USAAF
20th AF
73rd BW
498th BG
875th BS

Pilot  Richard C. Stickney, Jr. O-026148 (KIA) MA
Bombardier  Richard Thompson (KIA)
Crashed  January 3, 1945
MACR  10853

Aircraft History
Built by Boeing and delivered to US Army on December 26, 1944. US Proj 98087-TR. This bomber had no nose art.

Mission History
Took off from Isley Airfield on Saipan, on a bombing mission agianst Nagoya, dropping incinderary bombs. On the return flight, crashed and burned on Anatahan Island, no survivors.

Wreckage
Stranded on Anatahan was a group of Japanese survivors from a shipwreck. After the bomber crashed, they used metal from the B-29 to fashion crude implements such as pots, knives and roofing for their hut. The oxygen tanks were used to store water, clothing was made from nylon parachutes, the cords used for fishing line. The springs from machine guns were fashioned into fish hooks. Several in the group also had machine guns and pistols recovered from the aircraft.

Recovery of Remains
A US Army AGRS team visited the crash site and recovered the remains of the crew. They were buried at Punchbowl Cemetery. Stickney buried Plot E Row 0 Grave 525

Les Ferguson was part of the expedition February, 1946:
"The tail number from a picture taken of a crashed B-29 on Anatahan. This is a US Army Signal Corps picture taken on the expedition in which I participated, to return the remains of the crew for appropriate burial by Graves Registration people. In an earlier expedition in early 1945, these same remains were found and 'buried as the area would allow'. I was actually on the expedition with a group of Graves Registration people, and the Infantry guys that were supposed to protect us from those Japanese/Okinawan people should we run into them and to bring the bags of bones from the crash site as we did our job. For a crew of 10, there were 11 bags."

References
Saipan Oral Histories of the Pacific War page 78, 119-120.

Contribute Information

B-29