1945 – Sep 7, USAAF B-29 wing fire leads to spin and crash, south of Wedowee, AL–all 10

Last edit Nov 28, 2023 by Wayne Blanchard for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–10  Anniston Star, AL. “10 Persons Die in B-29 Crash Near Wedowee.” 9-9-1945, p. 1.

–10  Associated Press. “Army Bomber Crashes.” Daily Globe, Ironwood, MI. 9-8-1945, p. 1.

–10  Mireles 2006. Fatal Army AF Aviation Accidents…US…, V3, Aug 1944-Dec 1945, 1163.

Narrative Information

Mireles: “At 1930, a Boe­ing B-29B crashed four and a half miles south of We­dowee, Alabama, killing the crew of ten. Civilian farmer John Heath was seriously injured by flaming debris when the airplane slammed into a cornfield very near where he was standing. The airplane took off from Gulfport Army Air Field, Gulfport, Mississippi, on a 13-hour navigation flight. The airplane was observed flying at about 9,000 feet when a small fire was ob­served on the port wing. Civilian witnesses stated that they had observed two puffs of smoke near the port wing just before observing flames. The airplane then entered a spin to the left before entering an 80-degree banked spin toward the ground. The airplane remained in this position until it struck the ground on the port wing, causing the airplane to cartwheel into a cornfield and explode in flames. All on board were killed instantly and had made no effort to bail out.” (Mireles. Fatal Army Air Force… 2006, p. 1163.)

Newspaper

Sep 8, AP: “Wedowee, Ala. – (AP) – At least 10 men were killed in the crash of an army bomber, identified unofficially as a B-29, approximately five miles from here last night.  J. H. Kerr, editor of the Randolph Press, said 10 bodies had been removed from the plane and taken to Fort McClellan, Ala. Names of the victims were not available here.  Kerr said the ship appeared to ‘explode before it struck’.” (AP. “Army Bomber Crashes.” Daily Globe, Ironwood, MI. 9-8-1945, p.1.)

Sep 9, Anniston Star: “Smoldering wreckage and twisted pieces of steel and machinery scattered over cornfields and woodlands about seven miles south of Wedowee was all that was left yesterday of a B-29, which was believed to been flying out of the Gulfport, Miss., Army Air Field and crashed near Highway 37 between Wedowee and Roanoke at 7:45 Friday night killing at least ten persons who were in the plane and injuring three others in a nearby house which was hit by a flying piece of the bomber. Bodies of the bomber crew, some of which were hurled several hundred yards from the crash, were reported to have been town beyond recognition, and the dead had not been identified yesterday. Investigators believed they had pieced together ten bodies.

“Mrs. Ethol Murphy, wife of Basil Murphy, Charlotte Woodruff, her sister and Joh Heath, a boy, who live near the scene of the crash were in the Roanoke hospital yesterday for treatment of injuries received when a piece of the bomber crashed through the roof into the bedroom of the home of Basil Murphy and exploded, tearing through the walls of the room and hurling wreckage all over the house.

“Mrs. Lois Woodruff, the mother of Mrs. Ethol Murphy and Miss Charlotte Woodruff, who lives in the Basil Murphy home, stated yesterday that her daughters were at the time of the crash in a living room across the hall from the bedroom into which the B-29 part fell. They heard an explosion and ran into the hall, because they knew some of the Woodruff children were in the back of the house. ‘The explosion blew the shoes off of Ethol’s feet, and the girls were hit and knocked to the floor by flying pieces of wood and buried under the wreck,’ Mrs. Woodruff said. ‘Ethol got out first and pulled Charlotte out.’ The Woodruff children to whom the two victims were trying to make their way were unhurt. Charlotte Woodruff was reported as improving at the hospital today; Mrs. Ethol Murphy, who was pregnant, was reported in critical condition.

“John Heath, brother of a servant in the Murphy house, was just outside the house at the time of the crash and was seriously burned in the explosion.

“The Murphy home was in a state of complete wreckage yesterday;  piece of the bomber, believed to be the radio, was still in the middle of the bedroom floor; broken timber cluttered the bedroom and the hall beyond it. Mrs. Woodruff said that the bomber piece had exploded after it crashed into the house and hurled ‘burning black liquid all over everything.’

“According to Mary Lize Heath, servant in the Murphy home and sister of John Heath, the bomber was in flames before it hit the ground. She was walking between the house and a shed in the backyard when the crash came. ‘I saw it coming, and it was all on fire,’ She said yesterday, her eyes still wide with horror. ‘It was in three pieces and I thought it was going to get me but I ran and got away from it.’….

“The bomber, according to eyewitness accounts, came in from the north, circled back around and came over again from the west before it crashed into a cornfield.

“There was no one spot yesterday which could have been called the center of the wreckage; small parts, none of them larger than a piece of the engine, were strewn over an area of cornfields, cotton fields, and woodlands which, according to the State Highway Patrol covered almost 20 acres….” (Anniston Star, AL. “10 Persons Die in B-29 Crash Near Wedowee.” 9-9-1945, p. 1.)

Sources

Anniston Star, AL. “10 Persons Die in B-29 Crash Near Wedowee.” 9-9-1945, p. 1. Accessed 11-28-2023 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/anniston-star-sep-09-1945-p-1/

Associated Press. “Army Bomber Crashes [Wedowee, AL].” Daily Globe, Ironwood, MI. 9-8-1945, p. 1. Accessed 10-9-2012 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=81408010

Mireles, Anthony J.  Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945 (Volume 3:  August 1944 – December 1945). Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2006.