Glebe Farm, Offley
By V Richards
At 3pm on the 8 January 1945 a US Army lorry carrying munitions was involved in a collision with a petrol tanker as it was passing Glebe Farm. The drivers managed to evacuate nearby residents; however a bus from Luton came round the corner just as an explosion occurred, killing three US servicemen on the bus and injuring 21 others. The explosion was so severe that it made a crater on the road 50 feet wide and 14 feet deep. The Windmill and Farm were completely destroyed and Flint cottages were severely damaged, other houses in Offley suffered extensive blast damage.
Sources:-
Simon Hull
BBC Peoples’ War, Brian Limbrick’s Wartime Childhood 1942 to 1945
BBC Peoples’ War, Alex Tooley remembers
Hillyard. Angela M. – Images of Old Offley. Published 1993
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Walter Carter the farmer at Glebe Farm was my great-grandfather. He managed to get his wife out of the farm house before the explosion.
My grandfather was the one American serviceman killed on that bus while on leave. According to an AP article at the time, the lorry was carrying 20 high-explosive bombs. There was a 5 minute period between the collision and the explosion.
On that day 8th January 1945 at 3pm my mother and I just missed that 3pm bus as we had been visiting my Aunt and cousin in Hitchin Road Luton. I dread to think what might have happened if we had got on that bus!!! God knows we were lucky to have missed it. However, I feel sorry for those who were killed and injured also the cottages that were damaged in Offley. RIP to those US men who were killed.