Uncle's D-Day mission mystery solved | Canada | News | The Belleville Intelligencer
closure for the families
Uncle's D-Day mission mystery solved | Canada | News | The Belleville Intelligencer
closure for the families
Another. ED427 was found several weeks ago too. Shot down by flak on its way back from Pilsen/Skoda works. Crew still on board
It is amazing that these aircraft are still being found. A few years ago a friend of mine, Don Jordan, called me and asked If I would be interested in a "dig". I, of course, said hell yes! Don had found a B24 that crashed in April 1944 in the Mojave Desert just about five miles west of the town of Mojave. Don had been looking in the wrong area for two or three years because of erroneous information on the original crash report. Only by chance did he run into a witness to the actual crash while eating lunch in Mojave. Don went out and within 10 minutes he found an oil pressure gauge from the errant B24.
We went out and started digging and found human remains almost immediately. Although most of the B24 had long been removed, the report stated the all the remains had been recovered. This was not the case. All that was left were four engine and one fuselage divots, a ton of aluminum frame and skins bits and pieces, all four engines and in the main hole, a lot of twisted aluminum framework, and rubber from the puncture proof tanks. We found a dog tag, the pilot's ring, and a "lucky" 1876 silver dollar also belonging to the pilot and a navigator's stop watch. We stopped the dig and called the Kern County Coroner's office. The Coroner notified JPAC and they were out there in a matter of days from Hawaii. Don and I were allowed to help in a limited capacity on the dig. We recovered all ten bodies from the wreckage. The JPAC team leader, a Marine Captain let me keep some of the artifacts from the wreckage. I found the data plate off one of the flight cameras, a slough of engine parts, Norden Bomb sight parts, a damaged 1943 dated .50 round and a few web gear lift the dot snaps.
Here are a few photos of the dig. I did not post photos of the remains for obvious reasons. A lot of what was found was very small. A crash like this one is very devastating.
My experience with JPAC was absolutely wonderful. I will never forget it!
Me
Don
A box of stuff at the beginning of the dig.
Empty .50 case, Norden bomb sight parts and stuff.
Data plate from the flight camera.
Rocker levers and cylinder pieces
Ring and stopwatch.
Bill Hollinger
"We're surrounded, that simplifies our problem!"
Interesting. Looks like an Elgin A-8 navigation stopwatch. Thanks for sharing. Glad they were finally recovered.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The sister of the pilot was not so happy at first. Their family had put him to rest, or so they thought, soon after the crash. It is just amazing what our government does. The story goes that the Army brought a crane and bulldozer to the site and gathered up what could be seen and left the rest. Before they left they graded the crash site flat and then wrote down the wrong coordinates. Years of storms and flash flooding uncovered the site to where it could be seen with ease. As I said, four engine divots and one fuselage divot. The plane can in nearly straight down. Pilot error was blamed for the crash.
For those interested, Don has a couple of books out. Aircraft Wrecks In The Mountains And Deserts Of California
Here is the B24 story:
B-24D
Last edited by Bill Hollinger; 10-02-2012 at 04:16 PM.
Bill Hollinger
"We're surrounded, that simplifies our problem!"
Thanks Peter for the ED427 Lanc info, i've read the details and will be looking at that website often,
and thanks to Bill for his help and work on the Liberator site, will be checking that desert crash website out as well.
The big birds were truly "mighty machines", 10 man crews mean a lot of families are still looking for final answers, the work of the men and women trying to find these answers is honourable.
Jim
Was just reading about ED427, met a guy at the War and Peace show who was into aircraft digs etc, he collected some panel from Heinkels, an interesting bloke, was talking of a crash site in Russia, many years ago, he was out there looking for something else when they got wind of a reckage that was egulfed by trees, when they got there (think it was Stuka) they were amazed to find a complet plane belly up, pilot and gunner still in the cockpit . he reckons there are still 4000 or was it 400 -1000 WW2 aircraft missing worldwide ?
Last edited by bigduke6; 10-02-2012 at 07:53 PM.
Just a quick question. Do you have any info on a SBD that might have belly-flopped here in the desert around Yuma , Az. ? I have a couple of ANM2 .30 cal MGs ( that have had thier right sideplates cut out ) that were supposed to have come out of the back seat of one that had to make a landing around here. Would like to be able to have a story on these.
Thanks , Chris
I would also so be interested in hearing about this storyOriginally Posted by emmagee1917
Semper Fi
Phil
I do not. All of the information I have is for California. Sorry guys.
Bill Hollinger
"We're surrounded, that simplifies our problem!"
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