On 22 August 1944 the 467th Bombardment Group sent up a twenty-seven (27) ship practice mission, briefing at 1300 hours, take-off at 1437 hours. From 1240 hours to 1400 hours the undersigned was flying in B24D 42-40370, the Group Assembly ship, checking the weather. The weather was considered OK - so the mission took off as briefed. The undersigned supervised take-off from the tower and immediately there after took off at 1509 hours in P47D 42-22790 to monitor the formation. The formation assembled promptly with out incident over Splasher 5 and proceeded South on the briefed practice mission route.

After checking every ship in the formation for their proper position and getting all stragglers up where they belonged, the undersigned commenced simulating fighter attacks on the formation.

At 1629 hours while attacking the low left element of the high right squadron from seven o’clock, the undersigned half rolled to the right preparing to breaking away down. While approximately inverted, traveling with the same forward speed as the formation, the P47 flew into the left nose of the B24. The impact occurred between the fuselage and the tail of the P47 and the base of the nose turret of the B24.


The undersigned was watching the lead aircraft of the element and did not see the aircraft struck until a second before impact.

The impact cheered the tail off the P47 and knocked the nose turret off the B24. The undersigned bailed out and opened his chute immediately after the accident.

The P47 was seen to spin vertically down thru the undercast.

Total time logged by the undersigned are as follows:

Single engine - 1126:00
Four engine - 1106:00
Two engine - 76:00
P47 - 25:00
School Time - 202:00

It was the group policy that no one could fly the P47 without permission of the Commanding Officer for specific flight. Only four (4) Officers in the Group were checked out in the P47. The undersigned had permission from the Commanding Officer to fly, and was checked out in the P47.

The undersigned was issued an instrument card after passing the instrument flight test at Army Air Base, Dyersburg, Tennessee, on 9 October 1944.