1956 — Aug 22, USN P4M-1 out of Iwakuni Japan shot down 32M off coast of Wenchow, China–all 16

— 16 AP. “Navy Confirms Plane Shot Down.” Pacific Stars and Stripes. 8-26-1956, pp.1-2.
— 16 Lednicer. “Intrusions, Overflights, Shootdowns and Defections…Cold War…” 4-16-2011.
— 16 Naval Historical Center. “FAQs…Casualties: U.S. Navy and Marine Corps…”

Narrative Information

Lednicer: “22 August 1956 while on a patrol mission from Iwakuni Japan, a US Navy P4M-1Q Mercator of VQ-1 (BuNo 124362) disappeared after a nighttime attack by People’s Republic of China PLAAF pilot Zhongwen Song, 32 miles off the coast of Wenchow China and 180 miles north of Formosa. There were no survivors of the 16 crew members. The bodies of two crew members, James Ponsford and Albert Mattin, and some wreckage were recovered by the USS Dennis J. Buckley (DDR 808). The bodies of two other crew members, Jack Curtis and William Haskins, were recovered by the Chinese and returned to the US. The remains of the other crew members, Donald Barber, Warren Caron, James Deane, Francis Flood, William Humbert, Milton Hutchinson, Harold Lounsbury, Carl Messinger, Wallace Powell, Donald Sprinkle, Leonard Strykowsky and Lloyd Young, were never found.” (Lednicer. “Intrusions, Overflights, Shootdowns and Defections…Cold War…” 4-16-2011 rev.)

Naval Historical Center: “P4M-1Q from VQ-1 shot down by hostile aircraft near Wenchow, China, 22 Aug. 1956. 16 [killed].

Newspapers

Aug 24, AP: “Tokyo (AP) – Ships and planes searched around the clock, but there still was no word early Friday [Aug 24] on the fate of a U.S. Navy ‘Formosa Straits Patrol’ plane and 16 crewmen that vanished after it was attacked 32 miles off the Red Chinese coast early Thursday. U.S. Air Force and Navy planes from Okinawa and Japan, two destroyer escorts and smaller ships joined in the day and night search of the East China Sea. They were protected by overhead formations of jet fighters from the carrier Essex – like the missing P-4M Mercator under standing orders they may shoot back if attacked.

“It was largely assumed by Navy officials that the Mercator, piloted by Lt. Cdr. Milton Hutchinson of Cumberland, R.I., was attached by Chinese Communist planes, but there was no official confirmation. A hint of confirmation came from Red China’s Peiping radio. A broadcast said merely one of Communist China’s airplanes damaged a ‘Chiang Kai-shek’ aircraft that early Thursday [23rd] had intruded over Chinese islands southeast of Shanghai. Peiping radio did not identify the ‘intruding’ plane beyond the reference to Nationalist China’s president. It said it made off after the encounter toward the southeast, the direction of Formosa.

“The Nationalist Chinese Air Force said none of its planes was in the area at the time.

“The Navy said the four-engine Mercator last radioed at 1:25 a.m. Thursday that it was ‘under attack by aircraft’ about 160 miles north of Formosa and 32 miles off Red China, presumably due east of Wenchow. The search started within minutes.

“Far East Naval headquarters at Yokosuka, Japan, announced start of the search, details of the Mercator’s mission and the names of the 16 crewmen. Six of the crewmen have wives at their home base, Iwakuni NAS, Japan. Several gathered Thursday in the home of the wife of the pilot to wait out the search….

“The Mercator, with two jet engines, was in Sq. 1 of Fleet Air Wing 6, a unit of the Seventh Fleet’s ‘Taiwan Straits Patrol’ based at Iwakuni, near Hiroshima. It carried three machine guns and – if normally equipped – reconnaissance cameras.

“With Hutchinson at the controls and Lt. (jg) Francis A. Flood Jr., Chevy Chase, Md., as co-pilot, it took off at 8 p.m. Wednesday on a ‘routine training and patrol mission. A full moon peeped through overcast at the 14,000-foot level, with scattered clouds down to 2,000 feet. Visibility was 10 miles. The plane set off in a great arc across western Japan and into the East China Sea. Its orders were to fly down the China coast, through the Formosa Strait, circle back by Formosa and land on Okinawa. It had standing orders to approach Communist China no closer than 12 miles and that it might return fire only if shot at, the Navy said.

“Twelve hours earlier, according to the Chinese Nationalist defense ministry, formations of Nationalist jets had staged a show of strength off the Red coast at Fukien Province.

“At 1:25 A.M., 5½ hours out of Iwakuni, the Mercator radioed it was ‘under attack by aircraft.’ ‘After making this report,’ the Navy said, ‘the plane suddenly stopped transmission. It was then operating 32 miles off Chinese Communist territory, 160 miles north of Formosa.’ Then came silence.

“The Mercator carried life rafts with emergency flares visible at night and hand-cranked radios that can transmit ‘SOS’ signals but no voice.

Crew Listed

“Yokosuka, Japan (CNFE) – The Navy identified the 16 crew members on the P4M-1 Martin Mercator patrol plane shot-down Thursday as:

Harold E. Lounsbury, AD1, Merced, Cal.
William F. Haskins, AT1, Westport, Conn.
William M. Humbert, A03, Springboro, O.
Donald W. Barber, AT2, Burns, Ore.
Warren Edgar Caron, A02, Philadelphia, Pa.
Jack Albert Curtis, AT3, Kosse, Tex.
Leonard Strykowski, AT2, Philadelphia, Pa.
Lloyd L. Young, AD3, Denver, Colo.
Wallace W. Powell, AE2, Folkston, Ga.
Donald E. Sprinkle, AT3, South Pasadena, Cal.
Lt. (jg) James B Deane, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Lt. (jg) Francis A Flood Jr., Chevy Chase, Md.
Lt. Cdr. Milton Hutchinson, Cumberland, R.I.
Lt. Cdr. James W. Ponsford, Long Beach, Cal.
Albert P. Mattin, AT1, Delta, O.
Carl E. Messinger, AT2, Laredo, Mo.

(Associated Press. “Downed Plane Hunt Continues.” Pacific Stars and Stripes. 8-24-1956, p.1-2.)

Aug 26, AP: “Tokyo (AP) – Bullet fragments in a dead sailor’s body confirmed Saturday night that a Navy patrol plane was hit by gunfire before it plunged into the East China Sea off the Communist China coast. The body of Albert P. Mattin, Delta, O., showed metal fragments from bullets, officials at the U.S. Iwakuni NAS, Japan said. The bullets did not kill Mattin, however. He died of multiple injuries received when the P4-M Mercator patrol plane roared into the water about 100 miles southeast of Shanghai early Thursday.

“There was no word of the other 15 crewmen aboard. Five wives of crewmen waited together and prayed at Iwakuni as Navy headquarters in Washington ordered the sea search to continue. Despite faint hope, the wives seemed to accept without bitterness that their husbands probably were dead, Navy officials said…The waiting was over for Mrs. Mattin and her three young sons….

“Capt. Earl Junghann, commander of the fleet air detachment at Iwakuni, said the loss of the plane and crew will not affect patrol operations along the China coast. Planes have flown the route in the past and other planes will fly the route in the future, he said.

“The Navy still searched for answers to:

1) Whose planes, and how many, attacked the patrol craft?
2) Why was the wreckage found almost 200 miles north of the position the plane should have been in when the attack came.
3) Did the plane explode in the air or when it hit the water?

“A total of 17 ships, including three aircraft carriers and their planes, took part in the search from Formosa to a point southeast of Shanghai, where Mattin’s body and plane wreckage were found.

“Junghann said the wreckage included the airplane’s wheels, two fuel tanks, two inflated seven-passenger life rafts, equipment, cushions and seats from the plane, a thermos jug and personal items belonging to the crew members.

“The two rafts were attached to the outside of the plane and were set to inflate automatically when the plane hit water. There was nothing in the rafts to indicate any crewmen escaped the crash, Navy officers said at Iwakuni.” (Associated Press. “Navy Confirms Plane Shot Down.” Pacific Stars and Stripes. 8-26-1956, pp.1-2.)

Aug 27, UP: “Taipei, Formosa (UP) – Red China displayed a healthy respect for the powerful U.S. Seventh Fleet during a massive search for a missing American naval patrol plane off the China coast, military sources disclosed Sunday.…

“The search for the plane shot down by Communist fighters Thursday morning had been called off after Ingersoll [Vice-Admiral Stuart H. Ingersoll] announced he had exhausted every possibility of finding further survivors. The fleet was, however, keeping the area of the crash under surveillance and would resume full-scale search missions if the slightest hope of finding survivors or bodies was raised.” (United Press. “Red Chinese Wary of U.S. 7th Fleet.” Pacific Stars and Stripes. 8-27-1956, pp. 1-2.)
Sources

Associated Press. “Downed Plane Hunt Continues.” Pacific Stars and Stripes. 8-24-1956, p. 1. Accessed 3-22-2023 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/pacific-stars-and-stripes-aug-24-1956-p-1/

Associated Press. “Navy Confirms Plane Shot Down.” Pacific Stars and Stripes. 8-26-1956, pp. 1-2. Accessed 3-22-2023 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/pacific-stars-and-stripes-aug-26-1956-p-1/

Lednicer, David. “Intrusions, Over-flights, Shoot-downs and Defections During the Cold War and Thereafter.” 4-16-2011 revision. Accessed 2-20-2012: http://myplace.frontier.com/~anneled/ColdWar.html

Naval Historical Center. “Frequently Asked Questions, Casualties: U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Wounded in Wars, Conflicts, Terrorist Acts, and Other Hostile Incidents.” Washington DC: Dept. of the Navy. At: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq56-1.htm
Also at: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AMH/AMH-USNchron.htm

United Press. “Red Chinese Wary of U.S. 7th Fleet.” Pacific Stars and Stripes. 8-27-1956, pp. 1-2. Accessed 3-22-2023 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/pacific-stars-and-stripes-aug-27-1956-p-1/