B-24M "Brief" Serial Number 44-42058

USAAF
7th AF
494th BG
867th BS

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c1945
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May 4, 1945

 

Pilot  2nd Lt. Glenn R. Custer, O-2058730 (KIA)
Co-Pilot  2nd Lt Irving R Brown, O-778710 (KIA)
Crew  2nd Lt Wallace F Kaufman, O-931082 (POW - executed)
Crew  2nd Lt Norbert J Giese, O-929814 (KIA)
Crew  T/Sgt James R Tenney, 32677148 (KIA)
Crew  Sgt Richard E Grimes, 32974352 (KIA)
Crew  Cpl Victor B Wilson, 13195222 (KIA)
Crew  Cpl Irving Topp, 12177268 (KIA)
Crew  Cpl Robert N Shillenn, 33576063 (KIA)
Crew  Cpl Albin Rynkiewicz, 4205866 (KIA)
Crew  Sgt Floyd Collins Bennett, 14185619 (KIA)
Crashed  May 4, 1945
MACR  14351

Mission History
Took off from Angaur Airfield to bomb anti-aircraft positions on Koror. Shot down by anti-aircraft fire. Film footage captures this bomber being hit and the left wing breaking off on fire, and the seporated wing falling eathward. The entire crew was killed in the crash. Only one member was captured an excicuted by the Japanese Army.

Pat Scannon adds:
"There is a myth about an American bomb striking the wing. We dispelled when Dan got his superbly cleaned up version [of this footage]. When looking frame by frame (which I have done for hours), one can see no bomb strike the wing (although you can see plenty of bombs falling from above, as he points out) and one can clearly see the wing explode from below. Even the vets from 494th go back and forth on this but it all happened so fast that the only way to tell is by examining the cleaned up film. The former Japanese officer [of the Army Anti-aircraft unit] I interview in Last Flight Home. The wing streaming fuel in that footage is also from this same B-24. Dan O'Brien found that footage with the better known wing collapse footage."

Wreckage
The left wing of this bomber was found by Pat Scannonin 1994 on the top of a small island about a mile from the wing of B-24J 44-40603.

Relatives
Charles A. Bennett adds:
"My uncle was Sgt Floyd Collins Bennett."

References
Last Flight Home tells the story of this bomber and execution of Kaufman
Thanks to Pat Scannon / / BentProp.org for additional information

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