B-24 Hot Stuff Crash Memorial

Background

History & Background

Hot Stuff, B-24D serial 41-23728, served with the 330th Bomb Squadron, 93rd Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force. It completed its 25th combat mission in February 1943. The aircraft crashed at Fagradalsfjall on 3 May 1943 with Lt Gen Frank M. Andrews aboard. Fourteen of 15 occupants died. The memorial near the crash area was dedicated on 3 May 2018.

The B-24 Hot Stuff Crash Memorial marks one of the most significant American aviation accidents in Iceland during the Second World War. Hot Stuff was a Consolidated B-24D Liberator of the 93rd Bombardment Group. In February 1943 it became the first heavy bomber of the U.S. Eighth Air Force to complete 25 combat missions, months before the better-known Memphis Belle reached the same milestone. On 3 May 1943 the aircraft was travelling west with Lieutenant General Frank M. Andrews and members of his staff aboard. Andrews was then commander of U.S. forces in the European Theater of Operations. Bad weather, low cloud and snow squalls complicated the flight in Iceland. The aircraft crashed into Fagradalsfjall. Fourteen of the fifteen people aboard were killed; tail gunner Sergeant George A. Eisel survived. The loss had consequences far beyond the aircraft itself. Andrews was one of the most senior American military leaders of the war, and Joint Base Andrews in Maryland was later named in his honour. A memorial near the crash area was dedicated on 3 May 2018, exactly 75 years after the accident. It honours the people who died as well as the achievement of the Hot Stuff crew. The memorial is accessible from the Route 43 area and should be visited with respect. The actual mountain crash terrain is separate, rough and potentially hazardous; the roadside monument is the appropriate public place for most visitors to learn the story.