crew members and all eleven passengers were killed. The passengers, part of a Foreign Office delegation en route to the Yalta Conference, included the private secretary to the permanent secretary of the department and a King's Messenger. 9 or 11 February A Lockheed P-38L-1-LO Lightning, 44-24838, of the 432d Base Unit, Portland Army Air Base, crashed in the Oregon desert about southeast of Christmas Valley on a gunnery-training flight. The pilot, 25-year-old 2nd Lt. Max J. Clark, was killed. On 14 June 2007, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) declared the crash scene a historic Federal government site at a Flag Day ceremony. An interpretive plaque, describing the designation and the historical significance of the site, was unveiled. 13 February A Douglas R4D-6, BuNo 50765, c/n 14848/26293, of Air Transport Squadron 3 of the US Navy crashed into the sea near Alameda, California, while on approach for landing at Naval Air Station Oakland; all twenty-one passengers and three crew members were killed. During a high-speed taxi run at Seattle's Boeing Field in Boeing XF8B-1, BuNo 57984, pilot Bob Lamsen experienced an unexpected undercarriage retraction at 4:30 pm. The airframe came to rest near the middle of the main runway after sliding about . No emergency services were required; reports of smoke and fire were apparently due to runway friction. To aid the investigation, three cranes tried to lift the large fighter plane onto a flatbed truck with the gear still retracted; however, they could not gain sufficient height and a decision was made to manually extend the gear so the airframe could be moved with no further damage. 17 February Luftwaffe experten (ace) Jürgen Harder (13 June 1918 – 17 February 1945), recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, with 64 claimed victories, was killed in the crash of a Messerschmitt Bf 109G-14, Werk. Nr. 784 738, near Strausberg, Germany, after the plane's engine failed. Technical experts who analysed the wreckage concluded that the piston of cylinder 12 penetrated the engine block; escaping fumes incapacitated Harder, who lost control of the aircraft. 18 February Luftwaffe pilot Leutnant Erwin Ziller runs into problems 45 minutes into the third flight of Horten H.IX V2, when of one of the plane's jet engines failed; the aircraft spun to the right, and crashed just outside the airfield perimeter. Ziller died in hospital a fortnight later. This second prototype was the only powered