Please note
This is not my best work. I mostly do hobby terrain building tips or wargaming stuff with very few words and mosty all photos)
William Leondus Hutchison
Carson, Ms
MIA 8 July 1944
Last three pages of MARC
http://www.leondus.com/Scan0002.gif Page 5
http://www.leondus.com/Scan0001.gif Page 6
http://www.leondus.com/Scan0003.gif Page 7
my family members was
Warrant Officer Junior Grade, Dawson Leondus Hutchison
Headquarters, V Air Service Command
DOB 8-13-21
DOD 7-Mar-46 (others are listed as March or 7-Jul-46)
He was just one of 14 passagngers on B-17-E 41-2464, which took off at 0641 (6:41am)
with five B-17 crew
P- LTC Walter Piehl Hq5AirSer, Service # 0-230257, Wisconsin
Cmd Eng- SSgt Cortez Beal Hq 5AriSerCmd, Service # 34190024, Tennessee
CP- Maj Alan Attebery Hq 5AirSerCmd, Service # 0-664493, Missouri
RO- SSgt Henry Willis Hq 5AirSerCmd, Service # 34058608, Florida
CC TSgt Edgar Elseman 5AirSerCmd, Service # 17004297, Nebraska
Passengers
Maj Robert Barnes Hq 5AirSerCmd, Service # 0-900048, Arkansas
Maj V. Henriques Hq 5AirSerCmd, Service # 0-280216, California
Capt Russell Helmer HqSq 58AirSerGrp, Service # 0-393337, Pennsylvania
Capt Fred Lewis Hq5AirSerCmd, Service # 0-925188, California
Capt Paul McKnight 5 AirSerCmd, Service # 1576369, Ohio
Capt Wendell Root Hq 58AirSerGrp, Service # 0-413266, New York
Lt Winton Witmer Hq 58SerGrp, Service # 0-567120, California
Lt John Campbell Hq 58SerGrp, Service # 0-857274, Pennsylvania
Lt Roland Hickey Hq 5AirSerCmd, Service # 2036113, Tennessee
WOJG Dawson Hutchison Hq 5AirSerCmd, Service # W2114954, Mississippi
SSgt August Bachor Hq5AirSerCmd, Service # 32225289, New York
Sgt William Ray Hq 5AirSerCmd, Service # 13107567, Pennsylvania
Cpl Noel Lowe Hq 5AirSerCmd, Service # 34608243, North Carolina
PFC Clyde Hopkins Hq 5AirSerCmd, Service # 34732682, Tennessee
Hq 5AirSerCmd=Headquarters, Fifth Air Force
HqSq 58AirSerGrp= Headquarters Squadron, 58th Air Service Group
Hq 58SerGrp= Headquarters, 58th Air Service Group
Never seen again.
Area of SAR and ground search
http://www.leondus.com/map2.jpg
(note if info from Douglas and Adams is right, the ground SAR totally missed the possible B-17 crash site as stated below)
What really happened to the crew and passangers of 41-2464?
1) Engine failure SSgt Henry Willis, B-17 radio ops should have had time to send out a a mayday before the crew and passangers bailed out?
JB Hutchison, His farther (granddad brother) talked with a man in 1950s who was stationed with Daswon and he said that the B-17 used to ferry had a really bad history with its engines.
And if they bailed out over the mountains or swamp then they was good as already dead.
2) Japanese AAA
-General Hatazo Adachi, moved almost over 60,000 men to assault Aitape on July 10th, just two days before the flight of 41-2464.
Did Adachi also move Anti-aircract gun to the area of Aitape/Tadji before the 10th?
My first thought after reading the MARC and seeing AAA listed as a opson was that SSgt Henry Willis, B-17 radio ops should have had time to report it and or send out a a mayday if hit.
After July 1944 and up until the end of the war the only Japanese units are listed as "Remnants" around Aitape until the end of the war. (scan of map) http://www.leondus.com/map44-45.jpg
3) Hit a mountain due to bad weather
Flight from Nadzab probably proceeded up the Sepik Valley and then over the Alexander Mountains or Torricelli Mountains enroute Tadji?
4) Time of loss
0641-1300 (6:41am-1:00pm) giving the plane flight time as under 11min uptil 6hr30min
B-17E maximum speed was 317 mph at 25,000 ft, cruising speed 226 mph, with the maximum ferry range of 3,200 miles.
at 0641, the plane should have gone between 47-50 miles and at 1300 around 1469 miles.
Nadzab-Tadji is about 287 miles and Tadji-Biak 422 miles, total 709 miles.
Great information in reguards to a possible B-17 crash site!
WW2 wreck hunter John Douglas has emailed me some great information in reguards to a possible B-17 crash site!
(This wreck is interesting because I possibly know more or less where it is!)
It was not lost to Japaese action. The Japanese were practically out of PNG at the time of loss.
2] the flight path would have taken the plane along the Markam-Ramu valley, to the Sepik,in the mid reaches, then Tadji. very easy to wind up in mountains on either side of this route.
Douglas also notes
"The Ramu/Markham rift valley runs from Nadzab NW and opens to the NW into a large swampy area which is the Ramu Sepik river mouth complex. Tadji is on the other side of the Sepik river and over a lower range. The middle Ramu area where the wreck is has steep mountains to the south and is very weakly explored, except by the locals who hunt there. There are several B24s C47s and other smaller planes missing in this general area, often on flights between Nadzab and Hollandia, Biak and Noemfoer, lost not in battle but due to poor weather or mechanical failure. cheers"
I had several reports of a large plane with human remains a little south of this route near a mine site [2 days walk in difficult country] in the Ramu valley.
I think the wreck is a 4 engine bomber, but it could be a B24. Thers a 40% chance its the wreck in question.
Nadzab A/S is at 6.33.47S;146.43.43E;Tadji A/S at 3.11.45S;142.25.31E, while the wreck site is approximately
5.31.06S;145.08.38 http://www.leondus.com/0mage4.gif
(within a 10 mile radius) http://www.leondus.com/gex.jpg
Before his emails with the great tips above, I talked with a member of 58th Air Service Group, who replaced Lt John Campbell and is living in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Jeff Adams info of flight routes they used when moving from Nadzab to Biak Island on 23-25th of July.
"We used the valley made up of two ranges as a guide until they hit a major river which could be seen clear from high in the air and started a new mountain range near the coast"
Showing Mr Adams a map of PNG he pointed out the only landmark that he could remember which was the Bismark Range and ran his finger over his groups flight path.
But he did state it was the best to his knowledge after 60 odd years
Using Douglas and Adams info.
The large plane getting reported to Douglas seems to be off the flight path a few degrees taking it out of the valley and into hills.
http://www.leondus.com/0mage4.gif
If the wreck with human remains is not 41-2464 then who?
More on MARC 6580 on my homepage
MACR 6580
Moderator: Moderator
JPAC
Try Inquiry to JPAC:
http://www.jpac.pacom.mil/
http://www.jpac.pacom.mil/