|
25 August 1943
Non-Combat Accident Report
CREW POSITIONS AND STATUS
1/Lt McCorkle, Robert D. Pilot 576th 2/Lt Beaton, William O. Copilot 576th 2/Lt Abruzzo, Thomas S. Navigator 576th KILD 2/Lt Medley, Alton C. Bombardier 576th KILD T/Sgt Hoffman, Paul W. Engineer 576th T/Sgt Gish, Jr. Robert W. Radio Operator 576th KILD S/Sgt Stephenson, Joseph W. Gunner 576th S/Sgt Beaird, Ocie L. Gunner 576thOn 25 August 1943, 1/Lt McCorkle and his crew lifted off at 1814 hours from Topeka Army Air Base aboard B-24H #42-7528. The aircraft was brand new, with only 16 hours of air time, and the crew was taking it on a calibration and training mission. According to the Report of Aircraft Accident, "Shortly after take-off, when the propellers were being synchronized, No. 4 propeller ran away. The throttle was pulled back and the propeller was feathered. At this point, No. 3 propeller ran away and was feathered, reaching the full-feathered position before No. 4. The pilot was approximately 1300 feet above the terrain. Loss of altitude at the rate of 500 feet per minute, increasing to 700 feet per minute, made the pilot decide upon an emergency landing. An unsuccessful attempt was made to unfeather and start No. 4 engine. The crew was warned that a crash landing was going to be made. The final approach was made on a flat cornfield and switches were cut. Evidence showed that Lt. McCorkle maintained control of his aircraft, having leveled off above the corn and having traveled a distance of approximately 500 yards before contact was made with the ground. Flaps and landing gear were both up. The aircraft traveled on the ground approximately 250 yards before coming to final rest. Three of the eight crew members were trapped on the flight deck by the nose wheel and top turret, resulting in fatal injury. No fire resulted."
The crash occurred at 1825 hours about two miles northwest of LeCompton, Kansas. The incident destroyed "approximately one acre of growing pop corn" that was valued at $125.
The pilots later said that their plane climbed very slowly, never more than 500 feet per minute. As they climbed, the interphone system went out. On reaching 2300 feet, the #4 propeller was making a lot of noise and there was a heavy drag on the right wing. As Beaton moved the No. 3 and 4 toggle switch to synchronize the props, the No. 4 prop ran out of control. He then pulled back on the toggle while the No. 4 prop was feathered. Almost simultaneously, No. 3 ran away and was also feathered. It was noticed that although No. 4 was feathered first, No. 3 got to the feathered position long before No. 4.
McCorkle ordered the crew to put on their chutes and prepare to jump. By then, however, they were too low to bail out. Realizing that he couldn't make it back to base, McCorkle headed for the river, "the smoothest surface [he] could see." Spotting a bend in the river, McCorkle then went toward the next smoothest surface, a cornfield. He said later that the pilots "didn't have time to think of putting the flaps down which probably would have slowed us down. We left the landing gear up. Before we hit the top of the corn, we lifted the nose high and had all power off. I had the co-pilot cut all switches. Then everything went pretty fast. We hit the top of the corn. The nose seemed to be dragged down and I was more or less blinded by the corn as we started to plow into it."
Stephenson and Beaird got out the waist windows; McCorkle, Beaton, and Hoffman exited via the copilot's window. McCorkle ran to the nearest house to call the base for help while the others tried to get the three remaining crewmen out of the plane. 2/Lt Medley, pinned on the flight deck, was heard to speak, but it proved impossible to pull him, Abruzzo, or Gish from the plane. Gas was pouring over the No. 3 engine so Stephenson and Beaird emptied two of the on-board fire extinguishers on that engine to prevent a fire. (The threat of fire was so great that in his statement afterward, 2/Lt Beaton stated that he and Sgt Stephenson had retrieved a .50 caliber machine gun from the waist as "We had no desire to see our Bombardier burn alive if the ship caught on fire.")
1/Lt McCorkle, who had just returned, asked for an axe. Beaton got two from a nearby farmhouse; Beaird used one to break the radio man's window in an unsuccessful attempt to reach 2/Lt Medley. The air was filled with gas fumes, so S/Sgt Beaird fanned Medley with his hat while 2/Lt Beaton gave him a morphine injection to ease his pain. McCorkle then took over fanning Medley so Beaird could use the emergency radio to send SOS's. Medley occasionally asked for water, which McCorkle provided; Medley also told McCorkle that "the first thing to have them do was to get the weight off [my] legs." He was given another shot of morphine shortly before the first military personnel arrived.
It was later determined that the distributor valves on the No. 3 and 4 propellers were loose, which "could cause internal leakage and cause the propellers not to function properly." All four props and engines were completely destroyed, the wings were 50 percent damaged, and the fuselage was 90 percent damaged.
+++
The McCorkle crew had crash-landed on their previous flight, 22 August. There were three additional men on that mission: assistant engineer S/Sgt Russell E. Clark, gunner S/Sgt Kenneth Q. Bean, and gunner S/Sgt Ocie L. Beaird. Their plane, B-24H #42-7473, was brand new with only 16 hours of air time.
When the landing gear came up after their lift-off at 1537 hours, S/Sgt Beaird spotted gasoline leaking around the left wheel. He called the copilot and asked him to feather the No. 1 engine to keep it from catching fire. This was done. "By then, "Beard reported later, "the gasoline was leaking all along the left wing from the No. 1 engine to the fuselage. I told the co-pilot to feather No. 2 engine but he didn't feather it because we were too low. I told him that we had better come back in because the plane was liable to catch on fire or that the wing would blow up."
McCorkle notified the tower that he was coming in on the nearest runway and made an approach to land downwind on Runway 31. The ship landed about halfway down the runway and all switches were cut. As the aircraft neared the end of the runway, T/Sgt Hoffman opened the bomb bay doors by means of the emergency release on the copilot's pedestal. As the airplane began to stop, about 900 feet past the end of the runway, the crew cleared the plane on the right side and (in the words of gunner S/Sgt Kenneth Q. Bean) "ran like hell." Almost simultaneously, the left outer wing panel was blown apart by an explosion from fuel fumes within the wing. 2/Lt Abruzzo was about 10 feet from the plane when it exploded and was slightly injured by metal fragments. The fire continued to burn within the inner wing section around the main fuel cells for approximately 30 minutes before it was extinguished.
+++
On 31 August 1943, the eight remaining crews in the 576th Squadron were ordered to depart for Presque Isle, Maine, the first step on their way to England.
+++
The September 1984 issue of the Second Air Division Association Journal included an article titled, "In Memory Undimmed - 392nd BG." The author's name was not given, but it was his tribute to the 392nd Bomb Group, and especially to the early days at Wendling. "…The 24s and their crews began to come in just as the all-black engineers battalion and the six-month-work-permit-laborers-from-Erie completed the taxi strip. It is at that point that the young faces come into focus: Hyman Schwartz and "Murph" Murphy (was it Robert?) - some names do stay. The first from Philadelphia, about 22, slim and tall and a great friendly smile; the second from New England, quiet, unsmiling, but congenial - an older man - as much as 26 or 27.
The first liberty run into Kings Lynn they were in the Black Swan pub (or was it just "The Swan"?) after a look at the Wash, and the customs House and the Gray Friars, and they seemed glad of the quaint new surroundings. The next day, or week or minute they were off to Burtonwood in Lancashire to come back with some new 24H's that had been ferried over and needed maintenance; and then they were gone. Both planes crashed on takeoff - one after the other - with the loss of all on board. It made no sense.
There was Sergeant Golub with tears in his eyes (he was much older - over thirty) repeating "Our two best men; our two best men."
That was before the 579th took its first combat losses - not that there is any special significance in that - they came soon enough; the squadron commander, Lt. Smith and his crew, and many - too many others. But Schwartz and Murphy, nearer in duties, remain more in focus, more associated with Wendling."
+++
2/Lt Abruzzo is buried in Cypress Hills National Cemetery, Section 9 Site 13631C. Burial locations for 2/Lt Medley and T/Sgt Gish are not known.
MISSIONS
MAIN PAGE
NEXT
MISSION