The B-24 Liberator in China -- A side-bar to Jabarootoo's Travel Review, Wings of War and Peace.

The B-24 Liberator in China -- A side-bar to Jabarootoo's Travel Review, Wings of War and Peace.
Mar 19, 2007 00:48
ROGERINCA Points: Join Date: Jun 28, 2005 Status: offline	It was interesting to read member Jabarootoo’s recent Travel Review, ‘Wings of War and Peace‘. I particularly noted her reference to the B-24 activity in China, during WWII. I had always been aware of the large B-29 bases in Chengdu, as well as the Flying Tiger bases there and elsewhere in South/Central China, but was not aware of the B-24 Liberator, seeing any service in Asia, as most were in the European Theatre, along with the famous B-17’s. Thus, having done a little research on this, I found this interesting piece of information: On the evening of Aug. 31, 1944, US Army Air Force, 2nd Lt. George H. Pierpont, 2nd Lt. Franklin A. Tomenendale and a crew of eight others lifted off in a B-24J Liberator, a heavy bomber aircraft capable of long operating ranges, from an airfield in Liuchow, China, on a mission to bomb Japanese docks and ships anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa. Then they headed home, in a rough thunderstorm, never to be heard from again. The families of the crew assumed the bomber had gone into the sea. Japanese military records offered no clues, and the Army could not find evidence of a crash on land. After the war, a review of enemy records failed to turn up any trace of the B-24 Liberator and its crew. They had come under heavy ground fire from Japanese positions during their bombing run, and the aircraft may have been damaged. Also it is speculated they may have encountered Japanese fighter planes, on their return flight over mainland China; no one will ever really know, as there are no surviving witnesses. But in 1996, Chinese farmers found wreckage of the plane while searching for rare herbs on 7,000-foot Kitten Mountain in Guangxi Province. The aircraft's whereabouts had remained a mystery until November 1996, when Jiang Zemin, then the President of the People's Republic of China, presented US President Bill Clinton with five identification tags from an aircraft crash site in Guangxi Province. "They were found in a crevasse. I think the peak was 7,000 feet," said David Ward, whose uncle had been on the plane. "The plane hit at 6,500 feet and fell into a granite notch so one could see it." There it remained, for so many decades. He accompanied the U.S. Army team that went in to recover the remains. "All of a sudden we came around a corner on this one ledge and it was as if this plane crashed last week. It still smelled of oil and grease," he recalled. "I would be picking up boots. I would be picking up different pieces of clothing, equipment. I mean it was all there as if someone had taken it, shaken it, and thrown it in a pile there." Four times between 1997 and 1999, a joint U.S.-Chinese team excavated the crash site. This was but one of the hundreds of fighter and bomber aircraft and aircrews which perished, while helping the Chinese repel the invading Japanese forces, which overran most of Eastern China, and dozens of US airbases within China, early-on in WWII.

Mar 19, 2007 00:48

ROGERINCA
Points:
Join Date: Jun 28, 2005
Status: offline

It was interesting to read member Jabarootoo’s recent Travel Review, ‘Wings of War and Peace‘.

I particularly noted her reference to the B-24 activity in China, during WWII. I had always been aware of the large B-29 bases in Chengdu, as well as the Flying Tiger bases there and elsewhere in South/Central China, but was not aware of the B-24 Liberator, seeing any service in Asia, as most were in the European Theatre, along with the famous B-17’s. Thus, having done a little research on this, I found this interesting piece of information:

On the evening of Aug. 31, 1944, US Army Air Force, 2nd Lt. George H. Pierpont, 2nd Lt. Franklin A. Tomenendale and a crew of eight others lifted off in a B-24J Liberator, a heavy bomber aircraft capable of long operating ranges, from an airfield in Liuchow, China, on a mission to bomb Japanese docks and ships anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa. Then they headed home, in a rough thunderstorm, never to be heard from again.

The families of the crew assumed the bomber had gone into the sea. Japanese military records offered no clues, and the Army could not find evidence of a crash on land. After the war, a review of enemy records failed to turn up any trace of the B-24 Liberator and its crew. They had come under heavy ground fire from Japanese positions during their bombing run, and the aircraft may have been damaged. Also it is speculated they may have encountered Japanese fighter planes, on their return flight over mainland China; no one will ever really know, as there are no surviving witnesses.

But in 1996, Chinese farmers found wreckage of the plane while searching for rare herbs on 7,000-foot Kitten Mountain in Guangxi Province.

The aircraft's whereabouts had remained a mystery until November 1996, when Jiang Zemin, then the President of the People's Republic of China, presented US President Bill Clinton with five identification tags from an aircraft crash site in Guangxi Province. "They were found in a crevasse. I think the peak was 7,000 feet," said David Ward, whose uncle had been on the plane. "The plane hit at 6,500 feet and fell into a granite notch so one could see it." There it remained, for so many decades.

He accompanied the U.S. Army team that went in to recover the remains. "All of a sudden we came around a corner on this one ledge and it was as if this plane crashed last week. It still smelled of oil and grease," he recalled. "I would be picking up boots. I would be picking up different pieces of clothing, equipment. I mean it was all there as if someone had taken it, shaken it, and thrown it in a pile there."

Four times between 1997 and 1999, a joint U.S.-Chinese team excavated the crash site.

This was but one of the hundreds of fighter and bomber aircraft and aircrews which perished, while helping the Chinese repel the invading Japanese forces, which overran most of Eastern China, and dozens of US airbases within China, early-on in WWII.

Mar 19, 2007 00:51	#1
ROGERINCA Points: Join Date: Jun 28, 2005 Status: Offline	An aircraft typical of the B-24 Liberator, operating in the Pacific Theatre during WWII.

Mar 21, 2007 04:11	#2
CONNY129 Points: Join Date: May 25, 2005 Status: Offline	Ahhh. It looks so powerful!!

Mar 15, 2009 07:13	#3
GUEST10226	so sad to see one like that

Jul 27, 2009 15:19

GUESTPHIL

The wreck here referred to was that of a B-24 with the latest (at the time) radar equipment, returning from a bombing mission to Canton & Hong Kong, Luinchow (Luizhou and Yang Tong airfield @ Kweilin (Guilin), the nearest, were "socked-in" with heavy rains & overcast... the plane circled at an altitude sufficient to clear all the karst peaks near either of these air-strips, except Maoershan (small cat mountain) which was the highest point in GuangXi. Charts with accurate altitudes were not readily available in China, so we don't know if the crew realized there was something above the 6,000-foot range out there in the impenetrable mist; apparently their sophisticated radar was not able to discern its presence either! They were low on fuel after a lengthly bomb-run, so it was thought by 14th. Airforce Command at Yang Tong, the crew may have been on their last circle some 60-miles N. and may have dropped down thru the over-cast for a hoped landmark at just the wrong moment.
If you have ever visited the area of GuangXi where both airfields were located, you would recognize the Dr. Suess-like karst pinnacles that have made this area famous. They have been depicted on Chinese silks, scrolls and more modern souvenirs for hundreds of years - as the fairy-land of crags amongst fields of green rice and golden grains, and that they still remain... but back when Chennault was looking for secure landing-strips, the rice-paddy valleys between them were considered ideal (for fighter aircraft initially); they offered natural barriers and camoflage. The so-called "Eastern Airfields" were strung like pearls amongst the valleys from Luizhou to Changsha; offering a couple hours jump on attacking the Japanese, than from Kunming in Yunnan, or Chengdu is Sichuan provinces - making possible raids almost to the Japanese mainland for the efficient B-24s, and B-25s could easily attack shipping and coastal ports.

Nov 6, 2009 15:17

GUESTPHIL

Of further interest on the Maoershan wreck. The new Guilin Flying Tigers Relics museum, set to open March 23, 2010 near Lin-Gui (S.W. suburban Guilin) will have a room dedicated to wreckage removed from this sight, as well as enlarged individual photos of the crew members. So far, the only group photo of these men was taken against another B-24 aircraft ("TOUGH TITTI") because at the time their plane had the high-resolution radar aboard, and it was then Top-secret, The museum, a Sino-American joint project is being-built into the side of a karst mountain in which is located the Communications cave used by the AVG, 23rd. F/G & 14th. Airforce from 1942 'til Nov '44 when the Japanese army 'captured' this & two other nearby airfields, and the city of Kweilin - There wasn't much left by then. Kweilin had been burned, its Li river bridges destroyed; all 550 buildings at the airbases burned, and the fields rendered useless by demolition. Today, the cave is undergoing restoration; the museum is in finishing stages and a memorial park, lake, and paved parking areas will surround some facsimili buildings - as used by the 1,840 American & Chinese airmen who rotated thru Yang Tong, Ehr Tong & Li Chia Chen's fighter's and bombers-crew's hostels. Well worth a look-see on your next China visit!

Nov 7, 2009 02:27

JABAROOTOO
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Join Date: Jul 4, 2005
Status: Offline

Thank you all for this very interesting little snippet.

This last holiday I had the pleasure of driving up another interesting piece of Sino-Amercan history in Guizhou Province.

Some of you might have heard of the notorious 24 bend stretch of road that was part of the southern supply route from Burma that General Stillwell instigated bring supplies up to Chongqing and Chengdu.

The road is actually south of Guiyang in an incredibly mountainous region where the new Kunming to Guiyang road fairly flies through the the mountain tops. Our tour guides were the local police officers which made it even more fun to do.

I'll post a review sometime later.

Look forward to more on this topic

J

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