P-51 crash on Tinian

[Tony Kambic]

A friend of mine was a P-47 crew chief in the 413th FS. He was on Tinian for a while in summer 1945 and relays this story. He and other mechanics were on the flight line on a low overcast day when a P-51 came out of the overcast and was going to intersect a flight of P-47s. The P-51 dove quickly to go under them, then pulled up rapidly which caused the right wing to separate. The P-51 fluttered down and exploded directly in front of them, scattering fragments towards them. Anyone have any info about this incident?

[Leendert]

Tony,

Site aviationarchaeology.com only comes up with a P-51 accident on Tinian on 30 March 1945, so not entirely in your time frame.
This one involved 44-72567 of 506th FG that made a furthermore undetailed crash. Pilot was Lt Jesse H. Sabin.

It seems that in summer 1945 the P-51s of 506th FG and P-47s of 414th FG (413 FS) were at Iwo Jima instead?

Regards,

Leendert

[Tony Kambic]

Thank you Leendert.

I will pursue this crash and the dates further. My friend is 88 years old and while he does remember a lot, he may be somewhat inaccurate about the dates and location. I know he talks about his Iwo service quite a bit, including one P-47 crash on takeoff, but he says that this P-51 crash occurred on Tinian.

Tony