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Was it a Nazi?
On July 27,
1941, a small, private, two-seater plane crashed partially onto
the New Haven railroad tracks and partially into the north side
(tracks toward Boston side) railroad embankment, about an eighth
of a mile south of the High Street bridge (towards Sharon).
The wreckage
was first noticed by the engineer of a steam engine freight
train, as it slowly made its way up the sharp grade headed for
Providence and points beyond, and was able to stop just before
hitting the plane wreckage. Local police were summoned, and it
was determined that no one, dead or alive, was in the wreckage.
An immediate search of the surrounding area was commenced,
keeping in mind that the area was much more wooded at that time,
and that woods and heavy brush extended from that point all the
way to Cobb’s Corner on one side, and of course the old part of
Knollwood Cemetery and the adjacent woods, which are still there
on the left of High Street near the Sharon town line and beyond
into Sharon. The railroad right of way was searched in both
directions, over the Canton Viaduct as far as Canton Junction,
as well as up to the Canton Street bridge in Sharon. All this
was in order to see if the pilot was somewhere nearby wandering
in an injured and dazed condition.
However, upon
further examination of the wreckage, some very interesting facts
were uncovered. Firstly, although the plane looked on the
outside exactly like the many small, private, American-made
aircraft, which at that time flew in and out of the nearby
Canton Airport or from any of a number of small airports in the
area, the inside revealed it to be of German manufacture, with
much of the cockpit showing German markings and the cockpit
instruments being labeled in German. This information of course
was immediately relayed to federal authorities, and the FBI and
military authorities took over the whole investigation.
Neither local
police nor townspeople were allowed near the scene, and High
Street was blocked off from Norfolk Street to the Sharon line,
as well as Canton Street in Sharon, at the Sharon Box Mill on
Rte. 27, for several days. Passenger trains to Providence and
New York City were routed through Canton Center to Taunton and
then to Attleboro to get back onto the main line again. Freight
traffic only was allowed through the crash area during the
several days of diversion of passenger trains.
The plane
wreckage was removed secretly during the dead of night, and no
one was allowed anywhere near the area except with special
federal permission.
There was a
complete news blackout on the whole affair, both in the local
and Boston press, and the facts were not really made public,
other than private speculation, until July 1945, two months
after the German surrender.
One must
remember that the summer of 1941 was a time of wait-and-see
regarding the U.S. becoming involved in the European War, as it
was called here then.
At the end of
May 1941, President Roosevelt had declared the U.S. to be in an
“unlimited state of national emergency” due to many unfriendly
actions having already been taken by Germany towards the U.S.,
especially on our Naval and Merchant Marine ships. War with
Germany seemed imminent at any time. Many of our factories had
already switched over to defense production, as we were, as a
result of the Lend-Lease Act, known as the “Arsenal of
Democracy” and were supplying England (through Canada) with
planes and much war material.
How ironic it
is that it actually was not an act of Germany that got us into
World War II, but the treachery of the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, less than four months after the events mentioned here.
The final
disposition findings, released in July 1945, determined that the
plane that crashed in Canton was a German reconnaissance plane,
probably headed toward Boston to take aerial photos of Boston
Harbor and any of the military establishments that were
beginning to sprout up in this area.
The pilot was
never found, and it was presumed that he must have somehow
escaped in the woods and blended into the woodwork of America.
After all
this time, no body was ever discovered in the immediate area,
indicating that his injuries could not have been so severe that
he died of them, at least not around Canton or Sharon.
July 30, 2009
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