Eniwetok, site of The Navy’s Worst Ever Aircraft Accident

[daveT]

There were many tragic accidents with great loss of life and aircraft during World War Two. One accident in particular stands out from the rest due to the greatest number of aircraft destroyed and damaged due to one accident. Eniwetok Island was the site of the Navy's worst ever aircraft accident. Read enclosed pdf file to learn the full story of this tragic event. This accident has been researched using the official Navy accident report. I welcome your comments.
V/R
DaveT

 

[syscom3]

Excellent find!!!!!!

Thanks very much for this.

 

[comiso90]

very interesting

 

[Gnomey]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

[timshatz]

Good read.

 

[B-17engineer]

Thanks Really enjoyed the article.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Great find daveT. Very interesting. Thanks.

 

[evangilder]

Excellent read and a well done story. With your permission, I would like to forward this to the newsletter editor for the CAF SoCal wing. I am sure he would be interested in the story.

 

[RabidAlien]

Great find!

 

[daveT]

Thanks for all the comments.You have my permission to forward this to the newsletter editor for the CAF SoCal wing. I like to research the aircraft accidents and write stories about them as a type of memorial to the crews so they will not be forgotten. I'll post more. I've visited over 50 crash sites and written stories about many of them. I'm looking for a magazine somewhere to publish them.
DaveT

 

[evangilder]

Send me a PM with your e-mail address. I will get you in touch with our newsletter editor. He loves stories to put into the newsletter. Unfortunately, there's no money in it, but the newsletter is published to the web, so the exposure is excellent. I will forward your PDF on.

 

[R Leonard]

used to be one of my favorite trivia questions:

Which aircraft destroyed the most USN aircraft, and how many, in a single mission?

 

[daveT]

Well I guess I answered that trivia question. We will never know for sure why he aborted his takeoff. I believe the old PB4y-1 was just too heavy.

 

[R Leonard]

Indeed. I first ran across this years ago when looking at Joe Baugher's bu no index and started running across all these "destroyed on ground by crashing PB4Y-1 38766 Aug 9, 1944, Eniwetok" notations. I believe he's pretty much identified all those destroyed. Once made a list . . . as most around here know I have a tendency to make lists . . . of all of them, but, as with a great many of my lists, not sure where it is.

Rich

 

[Wildcat]

Good read Dave, thanks for posting mate. This incident reminded me of a USAAF B-24 crash in New Guinea that killed 59 and wounded 90 odd Australian soldiers who were waiting in their trucks to board C-47's. Truely terrible stuff.

 

[Bill]

My Dad asked me to thank WW2aircraft and DaveT for the story. He was a Seaman 1st Class and was on the Eniwetok from 2/1944 to 9/1945. Besides the duties of maintenance on the airstrip, he ran a supply route to the 4 gallies on the island.

He was at the warehouse when the bombs started going off. He and his buddy(s) ran outside and then took cover in a trench along the sea line. Someone came by in a jeep and was looking for "volunteers". They went into the action and started pushing planes away from the burning and exploding planes.

In an old Navy man's bark, he let me know that he had a problem with your information that it was the ARMY ran a canteen there. Other than that, after an initial look, he hasn't disagreed with much else.

Dad is going on the Nebraska Honor Flight to D.C. to see the WWII memorial next week. Our timing of finding your story is perfect!

Attached is his commendatory letter with a description of the mishap.

Do you have any more photo's of Eniwetok you can share? He would appreciate seeing them.

Thanks,

Bill

 

[daveT]

Thanks Bill for the copy of the commendation letter. I can't imagine how bad all the explosions must have been on such a small Island. Here are some more photos of Eniwetok.
DaveT

 

[daveT]

Photo of B-24 / PB4Y on Eniwetok.

 

[Erik Hromatka]

I want to thank you all for your hard work to put this information together.

6 years ago I married Sarah Burkhartzmeyer. Her Grandfather is Al Burkhartzmeyer who to my understanding was the only survivor from this crash. It appears that in several reports his name listed as a survivor was spelled wrong. I know these reports say that two people survived, but I've never heard him say that in his recount of the accident. Possibly the other person died later of injuries sustained in the crash?

Al is still alive today, infact I had dinner with him tonight and asked him enough questions to finally track down the accident on the internet.

If anyone else knows of more information, preferably photos, of Eniwetok or the crash, I would love to be able to show them to him.

Thanks again for your hard work.

Erik

 

[secondhandjan]

My father, Merritt P. Anthony, a Navy Seabee, CBMU 592, MM/2C, was stationed on Eniwetok from 24 June 1944 to 17 Nov 1945. I don't remember him speaking of the accident, but he did tell me he helped pull dead bodies out of a plane that had crashed on the runway. I am going to request his military records. Dad passed away in Oct 2010 at the age of 87.

Secondhandjan