Palm Beach Post Article
Three days before Christmas in 1943, two hours past midnight, 14 men climbed into an airplane and lifted into the dark sky over the slumbering hamlet of West Palm Beach. Their journey lasted but a few moments, and killed every one of them.
The crash is believed to represent the largest loss of life in a single incident at what is now Palm Beach International Airport. And you never heard of it.
At the time, The Palm Beach Post reported it in a five-paragraph story on the front page, beneath a list of Christmas events. Then even briefer follow-up stories the next two days. Then nothing.
Eight days after the crash, New Year’s Day 1944 kicked off a year that would see the greatest invasion in world history and the beginning of the end of a great war. To all but those who loved them, the story of the 14 was quickly out of sight and out of mind.
Forgotten.
It might get a bit dusty in here.