BEFORE AND AFTER PAGE 8
308BG
BA8 #2a Mission #40, 23/12/43: Thirty B24s took off at 1000hrs to attack the aerodromes at Canton, China. Primary target was Tien Ho A/D, with White Cloud A/D as a secondary. One bomber turned back, while the remaining force of 29 rendezvousing with a fighter escort over Kweilin. Approximately 15 minutes before reaching the target, the formation was intercepted by 15 or more Japanese fighters. A running aerial battle ensued lasting 20 minutes. Five bombers were damaged, but 308th gunners claimed 6 Japs destroyed, four probables, and 6 more damaged. One of our five
damaged B-24s, #350 “China Clipper” had an engine shot out, to the extent that the propeller “was slung off.
BA8 #3a After crash landing upon its return to base (Kunming or Liuchow?) from Group Mission 95 on April 23, 1944. It was one of seven B-24s from the 374th BS & 425th BS that staged at Liuchow for the mission to bomb shipping at Cap St. Jacques, near Saigon. The mission was one of the most successful missions of the war, sinking six large ships and a small Japanese naval vessel, totaling 40,000 tons. CHUG-A-LUG Junior was severely damaged during its attack. Its hydraulic system was shot out, and one crewman - radio operator T/Sgt. Anastacio Contreras - was seriously wounded by an explosive round. When the airplane approached the field, they lowered the landing gear. The left main gear went down and locked, but the right
side would not lock. The pilot could not retract the locked left gear to attempt a belly landing, and was further hampered by not having flaps. Considering their wounded man, they opted to bring the ship in rather than gain altitude and bail out. The report says "two tires were blown out (perhaps the nose and left main tires from the high speed approach) and two propellers struck the ground." The pilot, Lt. Milton Werner, and copilot Lt. Col. Jack Averill were commended for "bringing it in without further casualties."
BA8 #5a NIGHT CLUBBER crashed at Dergaon, Assam Valley, India on June 13, 1945. The pilot of NIGHT CLUBBER, Clifford Peterson, reported that their fuel gauges were reading low, but that that reading was inconsistent with their fuel load and flight time, so they ignored it. When they lost an engine, they requested priority landing at Dergaon, but it was refused. While in the landing pattern, they lost the remaining three engines and put the plane down in a tree-less field. Things were going "well" until they hit a raised roadbed with the belly of the plane which flipped the plane around. Everyone walked away with minor injuries.
BA8 #6a The ACCREP makes it quite clear that this aircraft was in poor shape “should be Class 26”. Was being used for transition training only, and the accident happened during night transition training. Appears to have been making a close approach and the steep bank onto final at low level caused the wing to hit a tree, the aircraft cartwheeling and hitting the ground inverted and being completely demolished. Three POB (Captain, pilot u/t & flight engineer) killed.
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