1943 — Jan 15, USAAF C-54 (TWA Contract), Crash, Dutch Guiana [Suriname] –all 35
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 5-18-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 35 ASN. ASN Wikibase Occurrence #33959. TWA Douglas C-54-DO Skymaster. 1-15-1943.
— 35 Eric Knight Home Page. Plane Crash Jan. 15, 1943.
— 35 FBI. “A Byte Out of History: Agents on Secret Mission Crash in South American Jungle.”
— 35 Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 22.
— 35 Port Arthur News, TX. “Army Launches Investigation of Plane Crash…35…” 1-22-1943.
Narrative Information
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation: “15-Jan-1943…Douglas C-54-DO Skymaster…Transcontinental & Western (TWA)…41-32939…Fatalities: 35 / Occupants: 35…40km ENE Paramaribo, Dutch Guyana…Departure airport: Trinidad. Destination airport: North Africa.
“Narrative: Disintegrated and fell in the jungle near Bakkie (Reynsdorp, Commewijne district). Flown by TWA crew under contract to the USAAF ATC. Ten crew (pilot Benjamin Hart Dally, Jr/35), 15 military personal (Maj. Eric Mowbray Knight/novelist/45) and ten civil (FBI) persons on board on a secret mission to the “Casablanca Conference”, Morocco.
“Probable Cause(s): bomb explosion – victim of a war-time intrigue; structural failure – heavy turbulences.” (ASN. ASN Wikibase Occurrence #33959. TWA Douglas C-54-DO Skymaster. 1-15-1943.)[1]
Eric Knight Home Page: Eric Knight, killed on the crash, was the author of, amongst other books, Lassie Come Home. Relatives have established a website seeking additional information regarding the secret mission his plane was on. From the website:
“A C-54 flown by a TWA crew under contract to the Air Transport Command, most likely on its way to the Casablanca Conference, crashed in the jungle 30 miles from Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana (now Suriname). Rumors of a bomb on board caused the pilot, Benjamin Hart Dally, to land in Trinidad and search the plane. A screwdriver was found in the hatch containing the IFF device. No bomb was found. Two identical C-54 planes traveling just 1/2 hour before and after this plane noticed anti-aircraft fire coming from what appeared to be an enemy submarine. Consequently, security at US Bases worldwide was beefed up by Maj. Gen. Harold George immediately following this tragic disaster….
“After the publication of his #1 Best Seller, This Above All, the Knights were invited to FDR’s estate at Hyde Park, NY and also to the White House.
“Under great secrecy, FDR left Washington, in a Douglas C-54 two days before my grandfather. Reports are that Nazi submarines mistook Knight’s C-54 for the one FDR was to be on. As it was, FDR switched planes at the last minute and took a Boeing 314 seaplane from Miami to Belem, Brazil to Dakar, West Africa. Word of the tragic crash was kept secret until FDR was safely back from the Casablanca Conference a week later.” (Eric Knight Home Page. Plane Crash Jan. 15, 1943.) [For a listing of all fatalities see the Eric Knight website.]
FBI. “A Byte Out of History: Agents on Secret Mission Crash in South American Jungle.”
“Sixty-one years ago, a U.S. Army plane carrying two FBI agents on a secret mission crashed and exploded in the jungle of Suriname (then Dutch Guiana). It was January 15, 1943, and FBI Assistant Director Percy E. Foxworth, Special Agent Harold Haberfeld, and 33 others died in the worst American aviation disaster of that time. The wreckage was strewn across a mile and half of dense jungle, and few remains were found. Although sabotage was at first feared, later investigation showed the crash was due to mechanical difficulties.
“The secret mission. The plane, a U.S. Army C-54, was shuttling the Bureau agents and other military personnel all the way to North Africa when it crashed in South America. Neither G-man carried his badge or other material that could identify him as an FBI agent. Foxworth and Haberfeld were working undercover and in secrecy at the request of General Dwight Eisenhower. The General had asked Director Hoover to send special agents to investigate an American citizen alleged to have collaborated with the Nazis when they controlled North Africa.
“The importance accorded the mission can be gauged by the men who were sent on it. “Sam” Foxworth was the FBI’s assistant director in charge of its Special Intelligence Service (SIS), created in 1940 when President Roosevelt tasked the Bureau with counterintelligence and intelligence collection responsibilities in South and Central America. Harold Haberfeld was a relatively new agent, but one who had had extensive experience living and working in North Africa and who was fluent in French, German, and Portuguese….”
Gero: “Date: 15 January 1943 (time unknown)
“Location: Near Paramarino, Dutch Guyana
“Operator: US Army Air Forces
“Aircraft type: Douglas C-54A (41-32939)
“All 35 men aboard lost their lives when the four- engine aircraft, which was operated by the Air
Transport Command (ATC) and bound for Africa from the US, crashed in a remote area along South America’s Atlantic coast. The victims were both American military personnel and civilians, the latter including the transport’s nine crewmen. No further details are known about the disaster or possible causes.” (Gero. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p22.)
Newspaper
Jan 22: “Washington, Jan 22 (INS). — A special board of army air forces officers today was investigating the circumstances surrounding the nation’s worst airplane accident which took the lives of 35 Americans, including author Eric Knight, in Dutch Guiana on Jan. 15. Army officials were at a loss to explain why the huge four-motored army transport plane carrying the 35 persons—many prominent U. S. officials—crashed into the South American jungles. Maj. Gen Harold L. George, chief of the army’s air transport command, in the announcement of the crash said that “as far as we know the weather was O. K.,” indicating that adverse weather conditions did not cause the accident. George also praised the plane’s crew as ‘one of the best that ever sat in an airplane’ and he described Capt. Benjamin H. Dally, Jr., of Mission, Kan., the ship’s pilot, as a ‘top-notch’ flier.
“The fact that there were no survivors of the crash made investigation of the cause of the accident even more difficult for army officials. Details of the accident were very meager. The War Department did not reveal whether army parties had reached the scene of the wreckage or, if so, in what condition they found the plane.
“Noted Author Victim. Knight, a major in the army’s special services branch, was the author of the best seller “This Above All” and also of “The Flying Yorkshireman.” A native of Yorkshire, England, he was a World War I flying ace and recently became an American citizen.
“In addition to Knight, the victims of the crash included two ace Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and two U. S. State department officials. P. E. “Sam” Foxworth, assistant director of the FBI, in charge of the New York office, and H. D. Haberfield, special agent of the Buffalo, N. Y., office of the FBI, were the two G-men killed. The two State department officials who perished were William Hodson, New York welfare commissioner, and O. E. Henryson, who was on his first mission for the department.
“George said the plane was bound for an overseas destination and some of the passengers were flying to North Africa. The transport aircraft left this country about eight days ago and crashed before it reached its first stop in South America.
“Of the 31 other victims, 12 were army officers, six army enlisted men, one an airline physician, two civilian employes of the War department, one an oil company official and nine members of the crew.
“The nation’s worst plane crash previously reported was an accident on Aug. 31, 1940, near Lovettsville, Va., in which 25 persons, including Sen. Lundeen (FL-Minn.) were killed.” (Port Arthur News, TX. “Army Launches Investigation of Plane Crash…35…” 1-22-1943.)
Sources
Aviation Safety Network. ASN Wikibase Occurrence #33959. Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA), Douglas C-54-DO Skymaster. 1-15-1943. http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=33959
Eric Knight Home Page. Plane Crash Jan. 15, 1943. Accessed 12-7-2011 at: http://www.lassiecomehome.info/index.html
Federal Bureau of Investigation. “A Byte Out of History: Agents on Secret Mission Crash in South American Jungle.” Accessed 5-18-2024 at: https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2004/january/crash_011504
Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. UK and Newbury Park, CA: Patrick Stephens Limited, an imprint of Hayes Publishing, 1999.
Port Arthur News, TX. “Army Launches Investigation of Plane Crash Fatal to 35 Persons.” 1-22-1943, 6. http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=44007703
[1] Cites: “Plane Crash Jan. 15, 1943.” At: http://www.lassiecomehome.info/id8.html