I've heard this one described as a B17 a Stirling or a Lancaster.
Found this after a brief Google search (theres even some old pics before she crashed on the 303BG website)
Quote 1:
1Lt Alan Eckhart (CP) - Flew on 24 credited combat missions: With Capt Cote - All Capt Cote missions except for missions #43, 60, 75 & 83. Was Upgraded from CoPilot to Pilot and flew 4 missions as First Pilot (80, 81, 83, 85). On mission 85, 1 Dec 1943, ditched a new B-17G 42-31243 (No name) (427BS) GN-Z, on its first mission, in the English Channel at Pegwell Bay, England when the B-17 ran out of gas. The entire 10 man crew was picked by the British Air Sea Rescue and taken to Manston, England. A British recovery team discovered the ditched B-17 in the 1990s in the marshland at Sandwich Flats near Pegwell Bay and were able to collect wreckage that was turned over to the British Brenzett Aeronautical Museum. The 25 mission combat tour of 1Lt Eckhart was completed on 1 Dec 1943 (Mission #85).
Quote 2:
In actual fact it was a B-17G-10-BO, 42-31243. 303BG flown by Lt Eckhart. Remaining engines and some parts recovered a few years ago.
The Lifeboat record of service was:
"Walmer, Kent.
At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 1st of December 1943, the coastguard reported an American Flying Fortress aeroplane down in the sea a mile north of the Guildford Hotel in Pegwell Bay. A moderate north-west wind was blowing. The sea was smooth. The lifeboat was not needed, and four of her crew put out in the motor boat 'Terrier'. She was overtaken by two air sea rescue launches and the coastguard signalled the 'Terrier' to return.
Rewards £1 to two men. The other two men had been rewarded by the Bevan Trustees."
(Source: Supplement to Annual Reports of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution 1939-46)
Try a GOOGLE search of 'Pegwell Bay B17' and see what you can troll up! Theres severel wreckS off of Manston ( inc a Stirling) and there is rumoured to be a Lancaster off of Pegwell bay but i can find no references, dates, info, so maybe it's just a rumour:
Happy Hunting