P-38s Attack The USS Randolph

TonyM · **Posted:** Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:51 pm

bobbrunn wrote:

The 2 P38s crashed into a pack of F6Fs parked on the forward end of the flight deck and some pieces of the Lightnings continued through the flight deck starting fires below.

According to the AAF accident report
only one Lockheed F-5E crashed into the ship, not two.
The other Lightning flew away.

TonyM.

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7818

Speaking about the FHC Hellcat and it's new paint scheme as one of VF-12 aboard the USS Randolph, brought back the thought of good ole Jack Cook's thread on an interesting, and tragic, event. I have a couple of photos of this mess that I'll post later.

p51 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:14 am

Several pilots went west on their final mission. I remember a heartbreaking story a WW2 widow told me years ago at a display I was at. Her new husband was returning with his crew from the Mighty 8th, they got to fly their own B-17 back for some reason. They were coming to a civilian airport where she was near. They couldn't land there but they were going to buzz the field. Apparently a small 'dust devil' that someone next to her noticed was crossing the field at the time and the crew weren't advised. It pushed that Fort right into the ground and blew itself into a million pieces while going full throttle over the field at less than 100 feet. The next day they would be back together and the war was going to over that spring. Instead, she watched him die quickly and horribly. She married again years later but admitted to me she never got over him or seeing that.

PinecastleAAF wrote:

That B-52 accident has to be the most infamous FUBAR in modern Air Force history.

There's a very well written piece on what led up to that crash here: http://www.crm-devel.org/resources/paper/darkblue/darkblue.htm More on that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fairchild_Air_Force_Base_B-52_crash

TonyM · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:51 am

p51 wrote:

Several pilots went west on their final mission. I remember a heartbreaking story a WW2 widow told me years ago at a display I was at. Her new husband was returning with his crew from the Mighty 8th, they got to fly their own B-17 back for some reason. They were coming to a civilian airport where she was near. They couldn't land there but they were going to buzz the field. Apparently a small 'dust devil' that someone next to her noticed was crossing the field at the time and the crew weren't advised. It pushed that Fort right into the ground and blew itself into a million pieces while going full throttle over the field at less than 100 feet. The next day they would be back together and the war was going to over that spring. Instead, she watched him die quickly and horribly. She married again years later but admitted to me she never got over him or seeing that.

PinecastleAAF wrote:

That B-52 accident has to be the most infamous FUBAR in modern Air Force history.

There's a very well written piece on what led up to that crash here: http://www.crm-devel.org/resources/paper/darkblue/darkblue.htm More on that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fairchild_Air_Force_Base_B-52_crash

I am unaware of this one. Where did it occur? Name of pilot? Date of accident?

I have all the accident reports and I wrote a book on the subject of Stateside AAF Aviation Accidents and this one is not ringing a bell.

http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php? ... 864-2106-0

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7818

Yes I would be very interested in more details on the B-17 story as well. Tragic story.

TonyM · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:14 am

When I get home I will check my index for fatal B-17 accidents for 1945. Should be easy to run down if it indeed happened. I would have remembered this one. Will take a look in my vast accident data base for B-17 flight into terrain accidents at civilian airport. The accident would definitely generate an AAF Form No. 14 Accident Report.

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7818

Here's two photos from the incident, source, Maritime Quest archives

USS Randolph ablaze after being hit by a P-38

June 7, 1945 USS Randolph CV-15 seen from USS Texas BB-35 burning after a USAAF P-38 Lightning crashed into her stern while at anchor off Letye, Philippines. The pilot, Captain Lewis M. Gillespie, USAAF and fourteen crewmen were killed.

p51 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:00 pm

Sorry guys, I don't have any details on that B-17 crash other than what I just posted. I was told this story in the mid 1990s at a AAF living history display I was at. I'm not even sure it was a civilian airport, the only thing I recall for sure from her was it wasn't the specific field they were had to land at, only the nearest field to where she and another wife of a crewmember lived at. So, it could have been a military field. I do recall her saying the war ended not to long afterward. Now that I think on it, I'm not even sure that the AAF was aware in any official capacity as for the reason for the buzz job, so I wonder if there's any 'official' record of it happening in front of two wives of the crew or not (I'm sure it'd been a news story for that reason, though). It was a B-17 for sure because she kept gesturing to the B-17 behind me at the time she told me about it...
I also heard a story from another 'war widow' around the same timeframe where she told me her husband died in a transport crash several months after the war was over, he was returning to the states to be mustered out when the plane went down. That was a crushing story as well but I don't recall the details very clearly on that.

TonyM · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 1:11 pm

There were a few AAF WWII accidents I can think of off of the top of my head where the family or girlfriend/wife witnessed the accident.

One that stands out was the 2 Oct 1942 B-26 accident at Akron, Ohio.
Three families saw their three airmen die when their B-26 crashed into a hill off the end of the runway at Akron, Ohio. Pilot was Lt. Claude Jackson and his father was the Fire Chief for Akron.
Lt. Jackson had been involved in a fatal B-26 accident in Florida only two months before.

Another family-witnessed accident occurred at Thornburg, Iowa, on 31 Oct 1943 when the pilot of a B-25 buzzed his family home and collided with a tree in his own front yard. The B-25 crashed and exploded about a quarter mile away.

Two accidents on 30 July 1942 also come to mind:
Cessna AT-17 suffered a catastrophic wing failure while the pilot buzzed his girlfriend's apartment in Houston. The two cadets and a woman on the ground were killed.
Same day just a couple hours earlier a cadet was killed and another seriously injured when they crashed in a PT-19 while buzzing the PIC's girlfriend's house in Moscow, Arkansas.

B-24 pilot's sister watched her brother collide with Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado in 1943 (can't think of the date off the top of my head).

On 11 Dec 1942, a civilian flight instructor working for the AAF crashed in the desert near Tucson, Arizona, while buzzing his girlfriend's college science field trip. The instructor and an AAF cadet were killed.

In April 1942 a pilot ferrying a Lockheed RP-322 married his girl in Little Rock, Arkansas, hopped in his plane and augered in about 30 minutes later.

December 1941 in Texas--Cadet has christmas dinner with a family. A few days later returns and buzzes the house and crashes in front of the family who had hosted him.

In June 1943 a B-26 pilot was buzzing his father in law's farm in Maine just before flying overseas. The B-26 collided with a horse-drawn wagon hauling workers out to the field. I believe the accident was witnessed by the father in law and the pilot's wife.

These are off the top of my head with no notes.
I am sure there are a few more but like I said, I have no information or recollection concerning the B-17 accident described by the member p51.

TM

wendovertom · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:33 pm

I have one from Wendover that somewhat fits the topic.

A P-47 pilot in training had his parents come out to Wendover and got to spend a few days with them. On the Monday after spending a long night up with the family he was assigned to do some formation flying and attack dive maneuvers. When he reported the accident report has several statements from people who asked if he was ok to fly, but the flight surgeon approved him to fly. Even the crew chief's statement says that as the pilot climbed into the plane the Chief asked the pilot if he felt ok to fly. Well, off they went and it was all ok until he made his dive - no one could reach him via radio and no one could see him. Then a C-47 coming in from the West reported a crash and fire West of the base. He apparently flew asleep or passed out and crashed into the ground at full throttle. His Parents were notified before they left on the train of the accident. Although not in the report, and I cannot confirm it, one local account is that they were able to take his body home.

Tom P.

Noha307 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:35 pm

Found this thread while googling the USS Randolph: P-38 crash on USS Randolph - WW2Aircraft.net

Rossco · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:23 pm

And on the other side of the world as well.Mistaken ID..

http://www.halcyon-class.co.uk/friendly ... y_fire.htm

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P-38s Attack The USS Randolph

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