It appeared to us that some of the crew were in the water so we dropped our life rafts as close as we could to the crash site. The other flights had left by this time because of lack of fuel. I stayed around for a few more minutes circling below the clouds at low level, until the Zeros left to return to Maloelap. They were machine gunning the debris from the crash and any survivors. We were trying to discourage this with the few guns we had on our two plans. Finally Charlie Pratte also had to leave and headed for Tarawa to re-fuel.
On one pass the Japanese machine guns had stitched holes the length of his fuselage and had blown up the oxygen tanks which had knocked down the two waist gunners in time for the machine gun bullets to pass through the fuselage where they had been standing. I later found out that his hydraulic system was also shot out and he landed at the new strip at Tarawa with parachutes tied to the waist and tail guns and which the crewmen deployed as they touched down to slow the airplane because they had no brakes.
This technique is now used for many of our high speed aircraft and on the space shuttle to slow down on landing. There were no survivors. Smith was flying on this mission with the crew of Lt. Thompson who had been wounded over Wake Island on July 24, Pratte had his crew were lost on January 22, on a low level mine laying mission out of Guam over Chichi Jima.
I landed on Tarawa on the old, bomb pocked strip a little later and after taking on 1, gallons of fuel from give gallon cans, we took off for Funafuti, a small atoll about six hundred miles to the south.
We navigated by dead reckoning for what we estimated to be six hundred miles and then started a square search for our little island. On our second right angle turn of our square search we saw some faint lights a few miles away and we were soon back on the ground after being gone for 19 hours with 17 hours in the air. In that sense, this Missing Air Crew Report and the two photographs within it epitomize — in a manner far more powerful than words — the nature of the Pacific air war, some seven decades ago.
What happened? Five other Bs turned back to provide protection for the Express , with one escorting pilot, Captain Jesse Stay whose account is presented below maintaining radio contact with Lt. Heavily damaged, with its 4 engine out and 3 engine smoking, Lt. Smith lost altitude, and, eventually ditched. The Liberator broke in two immediately behind the flight deck, with part of the tail remaining afloat for several minutes. Throughout, three Zeros, which had probably expended their ammunition, remained in the area to observe the scene.
Taken together, the accounts of Captain Stay and Lt. Sands indicate that at least three — and possibly four — of the crew survived both the ditching and a strafing run by a solitary Zero. So, at least some of the crew — presumably gunners in the rear of the aircraft — remained alive after the crash.
Later that day, upon the arrival of two PBYs at the location of the ditching the time of their arrival is not listed and the naval squadron is unidentified — nothing was found. The accounts of Captain Stay and Lt. Sands are presented below verbatim, along with a summary of the mission from the records of the 42nd Bomb Squadron:. My flight, consisting of myself and Lt. We made our run and turned off to the left, increasing our power and diving to catch up with Capt.
As he told me this Lt. My flight of two ships turned with him and at the same time my Co-pilot informed Capt. Storm of the straggler. Sands fell in on Lt. Pratte flying on my left wing. Shortly after this Capt. Storm and his remaining wing man, Lt. Approximately 3 minutes after we joined him in formation his no.
I spoke to Lt. Smith over V. Smith called back asking me to get Dumbo service for him and I acknowledged. Shortly after Lt. Smith feathered 3 engine and the fire was apparently extinguished.
From the time that we had left the target we had been having a running fight with from 15 to 20 Zeros. When Lt. Smith landed his ship in the water. The Zero pilots made excellent use of the sun and they seemed very experienced in this type of attack. Smith had been losing altitude rapidly and when he was at about 3, ft. We dropped down through a. At this time there were still four Zeros in the air but they were apparently out of ammunition because they made no more passes. Smith landed in the water at L.
The ship broke in two and the nose appeared to go down leaving the trailing edge of the wing and very little of the bomb bay afloat.
The whole ship was under water in approximately 3 minutes. We observed at this time one life raft with one man lying prone across it. The rest of the formation left for their base and Lt. Sands, Lt. Pratte and myself circled the scene for cover and to give what aid we could. Three Zeros were still in the area but appeared to be only observing the crash.
Our top gunner was only able to fire a few shots at any of them. Sands dove in low over the raft and dropped a life raft then we dove in and dropped a box of emergency rations. Both the raft and the rations remained intact and afloat.
We called for Life Guard service on command voice on K. The Zeros left and we climbed above the clouds and Lt. Pulliam took a sun shot over the raft and confirmed our position. At the same time my radio operator was calling first Tarawa, then Makin, then Apamama but receiving no answer from any of them he again called Tarawa and sent through a request for Dumbo Service.
I turned around and headed back to the raft hoping to be able to assist the Submarine but on approaching the life raft we were able to see the water marker for from 10 to 12 miles from ft. As we dove over the scene to fifty feet we saw that there were two rafts inflated and three men ware in one and possibly one on the other. We set our liaison up to transmit on and called for Life Guard Service again. We left the scene finally at L.
Captain Jesse E. We had left the target about five minutes when the tail gunner called and said there was a B smoking and losing altitude and was alone. When I observed the conditions under which Lt. Smith was placed I continued my turn and went back to get in formation with him.
We pulled in on his right wing as that was the side that about 10 Zekes were making overhead passes at the crippled plane. We had been in formation with Lt. Smith about three or four minutes when the four other planes pulled into formation on his left wing.
We continued to escort him until he landed in the water at about L. The plane appeared to break in two just back of the flight deck. The entire plane with the exception of the tail surfaces sank almost immediately. The tail surfaces floated for about four minutes. One man was definitely seen to be laying across a partly inflated, overturned life-raft with possibly one other person in the water.
I ordered my crew to get a life raft ready to throw overboard which was done as we passed over at a minimum altitude. One Zeke was seen to make a strafing attack at the spot where the plane sank. The Zeke then left the area. We circled for another ten minutes, and seeing no more Zekes, we departed for Tarawa. My radio operator immediately sent out a position report of the crashed plane which was unanswered. Warren H. Kerr in , Captain Storm in , Lt. Gall in , Lt.
Perr st in , Lt. Schmidt in m Lt. Stay in , Lt. Sands in , Lt. Smith in , and Lt. Pratte in , staged through Nonomea for a strike against Taroa on Maloelap Atoll.
Each airplane carried 6 x GO bombs. Interception began as the airplanes pulled away from an AA spattered bomb run, with 20 — 30 Zekes and Hamps rising to the attack. AA began as the airplanes neared the island, in some cases not reported as occurring until the run had started, with a majority of the bombs landing in or near the target area. Gall did not reach the target due to malfunction. It was on this mission that Lt.
Smith had two engines shot out either by AA or cannon fire, and found it necessary to make a water landing about 75 miles from Taroa.
Captain Stay had, prior to the crash, radioed to both Dumbo and Lifeguard to come in, and this was later found to have reached both agencies through other intercepting mediums as well as the original call. It was later found that upon arriving at the spot, no trace was found of the survivors, and it is presumed that they either were strafed by returning Jap airplanes or taken prisoner. Brannan of Lt. Roth, Sgt. They were all confirmed…. Here is a map of the Marshall Islands from Wikimedia Commons illustrated on a global view of the earth, centered on Polynesia.
The map below, from the Diercke International Atlas , shows Taroa Island right center and the other islands comprising the Maloelap Atoll. Air Force Photo Collection at Fold3. This Google map shows the location of Taroa via the red pointer , relative to surrounding islands.
This map, generated by entering latitude and longitude coordinates in Google Earth, shows the location where Dogpatch Express was ditched denoted by the red pointer.
Akin to above, at this scale, Maloelap and Taroa do not appear. This map shows the location of Nanomea Island red pointer once more relative to the Marshalls. The plane was lost. Ten men were lost. Who were they? However, there is one set of records in the National Archives that gives these men fuller identities. Within these press releases, casualties are listed by theater of war Europe, Mediterranean, Pacific, etc.
The name of a casualty was usually usually released approximately one month subsequent to the calendar date on which he was killed, wounded, or missing. Maybe more about this in a future post? Given that Lt. Pilot Smith , George W. Ida R. Smith mother , Prairieton, In. Co-Pilot Lowry , John E. Navigator Mortenson , Carl A.
Bombardier Ortiz , Ralph P. Daniel C. Flight Engineer Sopko , Clarence T. Radio Operator Gearon , Roy T. Gunner Paradise , Arnold J.
Gunner Dell , Carl N. Vera P. Nielsen mother , Cleveland, Id. Photo by Bill E. Remarkably, there is a photograph of this crew…. Know you were remembered then and still by your family with a proud military tradition. May you and your crew forever rest in peace at the bottom of the ocean.
Your last mission was accomplished Sir. Sorry on behalf of your government for your case and many like it. Your death date was December 21, not Silver Star recipient. Rest in Peace Sir. The photos? Here they are:. This shows Dogpatch Express heading back — well, trying to head back — to Nanomea, showing Lt. This may be the point at which — as described by Capt. This is a 2, dpi crop of the above photo. The damage to Dogpatch Express is obvious. Close examination shows that the ball turret has been rotated downwards and retracted into the fuselage, while in the dorsal turret — rotated to the rear — the guns have been elevated to degrees.
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