformatory and flew over the fields into the trailer park. He said he thought it was banking to the left. According to him, the trailer park was designed in clusters. There were four trailers in a cluster, a road, 4 more trailers, a road and so forth. The right hand wing and part of the plane’s body took out three rows of trailers, bursting into flames. He remembers the intense heat, dirt flying, debris, smoke and flames. He started crying, when his sister Christine told him to shut up as she wanted to get closer to see what happened. He wanted to go home, but she wanted to stay and watch. He said there was debris which flew into the pond as well. They ended up watching from the dam as the heat was intense near the crash. His memories from that day are vivid as he could remember it was total chaos: screaming, crying and hollering He said that the events of that day caused him to have many nightmares as a kid. Shortly after the crash, his family moved to Portland, unsure if the crash may have had something to do with the move. I asked him if he went back to the site in the following days. He told me that it was a high security area for a week or so. Nobody was allowed near the area from the gas station all the way down to Clark’s Pond. 
                     Over the years he had often thought of his witnessing the crash. He retired from Deering High School in Portland and overheard a teacher talking to his students about being a witness to the Redbank Plane Crash. Lenny listened by the door in the hallway and waited until the class was over before he spoke to the teacher. He told the teacher he had also witnessed the crash. The teacher and Lenny both were grateful they could compare their notes form that day. Lenny said they talked for over an hour that day. His wife, Barbara, met a woman who had gone to nursing school and had just graduated when the crash occurred. She told Barbara that she was there when the crash victims came to the hospital and how she and many others worked around the clock to provide care. She never forgot that. When she relayed the story, she had recently retired as a nurse. Barbara could not recall the woman’s name, only that she lived in northern Maine. Not too long ago, Lenny went back to the site where he witnessed that crash, down by the dam, but he had a tough time recognizing anything in place now and was unsure of his bearings.
                     I also had the pleasure of having lunch with my Aunt Marietta [Roberts] recently. She was also nearly nine at the time of the crash, living across the street from the Community Hall [60 Macarthur]. I asked her to relay her memories from that day.  She had just walked back from her grandmother’s house in Redbank. At home, she and her mother were having an argument, when she heard some noise, looked out the window and saw a plane fly very low over the houses that she was scared. She then saw it on impact that she recalled fire, orange and yellow flames, reminiscent of the bubble gum trading cards with the war scenes imprinted upon them. She could still see the vivid colors of the crash in her head. She said the minister who lived next door was very busy after the crash. She could not recall his name except he was young and married. [Mr. Tefft was his name] His wife had taught her to ice skate. He usually gave his services at the Community Hall. He was busy consoling crash victims. Marietta said she remembers the great sadness. The survivors were filled with sorrow and she remembers hearing a great deal of crying. She said her family took in some people who survived and many also stayed at the Community Hall she recalls. She is certain they had cots there for families who were displaced because of the crash. She went to the site briefly but did not in the next few days, as the weather was wet and damp. She also had nightmares about the crash. I asked her about early friends from Redbank and she recalled her neighbor Joyce Wilbur being a good friend. Only a year before, Marietta had lost a brother, two years older than her, in a house fire on Vesper Street in Portland. 
                     I wonder where all these people are today who were witnesses to that event. It is so important that at some point they can let their accounts be known.  Hopefully, this may inspire others to contribute their memories.