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-   -   B-29 #42-63494 500 BG FEB.19, 1945 (http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=60615)

kaki3152 27th August 2021 19:05

B-29 #42-63494 500 BG FEB.19, 1945
 
On a 500BG listing of B-29s assigned to the Group, there was a notation

"2/LT. GEORGE C. ROUSE, JR. AND CREW WERE LOST OVER TOKYO ON FEB.19, 1945. THIS AIRCRAFT WAS NOT DISCOVERED UNTIL JAN. 26, 1969.THE COPILOT’S REMAINS WERE STILL STRAPPED IN HIS SEAT."

Does anyone have more information on the discovery of this B-29 in 1969? Japan is fairly densely populated and this isn't a single engine fighter.

Revi16 27th August 2021 20:08

Re: B-29 #42-63494 500 BG FEB.19, 1945
 
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/91123895


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...ornelius-rouse

kaki3152 28th August 2021 01:19

Re: B-29 #42-63494 500 BG FEB.19, 1945
 
Right, this is interesting. However, maybe some of our Japanese speaking friends can verify the 1969 date. According to Find a Grave, the bodies were recovered at the time of the soot down?

Revi16 28th August 2021 02:07

Re: B-29 #42-63494 500 BG FEB.19, 1945
 
The find a grave link says he was MIA until 1949. I wonder if the 1969 was a typo?

Leendert 28th August 2021 10:27

Re: B-29 #42-63494 500 BG FEB.19, 1945
 
500th BG notation speaks of co-pilot Jack. A. Kutchera. On findagrave text of pilot Lt. Rouse it says three and five bodies found near crash place, so one crew member (Kutchera?) missing at that time?

Regards,
Leendert

RSwank 28th August 2021 14:13

Re: B-29 #42-63494 500 BG FEB.19, 1945
 
When you look at the internment forms for Jefferson Barracks on Ancestry (here is Kutchera's)

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer...75&pId=1608800

They show that the nine crew members who were killed were buried in a group burial on 26 July, 1949. They note that the nine crew members were in 4 caskets. I don't think Kutchera was found in 1969.

There is a Japanese website here: http://digitao.sakura.ne.jp/aomoriku...-42-63494.html
and Google does offer a "translation". If I am reading the translation correctly they are saying that Kutchera's plane was brought down by both a collision with a fragment of B-29 42-24692 and by a Japanese fighter. They mention the 3 bodies at one gravesite and 5 at another but I suspect there was perhaps another body buried (maybe) at a third site. Or perhaps when the grave registration team recovered the bodies they found they had nine bodies (just not individually identifiable).

Rolland

kaki3152 28th August 2021 16:00

Re: B-29 #42-63494 500 BG FEB.19, 1945
 
Ok, I think the date of 1969 is a misprint for 1949.

By the way, thanks to all the "usual suspects" who, as usual, provided a logical answer in record time. There is so much misinformation out there that it helps to fact check these statement,


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