Andrew Hill provided this photo of the "Silent Yokum" crew which was taken June 1944 at Westover Field, Mass. On the 16th September 1944 at 16.00hrs approx, the "Silent Yokum" was in collision with another plane over Bardney, Lincolnshire, England. This occurred at 20,000ft where the other plane was suffering from turbulance and as it righted itself took off the tail of the "Silent Yokum."
Standing Left - Right:
A. Florida ( Assistant Engineer ) Saved,
H. Burton ( Armourer ) Saved,
G. Goodman ( Tail gunner),
E. Baranski ( Assistant radio operator ) saved,
P. Hudson ( Engineer )
J. Miazur ( Radio operator ).
Squating Left - Right:
E. H. Vickers ( Co - pilot ),
Edward Lincoln Stutzman ( Navigator ),
L. Hurst ( Bombardier )
A.L. Williams ( Pilot )
Mike Harris, Tom Brittan, and Ken Nellis provided more information:
The crash report write up gives us a fairly good idea of the circumstances surrounding the collision at 1650 hrs on 16th September 1944. The write up for 42-51331 'SILENT YOKUM' is as follows:
"On 16th September 1944, at 1411, 1st Lt. Archibald L. Williams in A/C 42-51331, B-24J, took off as lead of "B" Group in a Wing Practice Mission. Assembly was normal; and formation was excellent. Shortly after bombs away, during the turn for the rally point, Lt. Williams' aircraft was struck from below by A/C 42-95361, piloted by Captain Bell, flying No.3 position. Lt. Williams' aircraft was broken apart at the waist. Only one crew member was able to bail out of the aircraft".
The crash reports state that the collision was at Bodney, Norfolk. It might be worth finding out if the 352nd Fighter Group have a veterans association. They were based at Bodney - one of their number might have witnessed the collision.
The weather at the time of the crash is stated as 4/10 coverage at 3000ft. Visibility 8 miles. Wind west at 15 mph.
The crew list for 42-51331 as given in the crash report is as follows. I've left spellings exactly as they appear in the report:
P WILLIAMS, ARCHIBALD L. 0-813627 1st Lt Deceased
CP VICKERS, ERNEST M. 0-500223 2nd Lt Deceased
CA COCKEY, JOHN O. 0-433478 Major Deceased
N STUTZMAN, EDWARD L. 0-712694 2nd Lt Deceased
B HURST, LEROY F. 0-769129 2nd Lt Deceased
O(P) PEACE, STUART M. 0-802303 1st Lt No Injury Used parachute
O(P) DECK, FREDERICK J. 0-823816 2nd Lt Deceased
PN DOUGLAS, SEATON T. T-125539 F/O Deceased
RO MAZUR, Joseph Z. 12174007 T/Sgt Deceased
E HUDSON, Phillip (NMI) 32187019 T/Sgt Deceased
G GOODHAND, George M. 12225449 S/Sgt Deceased"
You will note that there is no mention of crewmen Florida, Burton and Baranski. Neither are they mentioned in the crash report for the other B-24 involved in the collision - 42-95361.
According to the crash report for 42-95361, "Captain Bell.... made the turn too short after the rally point and came up under the lead aircraft (42-51331). He attempted to dive his aircraft but was caught in the prop wash, and the tail sections of the two aircraft collided"
2 comments:
Dan, This was a 466th BG a/c and the collision happened on a practice mission. The 466th BG was off combat operations at the time flying the gas haul "Truckin' Missions.
There were several observers and new pilots, etc... riding in both planes. The Williams Crew had aboard John Cockey, the 787th BS Commander as well as Frederick Deck the co-pilot on Stuart Peace Crew also of the 787th BS. The other aircraft, B-24H-20-FO #42-95361 "Glad Ta See Ya" was being flown by the Francis Bell Crew also of the 787th BS. In addition to members of the Bell crew, this aircraft also had onboard Walter Bowen (pilot of Crew #668 of the 786th BS), Paul Dickerman (Pilot of Crew #752 of the 787th BS) and Seaton Douglas (navigator of Crew #753 of the 787th BS). All of those men were killed. The only survivors from either plane were Francis Bell (pilot of 42-95361) and Bruce Courser (FE) and Richard Garlichs (R/O) from his crew. - Chris Brassfield, 466th BG Historian
my father mike florida was with silent yokum. He also said it was a practice mission
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