Crew of B-24J 44-40783 Photographed in Front of "Tough Titti"

Image size: 1600 x 1139 pixel. 355 KB
Date: 1944
Place: Liuchow, Guangxi, China
Photographer: Unknown

Crew of B-24J 44-40783 photographed in front of "Tough Titti," a B-24J-155-CO serial number 44-40296. On the evening of August 31, 1944, ten crew members of the 14th Air Force, 308th Bomb Group, 375th Bomb Squadron, lifted off in a Consolidated B-24J-180-CO Liberator serial number 44-40783 from a base in Liuchow, China, on a mission to bomb Japanese ships anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa. Intercepted by an A6M3 Model 32 Zero-Sen fighter piloted by Chief Petty Officer Takeo Tanimizu of the Tainan Air Group, who shot down B-24J 44-40831 and damaged 40783. On its return flight, it was diverted to an alternate field because Liuchow was under air attack. On its way to the alternate strip, it crashed into Mount Arisan (known as Mount Maoer or Kitten, 6000 feet, 1829 meters) and tumbled into a deep ravine. All aboard were killed. The crew: Pilot, Second Lieutenant George H. Pierpont (Salem, Virginia); Co-Pilot, Second Lieutenant Franklin A. Tomenendale (Shabbona, Illinois); Navigator, Second Lieutenant Robert Deming (Seattle, Washington); Bombardier, Second Lieutenant George A. Ward (Jersey City, New Jersey); Engineer, Staff Sargeant Anthony DeLucia, age 24 (Bradford, Pennsylvania); Radio, Sargeant Ellsworth V. Kelley (Newark, Ohio); Radarman, Private Fred P. Buckley (Garden City, Kansas); Gunner, Staff Sargeant William A. Drager (Washington, New Jersey); Gunner, Sargeant Robert L. Kearsey (McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania); Gunner, Private Vincent J. Netherwood (Kingston, New York), age 20, engaged to be married. On October 2, 1996 two Chinese farmers discovered the crash site 62 miles (100 kilometers) south of Gualin, Guangxi Province. Jiang Zemin, president of the People's Republic of China, presented President Clinton with five identification tags and a video of the crash site during a state visit the next month. The names on the military dog tags included: Buckley, Kelley, Netherwood, Tomenendale and Ward. Four times between 1997 and 1999, a joint U.S.-Chinese team excavated the crash site, recovering numerous pieces of wreckage, personal effects and remains. Using DNA, they identified the crew. Six were buried in Arlington and three in their hometowns.  

Source:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sunday/2013-07/28/content_16842543.htm

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1076

B-24D Liberator of 308th Bomb Group Passes P-40Ks of 23rd Fighter Group

Image size: 1600 x 1097 pixel. 429 KB
Date: Wednesday, 10 February 1943
Place: Kunming, Yunnan, China
Photographer: Unknown

Consolidated B-24D-25-CO Liberator of 308th Bomb Group passes P-40K Warhawks of 23rd Fighter Group on its way to attack Japanese targets. Both groups were part of the 14th Air Force, created from the American Volunteer Group, the famed "Flying Tigers" under Brigadier General Claire L. Chennault on March 10, 1943. In his memoirs, Chennault praised the 308th: "They took the heaviest combat losses of any Group in China and often broke my heart by burning thousands of gallons of gas only to dump their bombs in rice paddy mud far from the target. However, their bombing of Vinh railroad shops in Indo-China, the Kowloon and Kai Tak docks at Hong Kong, and the shipping off Saigon were superb jobs unmatched anywhere. When the Army Air Force Headquarters in Washington tallied the bombing accuracy of every bomb group in combat, I was astonished to find that the 308th led them all." Before the 23d Fighter Group returned to the United States in December 1945, it accounted for the destruction of 621 enemy planes in air combat, plus 320 more on the ground. It sank more than 131,000 tons of enemy shipping and damaged another 250,000 tons. It caused an estimated enemy troop loss of more than 20,000. These statistics were compiled through a total of more than 24,000 combat sorties, requiring more than 53,000 flying hours, and at a cost of 110 aircraft lost in aerial combat, 90 shot down by surface defenses and 28 bombed while on the ground. Photo taken sometime between February 10 and September 1943. 

Source:

NARA (National Archives) Identifier 535780.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liberator_bomber_crosses_the_P-40_fighter_planes.jpg

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1048