This is the man. Our instructor-pilot. One of four who bailed out and survived the crash on 12 June 1943 just west of Truck Village. Jennifer Bryan from the Genealogy Society of Siskiyou County actually ran down a cousin of Lt. Douglas Thornburg and she connected me with Elizabeth Thornburg of Santa Ana, CA. Elizabeth not only had this photo but a full story of his last flight, which follows:
At 7pm on the evening of July 3, 1943, B-24 #42-7011 took off from Salinas Army Air Field on a night time navigation training mission over the Pacific Ocean. A few hours into the flight, the crew discovered the plane was using fuel at an excessive rate, and turned immediately for the coast. About an hour west of Point Conception, one engine quit. Pilot "Skip" Johnson told the crew to be ready at any time to bail out, but to wait for his order.
As they sighted the light beacons at Point Conception, a second engine quit, and the bomber went into a steep dive. Navigator Peter Dannhardt and bombardier Robert Prosser panicked and exited the plane through the front landing gear doors. Johnson and co-pilot George White were able to pull the plane out of the dive and limp to Santa Barbara on two engines. At 2am on July 4, Johnson gave the bailout order and then it was discovered that Dannhardt and Prosser were missing.
All eight crew members who bailed out over land survived. #42-7011 crashed in the mountains ten miles north of Santa Barbara. Several B-24's were sent out from Salinas to look for the two missing crew members. One of them was B-24 #42-7160.
In addition to its normal ten man crew were pilot Douglas Thornburg and navigator Justin Marshall. Thornburg was in command. On the foggy morning of July 5, 1943, they were flying an east-to-west zigzag pattern over the ocean between Santa Barbara and Point Concpetion.
Another bomber reported spotting a life raft near San Miguel Island, so the crew of #42-7160 decided to go in for a closer look. They were last seen headed west, descending below the fog layer at 500 feet. At about 8am they slammed into 800 foot tall Green Mountain on San Miguel Island at full speed.
Two parachutes washed up on a beach west of Santa Barbara, but Dannhardt and Prosser were never found, and were presumed drowned. The surviving crew of #42-7011 swore their fuel system and radios had been sabotaged,but the Army Air Force accident report concluded the pilot and flight engineer had not set the fuel mixture correctly on the bomber's engines.
The wreck of #42-7160 was discovered on San Miguel Island by a sheepherder named Robert Brooks on March 19,1944. The Navy removed the remains of the crew. In 1954, hikers on the island found additional human remains near the wreck and reported this to the Air Force.
A Coast Guard cutter was dispatched from Long Beach, and en route to the island, it struck the civilian sailboat Aloha, killing two passengers. After this final incident, the Navy began using San Miguel Island for bombing practice, and blew up 20(% ?) of the wreck of #42-7160. Pieces remain there to this day.
Thank you so much Elizabeth. I hope one day you can visit our display at the museum. I will print out this photo and get it framed. And the poem which was written for his parents and reads:
TRIBUTE TO DOUGLAS THORNBURG
Just feel proud, dear mother heart,
Your precious son, a glorious part
Has taken in this world wide fray
To free all lands from Axis sway;
The silver wings that bore him hence
While you each day endured suspense,
Flashed through the sky on duty bent
The job to do with full intent;
And though his ship may missing be,
Perhaps on land, perhaps on sea,
At conflict's end your gallant son
May come again when war is won;
But should there be a different story,
Just know he flashed his way to glory.
-Gertrude J. Hager
Written for Mr. And Mrs Hix Thornburg of Casa Grande whose son Douglas is reported missing.
Our hope is that we can complete the crew roster history and find the stories of the other crewmembers of tail number 42-7219. "Our own B24". To rest in obscurity is not an option, for me anyway.
Bruce Batchelder
No comments:
Post a Comment